TIMOTHY MISSION FUND

The year 1972 is now past, and it is again time to give our annual report of receipts and disbursements for the Timothy Mission Fund. During the month of December $86.00 was received. Totals for the year are as follows:

Balance on hand — January 1, 1972 $ 70.90

Contributions Received During 1972 1,520.00

Total Funds Available $ 1,590.90

Funds Disbursed in Support of:

Mbuma Mission Hospital (Rhodesia) $300.00

Wycliffe Bible Translators 300.00

Miss Ann Herfst Fund (Nigeria) 200.00

Rev. G. Kuijt Fund (West Irian) 200.00

Ebenezer Scripture Mission 200.00

Spanish Evangelical Mission 200.00

Bethesda Clinic (Reference Book) 12.00

$1,412.00

Balance on hand — December 31, 1972 $ 178.90

Our sincere and grateful thanks to all those who made these disbursements possible. May it be for you as bread cast upon the waters, for God’s Word tells us that “thou shalt find it after many days.”

It is our wish and prayer that the Lord may cause you to prosper also in the year 1973, and that your motive for giving may be according to His Word, as expressed by Rev. L. Huisman in a recent Paulus magazine which we have translated as follows: “In his second letter to the congregation of Corinth, Paul, the great apostle to the heathens, wrote an entire chapter regarding financial affairs. There he urges the congregation to follow the example of the brothers in Macedonia and give liberally to the needy congregation at Jerusalem. Among his reasons for a bountiful gift, he spurs them on to show their love with these words, ‘For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich.’ It is certainly true that this is the best stimulus in order not to be lax in all christian charitableness. The humanist gives through men unto men. The christian gives through the hands of Christ (the deacons, the missions, and through means accompanied with the preaching of the gospel) unto those in need. In this way the apostle wishes that we especially be reminded of the sacrifice brought by the Son of Man. He parted with all riches, not only material riches, but of much greater, riches of love, of power, of honor, and’ became so poor that even His last garment was not left ‘unto Him. This He did, says Paul, in order that you might through His poverty become rich - rich in peace with God, in love, in holiness. But these riches must also have as fruit’ a hearty willingness to set a part of their gifts for the poor. Let also the example of Paul unto Corinth be to us an illuminated path so that we also may be most liberal in our giving.”

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The Banner of Truth Committee hereby gratefully acknowledges the receipt of contributions for “The Banner of Truth” publication from many of its readers.

A number of our readers forwarded payment in excess of the subscription price of this publication when renewing their subscription during the past few months.

The Committee is using this means to thank all of you for your generous support, as it is quite well known that the subscription price does not fully cover the cost of publishing and distributing this publication.

The Banner of Truth Publishing Committee

Your gifts for the Timothy Mission Fund should be sent in care of Mr. Tom Stryd, P.O. Box 2182, Kalamazoo, Michigan 49003.

CHURCH CONSTRUCTION IN NIGERIA

GIFTS RECEIVED FOR MISSIONS IN DEC. 1972

CLASSIS EAST SOURCE AMOUNT

Friend in North Haleden Gift 30 00

Friend in Salisbury, Md. Gift 28 00

Friend in Clifton Gift 500.00 CLASSIS MIDWEST

Friend in Michigan Gift 115 00

Friend in Hamilton Gift 20 00

Kalamazoo Ch. Col. Collection 350.00

St. Catherines Ch. Col. Collection 1120.00 CLASSIS WEST

Friend in Waupun Gift 100 00

Friend in Laverne Gift 250 00 CLASSIS FARWEST

In Lethbridge Ch. Col. Gift 40 00

In Lethbridge Ch. Col. Gift 50 00

Artesian Ch. Col. Collection 316.50

TOTAL: $2919.50

EXPENSES FOR OCT., NOV., AND DEC.

Salaries 4150 00

Books sent to the mission 50.00

TOTAL: $4200.00

Dear Friends,

It is by the goodness of the Lord that we are again able to acknowledge you all for your generous gifts to the mission. May the Lord bless you and your gifts upon the mission field. The Bible says it’s more blessed to give than to receive. We are amazed at times how the Lord inclines the hearts to support this worthy cause, for it is truly a blessing that the person receives love in his heart in the sad times that we live in to send the precious word of God unto our fellow man upon the mission fields. Oh that the Lord may use His word amongst young and old at home and abroad to the salvation of our poor souls. Oh friends we realize not by nature the all importance of true conversion for there is no other way for salvation than in the love of the father and in the blood of Christ and by the application of the Holy Spirit. To receive God back in our life is the all important thing. Modern times does not change the old truth. Sinful times does not change the justice of God. Oh children, young people, middle aged and old people, are you thinking about the purpose of your creation, that it was for one purpose, and that was to glorify the Lord. Oh what sinful creatures we are. May the Lord still look upon us in this time state. May the Lord remember all missionaries and their helpers and all the people that they labor amongst. That we all may be given a desire to do all we can do for the furtherance of God’s kingdom, by prayer and gifts. Receive our hearty greetings in the name of the mission committee. We also include a letter of Miss Ann Herfst.

