NOTES OUT OF THE CATECHISM CLASSES Of Rev. J. Fraanje Using The Catechism Book SPECIMENS OF DIVINE TRUTHS

On Justification

Lesson 32 Part II

Is there any difference between justification and sanctification?

Answer: Yes, (1) Justification is an act without, but sanctification within us. (2) Justification removes the guilt, and sanctification the pollution of sin, (3) The act of justification is complete, but sanctification, during this life is not complete.

Scripture speaks of the act of justification as a pronouncement of acquital as is done in the court of justice.

Are the three Divine Persons involved in this matter?

Answer: Yes, the Father represents the person of a judge. The Son is the Intercessor and Mediator for whose sake we are justified. The Holy Ghost gives us knowledge of our justification and seals it unto us.

These are very momentous questions and answers. We shall endeavor to say something of each of them in an uncomplicated way. God’s Word uses the example of a court of justice in everyday life. What do we have here?

1. A judge. 2. A defendant. 3. An advocate. 4. A court recorder. 5. Witnesses.

How should this be explained?

We said previously, an elect sinner can be justified only through Christ. Not that he is declared to be righteous in himself, or that righteousness is poured upon him, no, but a time appears in his life when the Lord makes him know that he lies eternally justified in Christ.

I do not say that all elect are dealt with in equal clarity in this. The Lord is free in all His doings. But for those, whose time is at hand, there will be a feeling in their heart of being separated form God. There will be a court of tribunal set up in their consciences, where God the Father stands as judge, and the elect as an accused defendant. But who are the witnesses?

There are three witnesses testifying against the sinner. They are the law, the devil and his own conscience. We read of such a sentencing in Zechariah 3:3. Joshua stood before the Lord in filthy garments and Satan stood at his right hand. Why? To oppose him; that is, to accuse him.

The second, the law, is setting forth its complaints demanding obedience and requiring that punishment be meted out.

The third, his own conscience, stands there as accuser, saying; “All things are true; then and then you did this and that.”

There stands the pitiful sinner. What is left for him to do? This is no place for him to speak out. He stands there as the Publican with penitent feet that dare not go further. With penitent eyes, that he dares not lift up. With penitent hands which he smites upon his guilty breast.

A speechless condemned sinner, who, being charged and accused, stands before a righteous Judge. What shall he do but stand in silence? He shall consider the Judge to be perfectly just in every way, sanctions the sentence pronounced upon him, and accepts his guilt and God’s justice.

If the sinner justifies the Judge in the sentence pronounced upon him what shall the judge do then?

Then God justifies the sinner.

Not because the sinner justified God! No, that is impossible, but it always precedes it.

When all the witnesses have pronounced their accusations and the sinner has accepted them, the Lord (figuratively speaking) stands up and says to the devil: “The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan, yes the Lord rebuke thee. Your head has been bruised long ago, and I shall retrieve my captives.”

He says to the law, “Has not My Son accomplished the whole law?” Did He not say, “I delight to do Thy will, O my God; yea, Thy law is within My heart.” There is nothing more required of this sinner. The conscience too is pacified in the satisfaction of the Mediator. Hence the mouths of all witnesses are stopped. The Judge shall point out His Son to all the witnesses saying, “He was Surety for Him.”

We see seven points in this subject of justification, all of which are mentioned in our lesson. Give good attention:

1. The sinner becomes aware of this in the court of his conscience.

2. The defendant in this court, being accused and acquitted is the elect.

3. The Judge, who gives the verdict of acquittal, is God the Father.

4. The witnesses who oppose the sinner and are his accusers are: the devil, the law and the conscience.

5. The person for whose sake the sinner is set free, and who is his Surety, is the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

6. The great recorder in the court of justice is the Holy Ghost. He assures the acquitted of his justification and sets His seal on him.

7. But now if all this has taken place, how can the sinner accept it?

The imputed righteousness of Christ becomes an imparted righteousness for him. By free grace it is imputed and imparted, but is that sufficient?

The sinner will have no profit of all this if he does not accept this righteousness by faith.

The eighth, then, is faith which is a hand or instrument whereby the sinner receives the merits of Christ.

Hellenbroek substantiates this with John 1:12, “But as many as received Him, to them gave He the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His Name.”

Be careful that you do not understand this to mean that justification is the result of our faith. The essential point of the matter is the imputed righteousness of Christ. This is accepted by faith by the sinner.

Just as everybody even before birth lies condemnable before God in Adam just so, all elect, from eternity, lie righteous before God in Christ. However, they first become aware of this, in the court of their conscience, in justification. It is for this reason that all who are declared free, by virtue of eternal election, shall become free indeed during this life.

