THE PROMISE OF SALVATION

Part I

Dear Friends, we need instructions time and again from above because our understanding is darkened and the natural man cannot understand the spiritual things. As Paul declares in 1 Cor. 2, It is foolishness to us, but only by the enlightening of the Holy Spirit can we understand a little of the meaning of the Spirit. On the other hand, there is nothing so necessary for us as the instructions from on high and the illumination of the Holy Spirit. We are all travelers to that great and never ending eternity and it is so necessary that we have a clear and a right understanding about the revealed will of God in his Word and Testimony. It is always necessary that the Lord make room in our heart for his grace and for his love. Also, for what He has promised in His Holy Word.

There must be a subject and an object, that always belongs together, as I hope to explain to you out of my text. My text you will find in the Acts of the Apostles, Chapter 2 verse 39. “For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.” First we have the promise, second the extension, and in the third place the limitation. We can find all these things in the Word of God and in our text which we will explain to you with the assistance of the Lord.

We have heard before about that great wonder which the Lord has wrought on the day of Pentecost. A number of about 3,000 souls were pricked in their hearts, in other words, and that is what I will bring out, they were the subjects for that great object. Christ is the object of faith and the subject is the sinner pricked in his heart.

Calvin, one of our greatest reformers, who was very sound in his doctrine based on the Word of God, once said, “It is not sufficient to have the general word unless we know that the same is appointed for us.” The whole Bible is the truth, from Genesis to Revelations, but what profit shall we have from the Word of God without the applying and the operation of the Holy Spirit personally to our soul? It is clear and very evident to us that on the day of Pentecost Peter and the other apostles were preaching with much opening, freedom, and liberty, because they were filled with the Holy Ghost. That was the cause that all slavish fear and fear of man was taken away from them, and that on the day of Pentecost they were standing in the power of the Holy Spirit to proclaim that everlasting gospel.

After the Lord had wrought a child-like fear in the hearts of those 3,000 men, it was much easier for Peter to preach because among the people that were gathered there, were wounded hearts, and the more wounds we have in out hearts, the more room there is for the gospel. In our day, they say you have to bring the gospel. Indeed, if the preaching of Christ is lacking there is no preaching, that is in accordance to the Word of God. We have to bring that full salvation revealed in Christ Jesus unto sinners, but we have to do it in a different way than those who preach nothing than free will. They always say you can take it if you want to, and it is easy to be saved, but that is untrue. It is indeed easy to be saved if the Lord, by His Holy Spirit, makes us a subject, but otherwise, it is an impossibility for man. Our condition is, as the Bible teaches us, dead in trespasses and sin, and that means without any desire to fear the Lord and to walk in His ways. It is the same as in our natural life. If I have a home and someone comes and offers me one, then I can say, “No, I have one.” But it is another thing if my house, for instance, is destroyed by fire and I have no place to live, and no money to buy another. Then I would be glad if someone would offer me a little cottage in which to live.

And now this is but a very simple example out of our natural life, But so it is the same spiritually. I think there are not many people who shall understand the expression I will make now, but I hope the time shall come when you may understand it … It is seldom, even when we have grace in our hearts, and the principle of the work of God in our soul, that we are guilty before the Lord in ourselves. We cannot give it to ourselves. Also, there are those among us, and I am assured of it, that sometimes have a desire, a real desire, to bow down before the Most High and become sinners. Weeks and months sometimes may pass by without that right feeling in our heart that we are guilty before the Lord. We experience more and more that we are so dependent upon the living God and upon the operation of the Holy Spirit because we can do nothing of ourselves. It is impossible. We have no desire even to pray. We have no desire even to bow down before the Lord. Sometimes we go through this world without a thought about the Lord. Can we bring ourselves into something deserving of God’s apporbation? No, and, of course, that too is part of our wretchedness. There are so many times when it seems as if all the doors are shut, even the doors of heaven. Even if we would lay $1,000 on the table for just one desire in our heart, it is impossible to buy.

Now you may think that the farther we are on the way to heaven, and the more grace we have received personally, in our heart and in our life, the easier it must be for that person. But it is the opposite, we become more dependent upon the living God and it shows in our life how unreceptive we are in ourselves for the Lord and for divine things. Unreceptive, and is it not hard for that people? Sometimes in their life, and most of the time when they are alone with the Lord, they say, “O Lord, I am so unfruitful and so unreceptive for thee. O Lord, I think there is no one in the whole world that is so tired of himself, because I thought it is time I was close to heaven, that I could help myself with all which thou hast given in my soul, that the entire day I would give all the glory to the name of the Lord, and be filled with his grace and love.” But, what a disappointment…. and then not receptive!