American General Mission Fund

Netherland Reformed Congregations

of America and Canada

John Spaans, Treasurer

Plankinton Box 106 RR1

South Dakota 57368

A LETTER FROM ANN HERFST

Bethesda Clinic 1-12-72

Dear Mission Friends,

Maybe you remember Hydia Gbu, the girl whom has been working with us for several years in The Maternity Department.

I showed a few slides of her when I was on furlough — some when she was taking care of patients. One where she was proudly wearing Mrs. Vander Kooy’s wedding dress on the day she got married to Sunday Acha a teacher at the orphanage.

Hydia has been a patient in “Maternity” herself about 2 months ago, she has a lovely baby boy.

As soon as Hydia was ready for discharge she went according to Ggede custom to her parent’s compound in a village approximately 1 mile from the Bethesda Clinic. She stayed there for 2 weeks and during this time her bamboy as they call it out here got his circumcision done by “someone” from the village.

This was rather a disappointment to us. We had hoped that Hydia and her husband would have taken their child to the clinic, so that our Nigerian trained nurse, Paul Ogbudu, could have done the circumcision.

It happens time and again when the circumcision is being done in the village that the child gets a severe bleeding. On several occasions the child had lost such an amount of blood that by the time it was taken to the clinic it died before we could give any treatment.

Another danger is: Tetanus.

The person performing the procedure uses by no means “sterile technique”, he just uses his knife for it.

Because of these two reasons we had hoped that Sunday and Hydia would have taken their child to the clinic and to be an example to their own people.

When we asked them why they had it done in the village, Hydia said: “Our people forced us to do this.”

We know that the “pressure” from relatives in the villages is very great indeed, and that all our helpers are being influenced by it.

Another usual performance following childbirth in Ggede is that when the infant’s umbilical cord has fallen off this is taken to the compound of the parents of the father.

In the presence of the relatives and an elder of the village a hole will be dug in the ground near the house of the grandparents and this piece of umbilical cord is dropped into it.

At the same time a new tree will be planted in the same hole.

This “custom” is carried out in order to give thanks to the idol whom has blessed the family with this new born child, and to please the spirit of the ancestors, so that the attitude of the idol and the spirit of the ancestors may be favourable towards the child.

It is also said that the child will be the owner of the newly planted tree.

We’re thankful that Sunday and Hydia did not take part in this “Ggede custom.”

It’ll not always be easy for them to do this when relatives and villagers are trying to persuade them to continue in the way their forefathers used to live.

We hope and pray that the Lord will bless them with a true desire in their hearts to follow the Lord in all His ways, and that they may show their people that the Lord’s instructions are their greatest delight.

We ask you people “at home” to continue to pray that the people “out here” may be drawn out of the power of darkness and that the Lord’s Kingdom may be expanded.

With Christian Regards, Ann Herfst

NOTES OUT OF THE CATECHISM CLASSES Of Rev. J. Fraanje

Using The Catechism Book Specimens Of Divine Truths

by Rev. A. Hellenbroek

Of The Image Of God Lesson 12-Part 1

God governed man by means of a covenant when he was in the state of rectitude (uprightness). God gave a command and a promise. By this, man knew he could obtain or lose eternal life.

The question is now: Was man capable of keeping that covenant.

Answer: Yes, God had created him capable to keep it.

Just as the Triune God had created everything else good and upright, He had also done so with man. And who was it that saw that everything was good?

We read in Genesis 1, “And God saw everything He had made and, behold, it was very good.”

This is in itself proof that man was created good and upright.

Nevertheless, Hellenbroek asks a question that is a bit strange; don’t you find it so? He asks: “Was not man created in a simple state of nature, between good and evil?”

You must explain to me what Hellenbroek means by this. What does it mean to be between good and evil?