THREE APPLICATIONS

Part I

One of our well-known and beloved old writers, the Rev. B. Smytegelt, said in a sermon that there are three that must make an application.

The first one is the preacher. Before all things he is the minister of the Word.

Before God took Paul out of the church militant into the church triumphant, he wrote to Timothy in his second epistle, “Preach the Word.” The full counsel of God unto salvation must be proclaimed.

Law and gospel, blessing and curse, life and death must be heard in the midst of the congregation.

The truth must be interpreted as it is in Christ Jesus. Paul had determined not to know anything save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He would build upon that only foundation laid by God in eternity.

There is no other foundation. Everything outside of that shall irrevocably fall away, and like a sandy ground, shall sink and wash away.

But upon every sermon must follow an application. That is an obligation which rests upon every preacher. The minister must deliver himself from the blood of his hearers. Our fathers had an introduction to the sermon, the body of the sermon which is the explanation of the text, and then the appropriation or the application. The application may not be lacking. The truth must be laid and be bound upon the conscience of the children of men. The Word of God comes to us with Divine power and with authority. It is not the word of man, but it is the Word of the ever-living God.

That truth must be applied; be applied to the hearers that are assembled. That application concerns the entire congregation. The invisible church in included in the visible church. In that visible church are people who shall never be converted, but there are others that must be added to the church that shall be saved. For such God uses His Word to their eternal welfare at the time which has been determined by God from eternity. “A sower went forth to sow,” Matt. 13.

Must the unconverted also be addressed?

Most certainly, because the Lord tells us in His Word: “Whether they hear or whether they forbear, but you must deliver your soul.” With regard to the state, man is dead in sin and trespasses, but although he can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven, and although God is Sovereign in His Essence and in His deeds, in His will and good pleasure, we are and remain responsible creatures. One day we shall be judged — not only according to what we have heard, but also according to what we might have heard. Christ declares in Matt. 11:17, “We have piped unto you and ye have not danced; we have mourned unto you and ye have not lamented.”

The responsibility is no savior, but yet the responsibility of man must be maintained while asserting the absolute Sovereignty of God. “The secret things belong unto the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children,” Deut. 29:29. The secret counsel of God is unknown to us, and man shall not be judged thereby. But we are concerned with that which God has declared and revealed in His Word. Consider which Moses in the Name of the Lord impressed upon the covenant people of Israel and how he declared God’s demands upon the privileged and favored people.

Christ, the Teacher of Righteousness, the most perfect Preacher, constantly made an application. He did this in His first sermon which He preached in Nazareth, Matt. 9. He did this in the well-known sermon on the Mount. We find the application in John 6 and time and time again. Not a few words in general, but He came down to His hearers personally.

Christ did not remain at a distance from His hearers, but He came down personally to tell them what is necessary. They had to eat His flesh and drink His blood else they would have no life.

The result was that they said, “This is a hard saying, who can hear it?” And of Stephen we read that when he commenced with the application, they gnashed on him with their teeth. Yea, it must not come too close for then the enmity manifests itself.

It still resounds in our ears what we formerly heard of our deceased preachers after the explanation of the text: “Let us now turn to ourselves,” or “Before we close with a word of application, let us sing this or that Psalm.” The unconverted were addressed and the necessity of regeneration and conversion resounded through the church. They were warned against the way of sin and admonished to seek God and to walk in His ways. “If thou hadst known even thou, at least in this thy day the things which belong to thy peace,” Luke 19:42. “Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God,” II Cor. 5:20.

How often have we seen and heard it that with great earnestness, yea with tears, the congregation was addressed and pointed to the seriousness of eternity. It was so not only when a preacher stood in the pulpit, but also during the reading of a sermon, it became so quiet in church, and one could notice that it made an impression upon the hearers, when death and eternity were mentioned.

However, the gospel must be preached to every creature, Mark 16:15. That is also a part of the calling which rests upon a preacher. They may not hide the gospel. They are the publishers of those glad tidings; of those glad tidings of which we read in Isa. 61. God shall gather His elect till the end of the world, and shall build Zion with a strong hand. To the poor the Gospel must be preached.

The false grounds must be uncovered. There must be a warning so that we shall not deceive our poor souls for eternity. The right ways of God must be proclaimed so that everyone may examine himself for eternity. God’s people must be addressed. No knots may be tied, but knots must be untied.

People have mocked some of our church fathers because of the applications they made. It has been said and written mockingly that they place God’s people in various little pigeonholes. Yea, when it concerns the sound truth, how much slander is then heard. The enmity then becomes so great. A person wants to be clothed upon but not unclothed, and when the various conditions are declared, based upon the Word of God, then most people are placed outside as strangers of the life of God, and that causes so much enmity.

