Covenant Protestant Reformed Church
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Covenant Protestant Reformed Church

83 Clarence Street, Ballymena BT43 5DR
Rev. Angus Stewart
Lord’s Day, 21 January, 2018

“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed
by the renewing of your mind ...” (Rom. 12:2)

Morning Service - 11:00 AM - Rev. N. Decker

The Name Jesus   [download]  [youtube]
Scripture Reading: Matthew 1
Text: Matthew 1:21

I. The Saviour From Sin
II. The Saviour of His People
III. The Certain Hope of the Believer
Psalms: 122:1-9; 19:9-14; 3:1-8; 103:1-8

Evening Service - 6:00 PM - Rev. N. Decker

The Unspeakable Gift  [download]  [youtube]
Scripture Reading: II Corinthians 9
Text: II Corinthians 9:15

I. The Meaning
II. The Response
Psalms: 145:1-8; 27:4-7; 111:1-6; 116:9-19

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.cprf.co.uk/live.html
CPRC YouTube: www.youtube.com/cprcni
CPRC Facebook: www.facebook.com/CovenantPRC

Quote to Consider

Gerrit Vos: “The love of the Father who gave this Gift cannot be fully declared. I am persuaded that even unto all eternity you will never fully understand this love that prompted the Gift of Jesus. Oh, it was no mere gift such as we give to one another. Millions upon millions are spent throughout all the ages of history in giving from one to the other. But you cannot compare this giving to the Gift of Jesus by the Father to the church—to the world, if you please. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. That’s the world of God’s good-pleasure. It cannot be compared, for this Gift is unspeakable. There are no words that can translate this Gift to us” (The Unspeakable Gift, pp. 1-2).

Announcements (subject to God’s will)

We welcome Rev. Nathan Decker and Sid Miedema. Rev. Decker will be preaching both services for us today. The men travel to Limerick on Thursday and return home the following Monday.

Everyone is welcome to stay for tea after this evening’s service. Tea Rota: Group C.

On the back table is a new free pamphlet entitled “Keeping the Sword Drawn” by Rev. Brian Huizinga. The new RFPA title, Walking in the Way of Love, by Rev. Nathan Langerak is available for book club members.

Beacon Lights subscriptions are due. If you would like to renew or if you would like to subscribe, please pay Susan Hall £10 for a year’s subscription.

Monday catechism classes:
5:45 PM - Corey & Katelyn (Beginners OT, Book 1)
6:30 PM - Angelica, Bradley, Josh, Samuel & Taylor (Juniors NT)
7:15 PM - Alex, Jacob & Nathan (Heidelberg Catechism, Book 1)

The Council meets tomorrow evening at 8 PM for church visitation.

Tuesday Bible Study meets this week at 11 AM. Rev. Decker will lead a discussion on Psalm 73.

CPRC Lecture: Rev. Decker will give a lecture on “Living Wisely in a Digital Age” on Wednesday, 24 January, at 7:45 PM. On the back table are flyers to pass out to family and friends.

S. Wales Lecture: Rev. Stewart will speak on “God’s Saving Will in the New Testament” in Margam Community Centre on Thursday, 25 January, at 7:15 PM.

Ladies’ Bible study meets this Friday at 10:30 AM at the church. We will be considering chapter 1 on love in The Fruit of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

The Reformed Witness Hour broadcast next Lord’s Day (Gospel 846 MW at 8:30 AM) by Rev. Bruinsma is “Preserved Blameless Unto Christ’s Return” (I Thess. 5:23-24).

Offerings: General Fund: £851.45.


Introduction to “Keeping the Sword Drawn”

by Rev. Brian Huzinga


OUR MILITANT CHRIST

We must believe and confess the whole revelation of scripture; therefore, we must believe and confess that the Christ of the church is a militant Christ. In his tender mercy to his beloved church, and in his zealous devotion to his beloved Father, Jesus is a militant Christ toward his enemies, his Father’s enemies, and his church’s enemies.