There have always been erroneous beliefs concerning this point. During Hellenbroek’s life, and even before and after his time, the Jesuits (and remonstrants) taught that man was created neither good nor evil.

They try to explain that man was like a piece of white paper on which nothing was written, good nor evil. If we believe this, then we evidently do not believe God’s Word. It tells us that we were created after God’s Image; That is, very good.

What conclusion do we come to if we believe that man was created in a neutral state (neither good nor evil)?

1st. If a person was never completely good, then he also never became completely evil, but had sinned only because he was not perfect.

2nd. If he had not become completely evil, then he did not become dead in sin and has no need of a mediator to reconcile him to God.

They do speak of the Lord Jesus, but they use Him as an assisting mediator; not as a complete savior.

It is self evident; if men deny the total state of death in Adam, they also deny the complete satisfaction in Christ. These two matters are inseparably bound together.

Do you see now what the result is if we do not believe that Adam lost everything when he disobeyed?

There are many people who confess with their mouth that they are spiritually dead and have completely lost God’s image, but their every day living reveals that they have never accepted it in their hearts.

Instead of going to God through Christ, they go to God with Christ. (In their imagination of course, because in actuality it is impossible.)

I shall try to make it clear just what I mean with an example. There was a man who had very much debt. Since he had nothing with which to pay, he was about to let his creditors sell all his belongings. Before it came that far, however, a friend came along who was willing to pay all his debts and he actually did that.

The whole world knew that this man was bankrupt and had nothing but debt. They also knew someone paid all the debts for this man.

That is one case. But now there is a second man who had just as much debt as the first man. This man, too, had a friend who would help him. But, the debtor said to his friend, “Give me your money. I have yet a small amount myself and, if I put yours with mine, I can satisfy my creditors.”

This second man paid off the debt himself with the money of his surety. In this way he remained a respectable person in the eyes of all who knew him.

Do you see the difference?

The first was totally dependent on his surety to pay the debt for him without any help from himself. But the second man still had something left which, when added to the money of his surety and by paying the debt personally, (by means of his surety) remained a respectable man. This doctrine was initially brought in by Pelagius. When you become somewhat older, you should study the books of Alexander Comrie regarding this matter. He fought violently against these errors of Pelagius and showed how dangerous they were.

I can give another example. Just suppose that a ship was wrecked in a severe storm. Two men were the last to survive on the wreck but finally it sank completely and both were left in the water. One of the men noticed a lifebouy he could take hold of. At last he was able to swim safely to shore.

The other man soon became unconscious because of exhaustion and it seemed he must drown. But the captain of a lifeboat noticed him and pulled him aboard.

When he came to consciousness on shore he saw his companion safely situated. They both had experienced exactly the same danger, both placed in the same water and now both had been saved. What was the difference?

The one had the ability to save himself, but the other lost all his strength and was certain to drown unless rescued by another. Therein lies the difference.

In every day life this is not critical because, as in the example, both were rescued. But in spiritual life no one can be saved who saves himself with Christ. God the Father shall say, “I never knew you.” He only recognizes His Son and the sinner in His Son.

Isn’t it a great sin and terribly deceptive to conclude that we have not lost God’s image completely?

It is for this reason that Hellenbroek asks the question, namely, “Was not man created in a simple (neutral) state of nature between good and evil?” Then he goes further and says, “Wherein did the image of God consist?

Answer: In knowledge, righteousness and holiness.

Doesn’t the image refer to the outward shape of the body?

No, because God has no body.

Adam received a perfect physical body from God, but that was not the image of God. The image of God does not consist of a visible body, but does consist of the communicable attributes of God. These were imparted to Adam.

They were: 1st, knowledge. Adam knew God in His essence. He possessed a divine knowledge of the Triune God. The New Testament clearly proves this to be true.

Every elect person has God’s image, which he had lost through sin, restored to him again in Christ. That is why Hellenbroek says, “Prove that the image of God consisted in knowledge.” The answer lies in Colossians 3:10, “And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge, after the image of Him that created him.”

The 2nd and 3rd attributes are: Righteousness and true holiness. Ephesians 4:24, “And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.”

Where did the image of God have its source?

Since there were three divine and perfect attributes, their source was from God Himself. It can be no other way than that Adam possessed perfect knowledge, perfect righteousness and perfect holiness. A perfect God gave to the perfect man these three perfect attributes. Even though, however, Adam was given God’s image, he did not become a God. He remained a person. Boys and girls, pay attention now to what I want to say, because this is a difficult point in our lesson.