Our fathers spoke of beginners in grace, of convinced souls, of concerned souls, of hoping souls, of souls who live under the servitude of the law, of souls to whom the possibility of being saved has been revealed, of souls who had received some knowledge of Christ, of assured souls, of souls who are conscious of possessing grace, of souls more advanced in grace, etc. Their applications were concluded with various admonitions, instructions, exhortations, directions and comforts.

Yea, there may be a time in our life that we are glad when the minister reaches the application. If we have been brought upon the field of interest, and if the salvation of our immortal soul begins to weigh heavy upon us, if we feel ourselves to be wretched and lost before God, then we gladly listen whether there is still a way of escape. It has happened during our life that in one evening we read four, five or more applications for ourselves.

I shall not enlarge any further upon this. We may say with the old Datheen, “Where is the grace of former years?”

Alas, also among us, a generation is growing up to whom it is all so strange. The ignorance increases hand over hand. It is an exception when people are still interested in the Truth.

If God does not intervene, also in the rising generation, we shall soon have returned to heathendom. The spirit of Gallio, who cared for none of these things, is increasing more and more. Is it then so far gone? Ah yes, much and much further than I dare write upon paper. We should be nothing but tears. The world and the spirit of the world has penetrated and pervaded the church so much that there are hardly any more ears for the unadulterated truth. For many, a dogmatic sermon is much too complicated; an experimental sermon is too difficult and too deep. A literal explanation without an application is desired, and there are also such to whom a Sunday school story is more than sufficient.

The ignorance increases more and more. There is hardly anymore impression and no more desire to search. How many closed consciences sit under the truth, and there is not the least interest to listen to the truth.

Indeed, except the Lord of Hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.

I began to write about three that must make an application, but I hardly have any courage to write something about the second point, namely that the hearers must make an application.

By virtue of creation in His image, God is free from every human being; but He also delivers Himself through the preaching of the Gospel. Their sound goes into all the earth. For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. God shall gather His church out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation.

We read in Matt. 24:14: “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations.”

After Christ’s resurrection and before His ascension, the apostles received the mandate from Him to go and preach in the Name of Christ repentance and remission of sin among all nations beginning at Jerusalem, Luke 24:27. “And ye shall be witness unto Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth,” Acts 1:8. They had to begin at the bloody city which had rejected Him. What a comfort!

It is a privilege, a great privilege, to have been born under the light of the Truth, or in the way of God’s providence to have been brought under the truth. That in the preaching of the Gospel, that voice is always behind us, “This is the way, walk ye it it.”

“So then, faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God,” Rom. 10:17.

From the beginning until the end of the world, the Son of God gathers by His Spirit and Word out of the entire human race, His elect unto eternal life.

The Spirit cannot be dispensed with, but the Word is also necessary.

God uses His Word and He seals it with the irresistible power of His Spirit to the quickening of a dead sinner.

We read very clearly of that in James 1:18, “of His own will begat He us with the Word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of His creatures.” “By the Word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth,” Ps. 33:6. Thus it was in the first creation, but thus it is also in re-creation. For that reason it is our calling to place ourselves under the Word. That is the means of grace.

As a sovereign and almighty God, God stands above the means, but He binds us to the means. From our side it is wicked to say, “God is able to convert me in a tavern or at a baseball field.” It is true, God can do so, but it is not His usual way. God blesses His own institutions, and He binds His people to them.

It is a very bad and doubtful sign when the ordinances of God have no significance for us, and when we are so indifferent toward them.

Some people speak contemptuously about the Church, and live on the shortcomings of the Church. But they are not signs of the true life of God. Many starve themselves to death on the breach of the Church, but how few are found among them that have learned to know the breach and the plague of their own heart. God’s Word admonishes us to withdraw ourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly and not after the tradition which he received from God’s servants, II Thes. 3:6. If the truth which is according to godliness is not to be found, it is a different case. Whenever stones are given us instead of bread, and the truth is assailed and violated, then we have the liberty to remain at home. But as long as the truth is still there, then we must place ourselves under it. In the days when Christ was upon earth, religion was in a very sad state. It was precept upon precept, line upon line; touch not and taste not, handle not. It was nothing but do this and not that; the law of Moses. But yet, according to His custom every Sabbath, Christ went to the synagogue, and the Lord warns us in His Word not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together. We may not act arbitrarily and wilfully with the ordinances which God has instituted. God’s regenerated people obtain love for the ordinances. It is also within their hearts as with David, “One thing have I desired of the Lord: that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,” Ps. 27:4.

Rev. W.C.Lamain

THE PROMISED SEED IS BORN

Our souls shall magnify the Lord,
In God the Savior we rejoice;
While we repeat the Virgin’s song,
May the same Spirit tune our voice!

