THE PROMISE OF SALVATION

Part II

The Lord never wastes His grace. The doctrine of universal redemption is an old error in the church. It is not just today that that came up. I read a book written more than 100 years ago and some ministers then complained, that that false doctrine was already brought into the church.

What kind of doctrine? The doctrine of free will -that people may walk to heaven without passing through the strait gate. This they cast before our feet and say, oh yes, all the people that are accepted in your church must be converted like Paul. Converted like Paul? You are so far in the New Testament already? I would rather go back to the Old Testament, to Adam and Eve, and in the same way as those people were called and converted by the Lord, in that same way it is necessary for us. What had that people done? They had also sinned against the Lord.

What was the second step? The second step was as with Adam and Eve, they hid themselves before the Lord. They made themselves aprons of leaves to cover themselves. They have done it, and we are doing the same thing. When the Lord came to them, Adam did not say immediately “I am the one”, no, but he said, “The woman that thou gavest unto me, she gave me”. Then Eve, was she willing to confess immediately? No, she said the serpent was the cause. We never have to go to school to learn that. It is so rooted in the heart of every man in this world to blame other people, so that we go free. It is our nature. But, in God’s condescending mercy the Lord came to Adam and Eve. Free and sovereign.

Then he covered them, but in another way than they had done, with the skins of animals, because immediately blood was shed there, referring to the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ; then with those things that the Lord gave Adam and Eve was revealed the righteousness and holiness of the Lord Jesus Christ. So we have to be converted. There is no other way.

Then they say, Paul, oh, yes, Paul, but then you are saying something else. I would rather talk about Timothy, his conversion was much easier. But we have another question for you to answer. What is the reason that Timothy thought so much of Paul? The reason was that they had experienced the same grace that the Lord glorified in them both. Outwardly there was a difference, but inwardly it was the same. Now the Promise is unto you and to your children. And then to all those who have transgressed all of God’s commandments? Yes, but only to those whose names were written in the Book of Life, predestined and elected from all eternity. We now come to a realization that it shall be terrible for us if we must be lost. The Lord in the offer of grace comes so low to us.

If we have to deal with people, as the Lord had to do with those persons in former days who crucified Christ, His only begotten Son, then you would say, I have no desire to say one word to them, I will leave them eternally, I will cut them off. But what happened?

The Lord commanded his apostles to preach the gospel, first in Jerusalem. That is where those murderers of Christ were living. Thus there never is any excuse to say, there is no possibility to be converted. No excuse at all on the side of man. Now the problem is to become a murderer in truth and uprightness before the Lord. So many people in our days come with the text that Christ died for sinners. They say that it is in the Bible. Yes, it is in the Bible, but now we go to a man, 80 years old, or a woman 90 years old. We go to a person who for years has walked on the way to heaven and is close to the new Jerusalem. Then that person would say, time and again, even before the gates of death, “Oh, I have such a desire that the Lord would make me a sinner as he has done fifty years ago, even if it were five minutes before I die.”

In the time of Augustine there was a bishop, a converted man, whose desire and prayers were always that when the day of death would come that he could die with a prayer on his Ups, “Lord be merciful to me a sinner.” Augustine wrote in one of his works that he was present when the man died, and the Lord had given him the desire of his heart. The last words before he entered heaven were, “Lord have mercy unto me a sinner.”

Oh, I would sign for that. You too? Because it is something to receive that privilege.

Thus, beginning at Jerusalem, the promise is unto you, but also to your children. Why is that now such a wonder? Those people cried “His blood be on us and on our children.” Most of the people think that those have done it, but who among us is free of that before the face of the Lord? Who of us is free of it?

Oh, a few weeks ago I had a letter from a minister in the Netherlands. He had been sick and out of his mind for a time, in an institution. His sickness was awful. He wrote that he had been murdering his wife and children for days, not outwardly, but inwardly, in his mind. When he came out of the institution he asked his wife whether she was willing to accept him again as her husband. He also wrote four letters to his children asking whether they were willing to accept him again as their father. That is the way. Not high-minded in ourselves, but as we sing in Psalter 348, “And bow before Him there.” Oh, parents if you have never done it, ask your children for forgiveness.

He said the promise is to you and to your children. I cannot go into it now, but I have one question for us to answer between the Lord and our soul: “In what way do our children come into this world? How many are sitting in the church who are born as Samuel?” If there is one then it would really be a great wonder.

But now the promise is unto you and to your children. David said “I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me.” Job in Job. 14:4, said, “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one.” The sin of Adam is imputed to us, and what is our life? We cannot stand before the Lord, but the promise is unto you and to your children. Oh, what room the Lord has opened for sinners. For us and for our children, and now he goes farther with His promise because if he went no further then we could shut the doors of the church.

But now the last part is, “and to all that are afar off.” They are the Gentiles. We do not belong to that Jewish people, but we belong to the race of Japheth, the Gentiles. What are the Gentiles? They are called uncircumcised, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenant of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. And I tell you, if the Lord comes with His spirit in our heart then we are all afar off. We are lying at the end of the world in our own imagination, but, oh, the promise is unto us and to our children and to all that are afar off. There is no excuse for any man to live further, unconverted, on account of what the Lord has revealed in his precious word. The devil is alway busy to do two things. First, to minimize sin, and second to minimize the eternal and abundant grace of the Lord.