Adam was perfect. He received the image of God from a perfect God. He possessed it. That image had its source in God. And yet Adam did not become God by possessing that image. Why not, do you suppose?

Adam became a person in creation. He himself had made neither his body nor his soul. They both had been created by God. In addition to soul and body he received the image of God. Gen. 1:27, “God created man in his own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them.”

He possessed this image, then, not of himself; it was the gift of God. It had been given to him. And because it was a thing given to him, he did not become a god. This image was simply a gift which he, a perfect creature, received from his Creator. Also, by sinning, he could lose this image.

Adam was immortal. He possessed the image of God as long as he remained obedient to God. Death was threatened only if sin entered in. “In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Because it was a gift it could be lost.

A GREATER WONDER STILL

Part III

The Lord does not first ask the sinner whether he wants to be converted. No, the Lord merely steps in and arrests the sinner.

The Lord is just and good,
Instructing those that stray;
The meek He will in judgment guide
And make them know His way.

Psalm 25

Who was it that sought Adam and Eve after they had sinned and had eaten of the forbidden tree? Who was it that called Abram out of Ur of the Chaldees when he was 75 years old? And just think of the conversion of Manasseh. For twelve years he was carried to the throne of grace by his godly father, and for 25 years he was warned by the prophets of God. Did it humble Manasseh? Oh, no. On the contrary, he hardened himself in wickedness. He landed in prison, and what a wonder it became for him that the Lord one day came to him in prison. God struck him down. The Lord brought him down to the ground. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord He was God. Then he prayed unto the God of his father. No, it would never have happened if God Himself had not humbled him. By nature we do not go out of the way for anyone. Neither blessings nor judgments can bring us to the place where we must comelshall it be well with us for eternity.

I will give one more example to show that a true conversion is a miracle of God. And why do I want to do that now? To show that the work of God in the sinner is so necessary, but also so decisive. By common grace many people are hedged about so that their life does not show what is in their heart. There are people who are very legalistic, and are an example to others, but, beloved, dead is dead, even though they excell in all kinds of religious duties. On a certain day, determined by God from eternity, as Christ went His way from one place to another, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the receipt of custom, and said to him, “Follow Me.” And he arose, and followed Him. If we had called that man a thousand times, he would not have come out of his office. But as soon as Jesus called him, he immediately became obedient and willing. That was the result of the divine power that went out from the Savior. The blessed Mediator Himself testified, “The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.” Whether a man lives as a wicked sinner, or as a Pharisee, as a Manasseh or as the rich young man, when God comes they are all cut off from Adam, and ingrafted into Christ. They become beggars at His throne.

God has a willing people in the day of His power. When God comes all resistance is broken, the weapons are laid down and surrendered. I will, and they shall. The receipt of customs was closed, and Matthew never did business there anymore. He became a willing follower of Christ. Yes, it is also such a wonder that they never regret their choice, nor want to return. Such people can never return to the world, nor to sin, nor to their pious Pharisaical life. Nor do they want to go back. God has raised the drawbridge. Israel can never return to Egypt. Moses never returned to the palace of Pharoah to live there. Moab shall never see Ruth again. Mary Magdalene shall never again be overwhelmed by the power of Satan. The gifts and calling of God are without repentance. The devil must release his prey, and they all come under the banner of King Jesus. “No man”, Jesus testified, “is able to pluck them out of My hand, nor out of My Father’s hand. I and My Father are one.” John 10:28, 29, 30.

They are taken into a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten. Jer. 50:5. But that is not so clear and plain for all those people. Faith to believe it is not always present. Years ago I heard an old concerned child of God say to the Lord in his evening prayer as we were lying on our knees, “Lord, I do not know what my end shall be, often I fear that the end will be sad. But, Lord, even if Thou wouldst cast me off at the end of my days, grant me that as long as I live I may cry and cleave unto Thee, for Thou art so worthy to be served, honored, feared and loved.” When we arose, I said to that man, “The devil cannot use such people.” Many are the troubles, the strife is often severe. Where would we begin or where would we end to relate them. But nevertheless, notwithstanding all they experience, and in whatever darknesses and doubtings they come, they will never go back.

In the fulness of time Christ has fully satisfied the justice of God. He has purchased and redeemed them. Now God may permit the devil to distress them, even so that through fear of death they are all their lifetime subject to bondage, yet His seed, the work of God, remains in them. They are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. Why do they not want to return, and why are they never sorry that God sought them? Ah, friends, by the love of God they are so closely bound to God that it has become an unbreakable band. Therefore God can never forsake them, nor can they be loosed from God.