The Highest saw her low estate,
And mighty things his hand hath done;
His overshadowing pow’r and grace Makes her the mother of his Son.

To those that fear and trust the Lord,
His mercy stands for ever sure;
From age to age his promise lives,
And the performance is secure.

He spake to Abra’m and his seed,
“In thee shall all the earth bless’d”;
The mem’ry of that ancient word
Lay long in his eternal breast.

But now, no more shall Israel wait,
No more the Gentiles lie forlorn:
Lo, the desire of nations comes!
Behold, the promis’d Seed is born!

The Song of Mary

PROFITABLE LESSONS

Part I

The time to learn, is when we are young. But that does not say that we need no more instructions, when we become older. Far from it. Here we will never finish learning. It is a privilege if we never take that standpoint, that we think that we know it. Our blindness and foolishness is more and more revealed. I have heard say that the late Rev. Ledeboer daily sang, yes even to the end of life:

“Lord, to me Thy ways make known.
Guide in truth and teach Thou me.
Thou my Savior art alone
All the day I wait for Thee.”

And when I heard that, I’ve sometimes been jealous of that godly man, and especially of David, when by the inspiration of the Spirit of God, he wrote that twenty-fifth psalm. When I was a student, I often spoke in a congregation in Gelderland, where in those days were various experienced children of God. There also were elders who had experimental knowledge of those matters. What I am now going to write about happened 45 years ago. Upon the request of the late Rev. H. Kieviet, I often supplied there on Sunday. And after the decease of that dear minister, while the congregation was vacant, I brought the Word of God there many times. Then we would spend many days and hours there with God’s people, and learned many a lesson, which the Lord was pleased to bless.

And now the matter about which I wish to write something. After the service there was always an elder who took me to the consistory room. The rest of the consistory members remained until all the people had left the church. Then I was alone with that elder for a moment. One Sunday afternoon I had spoken on Lord’s day 50: “Give us this day our daily bread”. In this congregation there were always two services on Sunday, which usually lasted about two hours. That afternoon I really thought that I had preached with ease. I had no want of words, I had so much zeal, that I could have spoken still longer, and what I brought out was not without feeling. Thus one thing with another was the reason that I went along so feely with that elder. Most of the time it was so different: especially when there were experienced people in my audience. Inwardly so condemned and with so much strife, that I didn’t have much to say. In the experience of my life I’ve often been murdered, (although not with a sword) so that I often think it is a wonder that I am still alive. Huntington wrote, that he died every time he entered the pulpit. What a difficult life! But that afternoon I was at ease. But what happens? When we were sitting there together in the consistory room, the elder said; “If you speak abut that Lord’s Day again, you should read that Lord’s Day better.” He said: “You have said so much about that word ‘us’ but about the word ‘our’ you haven’t said nearly enough.” For me that remark was like a bolt of thunder out of a clear sky. He did not instruct me out of high-mindedness, but out of love. Of course, it makes a difference who says something, and in what spirit it is said. For a moment it was rather difficult, but I had to agree that he spoke the truth. Of course I’ve preached about that catechism many times since, but that always remained with me. That word “our” in the petition of the most perfect prayer, indicates the child’s right to our daily bread which Christ had merited for His people. It is also the promise to the church: “Bread shall be given him; his water shall be sure.”

Sometimes the Lord uses just simple people to teach us a lesson, which is profitable for ourselves and which can also be beneficial for others, and which could serve to be a blessing for others. We had better not exalt ourselves above anything. By nature we are so proud and think so much of ourselves. But it is necessary and profitable that the “Giant” Pride shall be struck to the ground. My first teacher who had served this congregation for more than twenty years (it was the congregation of Veenendaal where in those days the Lord had many of His people) was a scribe, who was instructed in the Kingdom of God, and who out of the treasure of his heart, especially the last years, could bring forth old things and new.

As a youth I was sent to receive some training from him. One day, that wise man asked me with what intentions I had come to him. In my innocence I said to him; “To become a Minister”. He smiled for a moment, and then said; “My intentions with you are only to instruct you how to study. And further: If I may complete it, to convince you, that you must continue to study as long as you live. Never think that you are able. Because by continual inquiry you will learn, how little you know. One of our godly forefathers once wrote to a student; “I hope that you may remain a student.” Our flesh desires an easy life, to rather sit in a chair, than that we so often must get down on our knees. Fortunately, “Eternal Wisdom” knows better than we what is profitable, yea what is indispensable.

And now the older that I become, the more I must think back to those wise lessons which I received in those days. Oh, it is so necessary that our toes are stepped on. For there is enough in us because of our deep fall to become puffed up.

Rev. W.C. Lamain

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