• Give thanks to the Lord that the lymph node test for Pastor Van den Berg was negative.
• Please pray for Pastor Van den Berg as he travels abroad and teaches students of theology.
• Mr. and Mrs. Neal Boerkoel were privileged to celebrate their 83 rd wedding anniversary last Friday.
• The mission collection today is for the Titus 2 Womens group. This collection will help to pay for the supplies needed to run the Vacation Bible School to be held July 9 – 12.
• Please plan on attending the pig roast fund raiser for the Sumba Orphanage, at the Meeuwse’s farm, on Saturday, June 30, from 11:00 a.m.-4:00 m.

But there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. Gal. 1:7. From ‘A Legal Strain of Doctrine’, by Ralph Erskine

No wonder Paul the legal spirit curse, Of fatal errors such a feeding nurse.
He, in JEHOVAH’s great tremendous name, Condemns perverters of the gospel-scheme.
He damn’d the sophist rude, the babbling priest, Would venture to corrupt it in the least;
Yea, curst the heav’nly angel down to hell, That daring would another gospel tell.
Which crime is charg’d on these that dare dispense The self-same gospel in another sense.
Christ is not preach’d in truth, but in disguise, If his bright glory half absconded lies.
When gospel-soldiers, that divide the word, Scarce brandish any but the legal sword.
While Christ the author of the law they press, More than the end of it for righteousness;
Christ as a seeker of our service trace, More than a giver of enabling grace.
The king commanding holiness they show, More than the Prince exalted to bestow;
Yea, more on Christ the sin-revenger dwell, Than Christ Redeemer both from sin and hell.
With legal spade the gospel-field he delves, Who thus drives sinners in unto themselves;
Halving the truth that should be all reveal’d, The sweetest part of Christ is oft conceal’d.
We bid men turn from sin, but seldom say, Behold the Lamb that takes all sin away!
Christ, by the gospel rightly understood, Not only treats a peace but makes it good.
Those suitors therefore of the bride, who hope By force to drag her with the legal rope,
Nor use the drawing cord of conqu’ring grace, Pursue with flaming zeal a fruitless chase;
In vain lame doings urge, with solemn awe, To bribe the fury of the fiery law:
With equal success to the fool that aims By paper walls to bound devouring flames.
The law’s but mock’d by their most graceful deed, That wed not first the law-fulfilling Head;
It values neither how they wrought nor wept, That flight the ark wherein alone ’tis kept.
Yet legalists, DO, DO, with ardour press, And with prepost’rous zeal and warm address, Would seem the greatest friends to holiness: But vainly (could such opposites accord)

Respect the law, and yet reject the Lord.
They shew not Jesus as the way to bliss, But Judas-like betray him with a kiss
Of boasted works, or mere profession puft, Law-boasters proving but law-breakers oft.

9:15 a.m.
Title: Prayer for the church
1. The condition of the church
2. The prayer of Nehemiah
3. The confession of Nehemiah

Psalter 222:5-9
Nehemiah 1:1-11 (5-6)
Psalter 441:1-3
Psalter 273:1-7
Psalter 358:1-4

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6:00 p.m.
Title: The Lord is to be feared above all gods

Psalter 259:1-4
Psalm 96:1-13 (4-5) HC LD34 qa94
Psalter 290:1-5
Psalter 308:1-5
Psalter 445:1-4

• Please pray for Pastor Van den Berg as he continues to wait for test results. Also, pray for him and his family as he travels out of the country for two weeks.
• At the recent congregational meeting, Donald Vander Boon was elected as elder and Ronald Hoogmoed was elected as deacon. Any lawful objections must be brought to the consistory by Sunday, June 24. The installation service will take place during the evening service on July 22.
• The monthly mission collection scheduled for next week will be for the Titus 2 Womens group. This collection will help to pay for the supplies needed to run the Vacation Bible School to be held July 9 – 12.
• The Lord willing, we are planning a pig roast fund raiser for the Sumba Orphanage, at the Meeuwse’s farm, on Saturday, June 30, from 11:00 a.m.-4:00 m.
• Plymouth Christian Students for Life is putting on a Community Receptionon Friday, June 29^th. The RSVP date has been extended to Wednesday, June 20. Please email pcsforlifersvp@gmail.com

 

Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me.

2 Tim.1:13

LET ME WARN YOU OF TWO DANGERS.

One is, that you will be very much tempted to give up the form of sound words that you hold, on account of the opposition you will meet with. I do not prophesy that you will have corporeal persecution, though I know there are some poor creatures here that have to endure that from ungodly husbands, and such like; but you will all of you, in some measure, if you hold the truth, meet with the persecution of the tongue. You will be laughed at: your doctrine will be held up to ridicule, exhibited in a grotesque manner; you will be caricatured in all that you believe, and you will be sometimes tempted to say, “No I do not believe that,” though all the while you do. Or if you do not positively say it, you will at times be led to turn a little, because the laughter you cannot stand, and the scoff of the worldly-wise is rather too hard for you. Oh! my beloved, let me warn you against being thus drawn aside. “Hold fast the form of sound words” in the midst of all ridicule.

But the greatest obstacle you will have is a sort of slight and cunning, trying to pervert you to the belief, that your doctrine is the same with one which is just the very opposite. The enemy will try to persuade you that something he holds is quite harmless, though opposed to what you hold; and he will say, “You do not want to be broaching these things, that must bring forth controversy; there is a way of squaring your sentiments with mine.” And you know we all like to be thought so liberal! The greatest pride in the world now is to be thought liberal in sentiment; and some of us would run a hundred miles, rather than be called a bigot or an Antinomian. I beseech you, be not drawn aside by those who are so ready to subvert your faith, not by openly attacking it, but by insidiously undermining every doctrine, saying, this does not signify, and that does not signify, while all the while they are trying to pull down every castle and fortress wherewith God has guarded his truth and his Church.