But even in godly sorrow, in sincere mourning for their guilt and sin and in crying after the Lord, lies more sweetness and enjoyment than the world ever gave them. They would not exchange the enjoyment they sometimes find in fearing the Lord, in pouring out their heart before Him, in sincere confession and mourning for sin, in crying for mercy, and the sweetness they sometimes find in the precious Word of God, for all the world.

In the world we find nothing but death, and in sin nothing but bitterness, but in the service of God is all that is lovely and pure. There is contentment in God through Christ Even in the adversities, in all the grief and sorrow of life that they must experience, they can still say with David, Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased “

Peter said, “Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.” And David sang in Psalm 119: “And in His service I delight.” No, not in MY service but HIS service, the service of the Father, the service of the Son and the service of the Holy Spirit.

What a wonder it is when God shows a person mercy God is not obliged to do it, and we have not deserved it We ourselves have made the breach in Paradise, and in us there is nothing and never shall be anything that asks or seeks after God.

What a wonder it is that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son for the execution of His divine good pleasure; and that Christ died for us, as Paul says in Kom. 5, while we were yet sinners, and that Christ for such gave Himself to die on the cross, so that for all His people He should merit a new, eternal life.

Rev. W. C. Lamain

(To be continued)

“IT IS THE LAST TIME”

The fullness of time is at hand, this we find recorded in Rev. 10:16 “That there should be time no longer” But now that day is still extended for it is now presently according to John 2:18: “Little children, it is the last time and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrist; whereby we know that it is the last time.”

In considering this exhortation one must consider the love of the Apostle John, who addresses the church in meekness, he calls them: “Little children” because of his tender heart to the welfare of the church of Christ

His warning was not untimely for the apostacy within the church had already manifested itself. The antichrist opposing the teaching of Christ had seduced many from the pure teaching of Christ.

Should this admonishment not concern us as we see the decay presently far more reaching amongst those who once confessed the Word of God to be the Inspired Word of the Lord? Has not the love of many waxed cold, and the love to carnal desires become our idol, our God? Does not God’s word describe our condition, as we read 2 Ti 3:4 “Lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God?” The perilous time has come upon us whereof we are foretold in 2 Ti 3 2 “For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful’ unholy.” What is our life? Can the present generation know us by our fruit? Are they fruit unto righteousness? Are we not carnal? Are we reaping the seed we have sown? Have we not grossly failed to warn them from the evil of our day in order to refrain a frown, rather then to receive the approval of the Lord? Eze. 3:19. Where are the voices of parents pastors, elders, and teachers heard today admonishing our generation in love, against the present evil? We see disrespect, the indifference, the lawlessness in many of our generation. With some exceptions, where do we find the interest of our generation in searching the word of God where the interest in their souls welfare? Fun, frolic sports’ and gayity is uppermost in their minds. Is that the fruit of our doings? Are we not carnal? Are the days not evil whereof we read in Amos 5:13 “Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time: for it is an evil time “ Can we justify ourselves in keeping silence, and see our generation depart from the ordinances of the Lord once given to our fathers?

Have we failed, and shall we continue to disobey the commandments of the Lord? Eze. 3:18, 19 “When I say unto the wicked, thou shall surely die, and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou has delivered thy soul.” Shall our generation testify against us for failing to do our God given duty?

Is it not indeed “That Last Time”? We see the works of the antichrist so clearly manifested by their fruit 2 Thess 2:4 “Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God “ They are the subjects of Satan, “which deceiveth the whole world,” Rev. 12:9. And are the enemies of the cross of Christ and His church, who mind earthly things Phil. 3:18 19. Their rapid growth can clearly be seen in the’ dedication, and work for the destruction of Christianity to their subtle and deceptive tactics; to their utter disregard for all decency and the rights of men. Are they not seen within many of our colleges, and are acted upon openly on our streets defying the laws of God and country? Should not our hearts break when we see that our generation is influenced and are subjective to their threatenings? The defiance of the antichrist is to “Every religious idea, every idea of God, even every flirtation with the idea of God is unuterable vileness.” How far has our nation and the nations of the world been influenced by them, and have been welcomed within their bosom, being equally yoked in their deceitful practices. Are these not all signs; that “It Is The Last Time?” Promising an “UTOPIA”. A world of Peace while we have wars and destructions, and bloodshed from the rebellious within.

