Covenant Protestant Reformed Church
Ballymena
Rev. Angus Stewart
Lord’s Day, 16 October, 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 Word (7)
The Incarnate Word (I) [download] [youtube]
Scripture Reading: John 1:1-18
Text: John 1:14
I. The Meaning of the Incarnate Word
II. The Dwelling of the Incarnate Word
Psalms: 100:1-5; 109:1-7; 85:5-13; 43:1-5
Evening Service - 6:00 PM
The Word (8)
The Incarnate Word (II) [download] [youtube]Scripture Reading: Exodus 40:17-38
Text: John 1:14
I. The Glory of the Incarnate Word
II. The Fulness of the Incarnate Word
Psalms: 96:1-7; 109:8-14; 29:1-6; 57:4-11
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:
John Flavel: "God and man in one person! Oh! thrice happy conjunction! As man, he is full of experimental sense of our infirmities, wants, and burdens; and, as God, he can support and supply them all. The aspect of faith upon this wonderful person, how relieving, how reviving, how abundantly satisfying is it? God will never divorce the believing soul, and its comfort, after he hath married our nature to his own Son, by the hypostatical, and our persons also, by the blessed mystical union" (Works, vol. 1, p. 85).
B. B. Warfield: "It is clear that it is primarily in its aspect as a revelation of God that John is here contemplating the incarnation. Accordingly, he bears his personal witness to it as such: ‘The Word was made flesh, and tabernacled among us, and we beheld his glory, a glory as of an only-begotten of the Father.’ Accordingly, too, he summons the prophetic witness of the forerunner. And accordingly, still further, he closes the whole with a declaration of the nature of the revelation made, and its guarantee in the relation of the incarnated Word to the Father: ‘No man hath seen God at any time; [the only-begotten Son] which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him’" (Selected Shorter Writings, vol. 2, p. 456).
Announcements (subject to God’s will)
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 continue our study of the Antichrist in Revelation 13:2-10. All are welcome.
Belgic Confession Class meets Wednesday at 7:45 PM. We will continue Belgic Confession 12, looking at archangels, etc. All are welcome.
The Reformed Witness Hour broadcast next Lord’s Day (Gospel 846MW at 8:30 AM) will be "Recovery of the Biblical Gospel (1)" (Romans 1:16) by Rev. Haak.
Reformation Day Lectures: Rev. Stewart will be giving a lecture entitled "Christ Alone!" in our church on Friday, 28 October, 7:30 PM. Rev. McGeown will give a lecture on "Freewill and Predestination" in Limerick on Monday, 31 October.
The Council will hold their next meeting on Thursday, 3 November.
Offerings: General Fund: £488.55. Donations: £20, £2,045.80 (WPRF, New Zealand).
PRC News: Pastor-elect Jonathan Mahtani will be examined by Classis East on Wednesday, 2 November, with a view to being installed as the pastor of Cornerstone PRC.
Belgic Confession Articles 18 and 19
Article 18: Of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ.
We confess, therefore, that God did fulfil the promise, which he made to the fathers, by the mouth of his holy prophets, when he sent into the world, at the time appointed by him, his own, only-begotten and eternal Son, who took upon him the form of a servant, and became like unto man, really assuming the true human nature, with all its infirmities, sin excepted, being conceived in the womb of the blessed Virgin Mary, by the power of the Holy Ghost, without the means of man, and did not only assume human nature as to the body, but also a true human soul, that he might be a real man. For since the soul was lost as well as the body, it was necessary that he should take both upon him, to save both.
Therefore we confess (in opposition to the heresy of the Anabaptists, who deny that Christ assumed human flesh of his mother) that Christ is become a partaker of the flesh and blood of the children; that he is a fruit of the loins of David after the flesh; made of the seed of David according to the flesh; a fruit of the womb of the Virgin Mary, made of a woman, a branch of David; a shoot of the root of Jesse; sprung from the tribe of Judah; descended from the Jews according to the flesh; of the seed of Abraham, since he took on him the seed of Abraham, and became like unto his brethren in all things, sin excepted, so that in truth he is our Immanuel, that is to say, God with us.
Article 19: Of the union and distinction of the two Natures in the person of Christ.
We believe that by this conception, the person of the Son is inseparably united and connected with the human nature; so that there are not two Sons of God, nor two persons, but two natures united in one single person: yet, that each nature retains its own distinct properties. As then the divine nature hath always remained uncreated, without beginning of days or end of life, filling heaven and earth: so also hath the human nature not lost its properties, but remained a creature, having beginning of days, being a finite nature, and retaining all the properties of a real body. And though he hath by his resurrection given immortality to the same, nevertheless he hath not changed the reality of his human nature; forasmuch as our salvation and resurrection also depend on the reality of his body.
But these two natures are so closely united in one person, that they were not separated even by his death. Therefore that which he, when dying, commended into the hands of his Father, was a real human spirit, departing from his body. But in the meantime the divine nature always remained united with the human, even when he lay in the grave. And the Godhead did not cease to be in him, any more than it did when he was an infant, though it did not so clearly manifest itself for a while. Wherefore we confess, that he is very God, and very Man: very God by his power to conquer death; and very man that he might die for us according to the infirmity of his flesh.