What is man and what is our life? But the promise is unto you and to your children. Now, maybe you are sitting as a murderer and a fornicator, or a robber, or a blasphemer of the Lord, or even an Atheist.

Oh, I have no words to explain it, that we are so far from the Lord by nature and what our life is. I wish that you all had some feeling of it in your heart, and that you would say that all others can become converted, but...not me, I am so far from the Lord; it is awful, I am a big beast before the Lord.

Asaph said in Psalm 73, “I am a great beast before Him” and all God’s children come to that place. All those that are afar off. There is a possibility for the greatest of sinners. There is a large lake bordering Michigan, and an ocean in the West, the Pacific, but they are small in regard to the fountain of that precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That blood washes and cleanses us from all our sins. Today, they are as black as the Negro, but tomorrow, white, and whiter than the snow; oh, my dear friends, then that promise is unto you and to your children and to all that are afar off.

I hope that all the readers are afar off. Then maybe there would be some people who would ask me to preach till midnight. Paul did it too. There was one boy sitting by the window and he fell asleep. He fell down and he died. Paul had to work with the help of the Spirit, to bring him back to life. Then it was a blessing because then that gospel is so sweet. It is so wonderful for that soul.

Once in Rotterdam a woman said during the service, “Lord, I hope that man continues to preach and that it shall never come to an end,” and that man preached three hours for that woman. She was so hungry and thirsty for the Word of God and for that gospel. It was a great blessing for her soul.

Oh, all that are afar off. If it were in my power to bring you to that table, I would. But I cannot do it. If you were in Russia, or Asia, or India, or the end of the world, I would still come to you with that word ....to you and to your children, and to all that are afar off. That promise. Then that road is not closed. It is not closed, for Peter said, “Even as many as the Lord our God shall call.”

“Even as many as the Lord our God shall call.” That is the limitation in this text because the apostles, preaching on the day of Pentecost, had much grace of God in their heart. For themselves, they were so low - not high-minded - because they said “Even as many as the Lord our God shall call.” They had a warm and open heart for all the people that lay under the seal of election. They heard His voice, the same voice that once came to the Apostles. Now that same voice shall come to all those that the Lord shall call.

There is a limitation in this text, of course, many are called but few are chosen. But in this text Peter speaks not of the elect especially, but he speaks about those who are called by the Lord, and it is not about the outward or external call, but Peter refers to the internal call.

In other words, I will say it in my own words, that Peter had so much joy in his heart on the day of Pentecost. There was also much enmity on the day of Pentecost. The devil was not sleeping, he was also awake, and busy, but oh, Peter says now the whole power of hell and all the devils cannont come against it. All the people that the Lord shall call shall come to conversion.

What is now the blessing? The blessing is this. We are not our own boss. If we were then no one would be converted. But the Lord speaks, and it is so. He commands and it stands firm. His power is an almighty power and that becomes the joy of all those that are called by Him.

There comes a time in our life when we come under conviction, true conviction under the administration of the work of the Holy Spirit. Then it becomes impossible to us. That strife is so awful. The voices we hear inside are terrible. Many times we see ourselves lying at the bottom of hell. Even after the Lord commences His work in our heart, even after many experiences, it can become so dark for ourselves, that we think, oh, there is no hope for my soul-even after the revelation of Christ, because a revealed Christ is not an applied Christ.

A revealed Christ is not an applied Christ. It is the same as in nature to a certain extent. We can be engaged, but engaged is not married. No, and now on the side of the Lord, their salvation is firm, and there is nothing so firm as God’s decree and God’s council, but often questionable on our side, David was anointed to be king, and then said, “One day I shall fall in the hands of Saul, I shall perish.”

There are such times in the life of God’s children too. But there is nothing so firm as what lies from eternity in the heart of the Father.

Then, what I will say is this, that the last word about the church shall not come out the mouth of the devil but shall come out of the mouth of the Lord, He shall have the last word. What shall be the last word? Come, blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom that I have prepared for you. That shall be the last word. And as many as the Lord our God shall call. Oh, you are living today, under the offer of grace, and I say not that we have power to come, and that we have power to accept, no, it must be given from on high. But, what I will say is this, we excluded ourselves through our fall in Adam. We excluded ourselves, in the second place, through our unbelief. That is why the people of Israel could not enter into the promised land of Canaan.

I hope the Lord will sanctify these words to the salvation of many souls. You have read this message. May it not be to your condemnation in the day of days.

Boys and girls, men and women, children, might it please the Lord to work almightily by the power of His spirit to true conversion. May it be to the comfort of God’s people afar off, and to the encouragement of their heart. That in this coming night our meditation may be upon that, and that discouraged and comfortless souls may receive a little of that courage from on high and that comfort from the Holy Spirit in their heart to answer the devil, and to praise the Lord from whom all blessings flow.

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