The degeneration has already taken such a hold upon many of the youth that it seems that all warnings are laughed of with scoff.

But may we remain faithful unto death. For Christ shall have dominion from sea to sea, and from the rivers, unto the ends of the earth.

Elder C. F. Boerkoel, Sr.

God’s creating power drew the world out of nothing, but His converting power frames the new creature out of something worse than nothing.

— Charnock.

Pastor David’s Story

ROAD-BUILDING

I live in Stamford, a town of ancient stone streets and cobbled corners, where one is always likely to unearth some piece of history — evidence of the mint that was here, or some long-hidden medieval timbers, or even an underground passage. Right through the middle of the town runs the Great North Road, with its right-angle twists where scores of lorries have scraped the walls of the buildings.

A few years ago the by-pass was completed, and so much of the traffic stopped rumbling through the town, that at night people living on that road could not get to sleep, it was so quiet!

Soon the last two little stretches of the Great North Road, within 100 miles of London, will be completed as dual carriageways. One of these stretches will by-pass a little village in Huntingdonshire called Eaton Socon. The other day I travelled by this spot where the men are now working. Gigantic yellow earth-movers, one after another, are digging out huge slices of earth, and building great mounds of it in different places. You can imagine it is just a sea of mud. For hundreds of yards fields and hedges have all gone, with only this expanse of wet soil to see. It is just impossible to see where the road will eventually go, and what the men are trying to do. Yet someone has a plan. All the workmen there are following that one plan. And eventually we who look on will see how everything fitted into place. Mind you, the plan was made a good while ago. It has taken a long time to buy the land that was needed. The cost of making a road for people to travel, where there was no way before, is tremendous. But that is what the plan is for. Yet what man is doing with his plans, is only a feeble picture of what the Lord in heaven is doing.

The Lord formed a plan for a people to travel a road where there was otherwise no way. The cost was tremendous, the precious blood of His own dear Son. And now the work is still going on: the heavenly Workman, the Holy Spirit, is removing clayey hearts. He works with instruments of His choosing — strange things they often appear in our eyes — often we are puzzled by what is taking place. But the Plan, a perfect one, is being followed, and it will one day be seen to be perfect by those that believe, with every detail falling into place.

May the Lord give you faith to see your need to be on that road of God’s making, depending on that One who shed His own blood, and brings you safely after all your travellings to that better country where Jesus sits and smiles and rules for ever.

David Oldham.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BIBLE READING AND PRAYER

Our first aim will be to show how inseparably connected are these two. We dare not exalt one above the other — both are vital. Moreover, we must not separate the one from the other or we do despite to both. There are three considerations which establish this point. These will be illustrated mainly from Psalm 119. 33–40.

1. The Reading of the Bible Needs Prayer

It is well-known that the uniqueness of the 119th Psalm lies in its total pre-occupation with the Word of God to such an extent that every verse makes some reference to it. In addition to this a large number of these verses are addressed to God Himself and thus constitute prayers. A study of these verses will thus show us how intertwined are the reading of the Bible and prayer. The section from verses 33 to 40 is made up entirely of petitions to God. These bring home forcibly to us the ways in which the reading of God’s Word needs to be combined with prayer.

(a) Prayer is needed beforehand in order to prepare the mind to understand and the heart to receive it. In v. 33 he prays, “Teach me, O Lord, the way of Thy statues”. He comes to the word as a pupil to be enlightened, not to look for confirmation of his own preconceived notions. In v. 34 he prays, “Give me understanding”. It is possible to learn without understanding, parrot fashion, but this is of no use at all. We need to receive the import, the spirituality of the Word. Prayer is necessary for this. Further in v. 36 he prays, “Incline my heart unto Thy testimonies”. It is necessary not only for the mind to understand what God says, but for the heart to receive it delightfully. Our hearts by nature are inclined, as the psalmist admits, “to covetousness”. Earnest prayer is needed that the Spirit of God should prepare them to welcome His teachings. Such prayers as these need to precede the reading of the Word lest this exercise should prove vain.