Who can forget the story of wicked Balaam riding his donkey to go curse God’s Israel? The donkey saw something Balaam did not see, and in fear the donkey went off the path into the field. Balaam smote her. There in the vineyard the donkey saw the same terrifying sight and thrust herself against the wall, crushing Balaam’s foot. Again, Balaam smote her. The donkey kept walking through a very narrow place, and she saw the fearful sight yet again and fell down under Balaam. Again, Balaam smote her. Then the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey and she demanded of Balaam an explanation for those three beatings. Finally, the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam so that he could see the terrifying sight that the donkey had seen: “he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand: and he bowed down his head, and fell flat on his face. And the angel of the Lord said unto him, Wherefore hast thou smitten thine ass these three times? behold, I went out to withstand thee [or literally, “to be an adversary unto thee”], because thy way is perverse before me” (Num. 22:31–32).

The angel of Jehovah whom Balaam encountered was not a common angel, but Jesus Christ in his Old Testament, preincarnate manifestation. Walking in a perverse way, Balaam and his donkey saw the Christ of Israel—a militant adversary standing in the way with his sword drawn. The New Testament Christ who is the Son of God incarnate is not essentially different than the sword-bearing angel of Jehovah in the Old Testament; therefore, the enemies of the church today see a militant Christ as they walk in their perverse ways. When the buyers and sellers of Jerusalem made the Father’s house of prayer a house of merchandise, they saw a whip-brandishing militant Christ (John 2:15). When the Jewish leaders corrupted true religion and killed the prophets, they were confronted by the militant Christ deftly wielding the sword of his effectual word and thrusting them through with denouncements: “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Ye fools and blind! Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?” (Matt. 23).

After the false prophets bring their “damnable heresies” into the church (2 Pet. 2:1), it is said that they “have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness” (v. 15). Therefore they must see what Balaam saw—the militant Christ with his sword drawn.

When the enemies of the church in the final manifestation of the kingdom of antichrist see Christ returning on the clouds of glory, they will see a militant Christ, for “when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels,” he will come “in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ,” and they will “be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power” (2 Thess. 1:7–9).

Moreover, on that last day the enemies of Christ will hide “themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains” and say to the rocks and mountains, “Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?” (Rev. 6:15–17).

To the eyes of faith, no clearer revelation of the militancy of the Christ can be found than in his death on the cross and subsequent resurrection. It is exactly there at the cross that we see not only the supreme manifestation of his tender mercy to his church and his zealous devotion to his Father, but also his militancy toward his enemies. For when he was nailed to the cross to blot out the “handwriting of ordinances that was against us,” he was actively spoiling the “principalities and powers,” which are Satan and his hordes of demons, making a “shew of them openly [and] triumphing over them” (Col. 2:14–15). The cross was war. The cross was victory.

When the aged and persecuted apostle John was on the isle of Patmos and “in the Spirit on the Lord’s day,” he beheld Jesus and fell to the ground as a dead man (Rev. 1:9–10, 17). John fell down. John—the beloved disciple, who at the last passover so tenderly and intimately reclined in the bosom of Jesus (John 13:23)—fell to the ground in fear and awe. John saw the glorified Christ of heaven. Not only were Jesus’ head and hairs “white like wool,” his eyes “as a flame of fire ... his feet like unto fine brass ... his voice as the sound of many waters,” and his face as bright as the noon-day sun, but “out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword” (Rev. 1:14–16). Right now in heaven, the glorified Christ is a militant Christ.

Was not Christ the one who said, when sending out his apostles, “Think not that I am come to send peace on the earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household” (Matt. 10:34–36)?

I say again, we must believe and confess the whole revelation of scripture; therefore, we must believe and confess that the Christ of the church is a militant Christ. If Christ, the head of the church, is a militant Christ, who stands in the way of his enemies with his sword drawn, it stands to reason that we Reformed believers confess that the church of Christ on earth is to be identified as the church militant. It is our solemn duty then, in love for the church, in faithfulness to Christ, and in zealous devotion to our great God, to be militant and keep the sword drawn.