People, we have a picture in our text of 3,000 souls who were made, and I emphasize that, who were made receptive for the administration of the Holy Spirit in their heart and soul. It is possible that five or even ten years later those people looked back to the day of Pentecost….Oh, then their heart was as a watered garden, then it was a wonderful day never to be forgotten. Now with me it is so dry and I am so unreceptive because I believe, for myself, and I think that is based on the Work of God, that not one rich man shall enter heaven. Not one rich man enters heaven, but all those that enter are poor and needy and afflicted—all of them. It shall be such a great wonder for them that the Lord has glorified His divine and sovereign grace in their heart and soul. Three thousand people pricked in their hearts, that were so open for the blessed gospel that was preached by the apostles. Their ears were opened and their hearts were unlocked, and they were sitting there to hear the words of eternal life. They were so blessed. This is also a gift from above. They were all standing outside. They accepted what Peter told them that they were betrayers and murderers of the Prince of Life. They were murderers, and a murderer shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Thus, those people have placed themselves outside the Kingdom. If the Lord had immediately cast them away out of His sight, then I believe with my whole heart that they all would have said “Amen”, because all of God’s people have something of that in their life and in their soul. I hope there are still many among us that have knowledge of it for their own soul and experience it in their heart. Then it is never necessary for the Lord to condemn them. They condemn themselves time and again. If we condemn ourselves then the Lord never shall condemn us. This is perhaps a strange language for some people, oh yes, but I believe it is not strange to all. There are some that know it for themselves, maybe there are some who have condemned themselves before they entered the church. Perhaps there are some who said, “O Lord, what profit is it that I live here on earth, that I ever was brought into this world, because I cannot believe that there is any salvation for my soul personally. It would have been better if I had been a miscarriage, as Job says, that I had never seen the sun.” O, it is such a blessing , when we can preach for discouraged souls and for those who need comfort. Then there is so much room for that everlasting gospel, because it is the calling of the servants of the Lord, to preach to wounded and broken hearted people, and to those who have no expectation of themselves. They cannot even expect that the Lord would ever say one word to their soul.

I think there are some, but I hope many, who are expecting the Lord to cast them into hell. I hope, boys and girls, that there are a great number among us. That is another language than to say, accept and believe. Those people say, “Soon I will go to bed and maybe then eternity…and lost forever.” Not only for themselves but also with reference to their little children. “O children, I was the second cause that you came into this world and were created for eternity. Soon we shall stand before the judgment seat, then you shall say, ‘father, father, you were the cause of my everlasting destruction. I wish I had never been born and never came into this world.’ “ Then to think that we condemn ourselves and will also be condemned by our children forever and forever. That shall be something! It is hell itself, and there never comes an end to that.

I told you so many times, that there is no other way for us and for our children, but that we must first go to hell, shall we ever enter into heaven. We can lose our children, and it is possible to believe that they are in heaven, that is in accordance with the Bible; but we tell you that we must first go with them to hell. There is no other way for us and for our children but for the Lord to make room in our soul for His promise. The promise, the content of the promise, is the remission of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit.

And now you can imagine it is easy enough if you have no sin, and the greatest part of the visible church here has no sin, and I am including myself. O yes, people, time and again I am the same as you. While still praying and asking for the forgiveness of our sins, we have no sin. I have to say, Lord make it heavy upon my soul and bind it to my heart that I may feel something of it in my soul.

Many shall not believe it, but, oh, we are liars most of the time, Liars at the table, liars on the pulpit, liars when we lay on our knees before we go to bed, and liars in the morning. Seldom do we tell the truth. That is now the truth.

But, if we speak the truth then the Lord is not far from us. He is standing behind us and when we are ready to faint and sink away in ourselves, then the Lord is standing there to uphold us and to glorify Himself in our hearts, because Peter said to that afflicted people, “For the promise is unto you and to your children, and to all that are afar off.” Thus you have the extension in three degrees:

First, the promise is unto you, and in the second place, to your children, and in the third place, to all that are afar off. That means the Gentiles. The first part is for the Jews, that there is a promise for the remission of their sins and to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit; that is for the Jewish people, for the seed of Abraham. And now you have heard out of Jeremiah 32 that there was no reason at all among the Jewish people to believe that the promise was for them, because he said that the children of Israel and Judah have sinned from the day of their youth. Thus, did the Lord exclude them all from the promise? No, on the day of the Pentecost a number of about 3,000 men were pricked in their heart and they were made receptive for the promise which the Lord had made unto them. The promise was only for God’s people 2 Cor. 1:20.

(to be continued)

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