(b) Prayer is needed during the reading of the Word to aid meditation. One of the most important uses we are to make of the Bible (although a sadly neglected one) is meditation, v. 148. It is not enough to read it through like a newspaper. Beneath the print we must find the living word, we must gain insight into the mind of the Spirit. This demands a pondering upon the passage we are reading. This pondering is meditation. But it is a spiritual as well as mental activity. We are seeking to communicate with the mind of God. Thus prayer is essential here. We must lift heart and soul to God that He might bring home to us what He would have us know. The Psalmist is meditating prayerfully (or praying meditatively) over the Word in vv. 36 and 38 when he says, “Incline my heart unto Thy testimonies” and “Stablish Thy word unto Thy servant”. He desires it to be imprinted upon him that he may be rooted and grounded in God. Many of us find meditation on the Word of God hard, even impossible. This is because we try to do it with our natural faculties and forget to call on God. We shut our mouths from prayer when we open our Bible. Both need to be open if we are to meditate profitably upon what we read.

(c) Prayer is needed afterwards to seek the fulfilment of the promises and to enable obedience to the precepts. Just as we have not done with prayer when we open the Scriptures, so we have not done with either when we have closed the Scriptures. Out of them God has brought to our notice promises made to His children. We must lay claim to these by faith - and this we do by addressing God Himself. If we receive a promissory note we go to the signatory of it and ask for the cash. If we receive a promise from God therefore we go to Him and ask Him to do it for us. “Stablish Thy word unto Thy servant” — prove the truth of it by bringing it to pass! Also, God speaks to us of His commands and our duties. These being spiritual we lack the ability to fulfill them. Like the psalmist therefore we cry to God to enable us to do so: “Make me to go in the path of Thy commandments” (v. 35), “quicken Thou me in Thy way” (V. 37), “quicken me in Thy righteousness” (v. 38).

Let us then beware of the danger of divorcing prayer from the reading of the Word. A constant unceasing attitude of prayer during the whole exercise is the only way profitably to read the Scriptures.

2. Prayer Needs the Reading of the Bible

Just as we must not attempt the reading of the Scriptures without constant recourse to prayer, so too we cannot truly pray without continual reference to the Bible. Much of our praying is impoverished because we do it in isolation from God’s Word.

(a) The Word will enlighten us concerning what and how to pray. Like some sermons, many prayers are devoid of content — they never ask anything. The things they do ask are often very mundane and repetitive. While we should never neglect to ask for all that is included in the petition “Give us this day our daily bread”, we should never stop there. We are also told to pray concerning the hallowing of God’s name, the doing of His will and the coming of His kingdom. What exactly this involves is shown to us in the Scriptures. Thus every passage we read should suggest to us our “topics” for prayer. If we allow this to happen our prayers will be fresh and full.

(b) The Word will give us grounds for believing in the effectiveness of prayer. Much prayer is wasted because we do not really believe we shall receive the things for which we ask. We doubt and waver and so do not obtain (James 1:6) This is because we have no rocks to hold on to. The doctrines and promises of God’s Word will supply us with these. If we take them into our prayers we shall pray with faith. “I hoped in Thy word” (v. 147).

(c) The Word will move our hearts and thus stir up the emotions. Coldness and formality are often the marks of our praying. Like cold food they give off no savour to delight the nostrils of our God. Our prayers need warmth, and this the meditative reading of the Word will supply. “Make me to go in the path of Thy commandments for therein do I delight” (v. 35). We shall see the gloriousness of God’s being, the grace of His dealings, the power of His judgments, the richness of His goodness to His elect, the depth of His love in His Son. These things will delight the heart of the true believer and this delight will set light to his prayers.

3. Prayer and Bible Reading Together are Necessary to Godly Living

We must not become mystics who live only for private devotions. We are called to live a life of practical godliness before the Church and the world. We shall never do so without a right combination of prayer and the Word. Our devotional life must be as closely intertwined with our practical godliness as our prayer is with our Bible reading. The psalmist shows how concerned he is that his devotions should find practical outworking. “Teach me, O Lord, the way of Thy statutes and I shall keep them unto the end” (v. 33). The other verses have the same theme in them. Notice how his godliness is helped by the resolution of will which his devotions impart. One of the chief causes of sin or failure in the Christian is weakness of will. A true combination of the two parts of the devotional life greatly strengthen the will in the ways of the Lord.

One of the most vital things for our Christian life therefore is to grasp this interdependence of Bible reading and prayer. Likewise, one of the worst is to divorce them. Therefore it is come to pass that as he cried and they would not hear, so they cried and I would not hear, saith the Lord of Hosts” (Zech. 7:13). They prayed but did not listen to His Word through His prophets — so God would not listen to their words in their prayers. Our devotional lives — in fact our whole lives — will suffer unless we keep the relationship between prayer and the Word.