C.H. Spurgeon

7:00 p.m.
Title: Two ways
1. The way of life of a blessed man
2. A righteous or an ungodly person
3. The destination of each of them

Psalter 1:1-5
Psalm 1:1-6 (5)
Psalter 428:1-3
Psalter 235:1-3

9:15 a.m.
Title: The failure of worldly power
1. Seeking satisfaction for the heart
2. Acting in foolish, sinful pride
3. Destroying what is precious

Psalter 135:1-5
Esther 1:1-22 (12)
Psalter 428:4-6
Psalter 97:1-4
Psalter 7:1-3

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6:00 p.m.
Title: To serve God and our neighbor

Psalter 335:1-3
Matthew 25:31-46 (40) HC LD34 qa93
Psalter 139:1-6
Psalter 141:1-4
Psalter 424:3-4

• Please pray for Pastor Van den Berg as he waits for the results from a test that he underwent last Friday.
• At the congregational meeting last Monday, Donald Vander Boon was elected as elder and Ronald Hoogmoed was elected as deacon. Any lawful objections must be brought to the consistory by Sunday, June 24.
• The brochure for the Family camp is available on the book cart. Family camp is scheduled for Monday, August 6 and Tuesday, August 7. Please complete the application on the web site.

Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me. 2 Tim.1:13

Every deviation from truth is a sin. It is not simply a sin for me to do a wrong act, but it is a sin for me to believe a wrong doctrine. Lately our ministers have absolved us all from obeying God in our judgments; they have told us point blank, many of them, in their drawing-rooms, and some of them in the pulpit, that we shall never be asked in the day of judgment what we believed. We have been told that for our acts we shall be responsible, but for our faith we shall be irresponsible, or something very much like it; they have told us plainly, that the God who made us, although he has authority over our hands, our feet, our eyes and our lips, hath but little authority over our judgments; they have told us, that if we make ever such blunders in divinity, they are no sins, so long as we can live right lives. But is that true? No; the whole man is bound to serve God; and if God gives me a judgment, I am bound to employ that judgment in his service; and if that judgment receive an untruth, it has received stolen goods, and I have sinned as much as if I put forth my hand to take my neighbor’s goods. There may be degrees in the sin. If it be a sin of ignorance, it is nevertheless a sin; but it is not so heinous as a sin of negligence, which I fear it is with many. I tell you, beloved, if, for instance, election be true, I am committing a sin if I do not believe it; and if final perseverance be true, I am committing a sin before Almighty God, if I do not receive it; and if it be not true, then I sin in embracing what is not scriptural. Error in doctrine is as much a sin as error in practice. In everything we are bound to serve our God with all our might, exercising those powers of judging and believing which he has given unto us; and I warn you, Christians, not to think it is a little thing to hold faith with a feeble hand: it is a sin every time you do aught which makes you waver in the faith of Jesus Christ. Remember, too, that error in doctrine is not only a sin, but a sin which has a great tendency to increase. When a man once in his life believes a wrong thing, it is marvellous how quickly he believes another wrong thing. Once open the door to a false doctrine—Satan says it is but a little one, but he only puts the little one in like the small end of the wedge, and he means to drive in a larger one; and he will say it is only a little more, and a little more, and a little more. The most damnable heretics who ever perverted the faith of God erred by little and little; those who have gone the widest from truth have only gone so by degrees. Whence came the Church of Rome, that mass of abominations? Why, from gradual departures.

“Hold fast the form of sound words,” because error in doctrine almost inevitably leads to error in practice. When a man believes wrongly, he will soon act wrongly. Faith has a great influence on our conduct. As a man’s faith, so is he. If you begin to imbibe erroneous doctrines, they soon have an effect on your practice. Keep fast to the bulwarks of your fathers’ faith. If you do not, the enemy will make sad havoc with you. “Hold fast the form of sound words which was delivered unto you.”

C.H. Spurgeon

But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven. Matt. 19:14.

But how, they ask, are infants regenerated, when not possessing a knowledge of either good or evil? We answer, that the work of God, though beyond the reach of our capacity, is not therefore null. Moreover, infants who are to be saved (and that some are saved at this age is certain) must, without question, be previously regenerated by the Lord. For if they bring innate corruption with them from their mother’s womb, they must be purified before they can be admitted into the kingdom of God, into which shall not enter any thing that defiles (Rev. 21:27). If they are born sinners, as David and Paul affirm, they must either remain unaccepted and hated by God, or be justified. And why do we ask more, when the Judge himself publicly declares, that “except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God?” (John 3:3).

And, indeed, Christ was sanctified from earliest infancy, that he might sanctify his elect in himself at any age, without distinction. For as he, in order to wipe away the guilt of disobedience which had been committed in our flesh assumed that very flesh, that in it he might, on our account and in our stead, perform a perfect obedience, so he was conceived by the Holy Spirit, that, completely pervaded with his holiness in the flesh which he had assumed he might transfuse it into us.  If in Christ we have a perfect pattern of all the grace, which God bestows on all his children, in this instance we have a proof that the age of infancy is not incapable of receiving sanctification. This, at least, we set down as incontrovertible, that none of the elect is called away from the present life without being previously sanctified and regenerated by the Spirit of God.

John Calvin