Submitted

A SIGN OF THE TIMES

The Lord Jesus once spoke to the people, saying, “Can ye not discern the signs of the times?” It was a necessary work to be practiced by the Jewish people, but it is also very necessary for us and our children.

Our great God not only speaks to us by His Word, but He speaks also to us in different ways; He also speaks by the signs of the times. Did not the Lord speak to a proud and sinful generation before the flood? How did the Lord speak to the Jewish people before their land and temple was destroyed? Many signs were given by God.

We believe that this world is now in its evening-tide. The glorified Immanuel will soon come with great glory to judge the quick and the dead. Do we not see and hear His coming in the signs of the times? Shall there not be many more signs in heaven and upon earth to teach and tell us the coming of this majestic King of kings, and Lord of lords?

Jesus has spoken: “But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark. And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” Matt. 24:36–39.

The hardening of heart is a lamentable sign of the times It is considered by some as the greatest judgment upon mankind, not excluding church-goers. This was a sign of the times before the flood, that was brought from heaven upon the people during Noah’s life; the days of Noah are being repeated. The great God is perfectly just if He lets sinners over to the hardening of their heart. We read in John 12:40: “He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes nor understand with their heart.”

God is a righteous Sovereign, can let a sinner harden himself to the end of his life, and then comes the judgment-woe unto him who falls into the hands of the living God! It is truly a great blessing in mercy from heaven if the Lord stops a sinner from hardening his heart — grants him by His Spirit a broken heart and a contrite spirit — when he speaks as David saying, “I am troubled; I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day.”

How often does the Lord warn sinners to not harden their hearts. “Harden not your heart,” Ps. 95:8. How inclined is a sinner, however, to reject and despise the warnings and admonitions from God. How blind and perverse; how unwilling to heed His wise command. Deeply is he corrupted through leaving God in Paradise.

To harden the heart against God, His Word, His warnings and admonitions, indicates a great insensitiveness, carelessness and indifference.

When does a sinner harden himself against God, His Word, yea, against his own welfare and salvation?

1. When he rejects all warnings and admonitions which come directly or indirectly from heaven to him.

2. When he despises and abhors the blessed invitations of Christ in the Gospel, saying to the dear Redeemer: “Away with Him! Away with Him!”

3. When he will not hearken to the voice of his conscience, and will sear it with a hot iron. Many have not been very old when this voice was not heard anymore.

4. When they break through all discipline and the rod of correction which the Lord may bring upon them in sickness, poverty, losses, pains, danger of death at home or upon the battlefield, etc. Many have vowed before God at such times that they would repent and serve Him, but soon they forget these solemn vows or resolutions, and harden their heart in sin and wickedness.

5. When a sinner seeks and is found at places of worldly amusements, which places are condemned by the Word of God. When he continues in such wickedness as drinking, dancing, swearing, whoring, blaspheming, stealing, etc. How great is long-suffering in sparing such lumps of sin and deepsunk wretches! But what if the measure of sin is full?

6. When a sinner breaks his promises and leaves the blessed truth of God to go his own way, turning his back to all truth and religion, or turning to a false or superficial religion. How many are weak, and fall into temptation.

7. When he despises and mocks God’s dear people, His servants, and rewards evil for good. This is what Israel did with the prophets in olden times.

8. When a sinner forgets the goodness and mercies of God bestowed upon him, and does not love, honor, and glorify his Creator.

9. When his whole poor soul is bewitched with the T.V. image service, and has not the least soul-desire to see King Jesus in His beauty. etc.

Reader! may I ask you, are not the majority of the people hardening their hearts in this evil time? Do they not walk in their own ways, ways of destruction? Do we not live in a time when even God’s people do harden themselves to a certain extent, and become as the slumbering virgins, Matt. 25? Jesus asked His disciples, “Have ye your heart yet hardened?”

This great evil, then, is a sign of the times. This evil is as a fountain of many other evils. We must warn faithfully against this evil. God in heaven warns against it saying, “Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness,” Ps. 95:8. “Today, if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts,” Hebr. 3:15. May the Almighty God show mercy unto us and our children, to a back-sliding and hardened people; may He fill us with His blessed Spirit and soul-melting grace and love.

“O remember not against us,
Evil by our fathers wrought;
Haste to help us in Thy mercy,
Near to ruin we are brought;
Help us, God of our salvation,
For the glory of Thy name;
For Thy name’s sake come and save us,
Take away our sin and shame.

J.V.Z.

And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God and the books were opened: and another book was opened: which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of the books, according to their works.… And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. —Rev. 20:12, 15

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