MISSION TIDINGS

GIFTS RECEIVED FOR MISSIONS IN MARCH 1981

CLASSIS EAST SOURCE AMOUNT

Franklin Lakes Sunday

School Collection $ 636.00

Franklin Lakes & Clifton Mission Night 1,020.00

CLASSIS MID WEST

Friends in Grand Rapids Gift 200.00

Friend in Michigan Gift 150.00

Friend in Lynwood Gift 125.00

Friend in Jenison Gift 100.00

Friend in Grand Rapids Gift 20.00

Norwich Mission Night 900.00

St. Catharines Mission Night 296.00

Plymouth School Miscellaneous 30.00

Hamilton Mission Night 468.00

Unionville & Bradford Mission Night 544.50

Friend in Lynwood Gift 125.00

CLASSIS WEST

Corsica Mission Sale 1,100.00

Corsica Miscellaneous 123.45

Corsica Rebecca Jrs. Gift 175.00

CLASSIS FAR WEST

Artesia Mission Club Gift 835.00

TOTAL: $6,847.95

Dear friends,

The month of March has rapidly gone by and the beautiful spring season has arrived which is the most beautiful and refreshing part of the year, when the face of the earth is renewed and everything in nature comes to life. What a beautiful thing it is, that new life springing forth in nature after the long and cold winter.

May the Lord give in our life, in the church, a reviving of His work, as we read in the Song of Solomon the 4th Chapter the 16th verse, “Awake O north wind, and come, thou south, blow upon my garden that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden and eat his pleasant fruits.”

The Lord has promised that seed time and harvest shall remain until the end of the world naturally, but oh my friends, the Lord has also promised it spiritually. The gates of hell shall not prevail against His Church.

That it may be our prayer, that the Lord would rend the heavens and come down and visit His Church, that the earth would be filled with the praises of the Lord.

We want to thank everyone for their gifts, young and old alike, may the Lord truly bless you and your gifts.

The mission meeting was held March 25 at Waupun with all members present, with Rev. Vergunst attending as an advisory guest, also mission worker Mr. Tom Moerdyk was with us and gave an account of his work at the Izi Mission, and about the progress of the team working in that mission field.

He was glad to inform us that Rev. Soneveldt has now arrived in Izi to do the work of a missionary minister, which is so important for every mission station.

The meeting was sad and depressing because no one came to this meeting with a calling to do mission work.

The time is short, the days are evil, and the watchmen upon the walls are few. Oh that we may pray for labourers to be sent out in His vineyard. The Lord said I have other sheep which must be brought into the fold and they must come from the ends of the earth, from out of the darkness of heathenism, for the Lord said, I will and they shall.

May the Lord remember us all for time and for eternity.

American General Mission Fund

Netherlands Reformed Churches

of United States and Canada

John Spaans, Treasurer

2376 Shadowlane Dr., N.E.

Grand Rapids, Michigan 49505

Tel. 616/364-8379

ANNOUNCEMENT

The Banner of Truth Tract Mission is pleased to learn that an office under the name: “THE BANNER OF TRUTH TRACT MISSION”, has been opened in INDIA. Presently 175,000 copies of Tract # 138 “THE LORD LOOSETH THE PRISONERS” have been printed into their native language.

Copies of the translation have been received. Their address is:

PASTOR P. SATYANANDAM, B.A.

KRISHNALANKA, VIJAYAWADA 520 0213

A. P. INDIA.

The Pastor writes that it has been a blessing to him, and upon his Mission travels he wishes to extend this work for his people.

Many tracts are also mailed to County Jails. Recently we again received an order from: Department of Corrections - Coffield Unit, Tennessee Colony, Texas 75861. Their request was for 12,000 assorted numbers. They have a total of 4,000 inmates there. Their urgent request is signed by Charles H. Wilkins, Protestant Chaplain.

May the Lord extend His blessings upon the work of His own hand.

The Banner of Truth Tract Mission.

SONGS OF DEGREES

Psalm 131:1, “LORD, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty: neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me. “

This Psalm is a song of one with lowliness of heart. And lowliness is an ornament of a child of the Lord on his way through this Mesech to the better Canaan Above.

The Lord hates loftiness, not of those only who do not know the Lord, but so much more in His favourites. “A high look and a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked is sin” (Proverbs 21:4). “Everyone that is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD” (Proverbs 16:5). What else does the Lord testify? “God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble” (I Peter 5:5).

Haughtiness bears bitter fruits. It brings along discontent and resistance against the ways of the Lord. Then we dwell on the barren heights of Gilboa where the Lord’s enemies triumph. Then we climb out of the depth but not in the way of the Song Hamma’aloth—a Song of Ascent. No, then we think we can manage ourself and we do not need God. Haughtiness of heart and loftiness of eyes are mountains of self-exaltation. And in the end the Lord will cast us down forever.

Contrary to these evils which are found in the heart of each of us, the fruits of true lowliness are precious fruits. Just think of smallness, meekness, and humility. Oh, if we may dwell in the depths and learn by grace to own our guilt for that low condition, then the Lord will raise us up. If we may find out that it is impossible to climb truly out of those depths, despite our haughtiness and loftiness, then the Lord will instruct us in this Song Hamma’aloth—a Song of Degrees and of Ascent, for we must learn all the steps along the way and thus the Lord will save us. The Apostle Peter wrote for such poor, lowly souls, “Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time: Casting all your care upon Him; for He careth for you” (I Peter 5:6,7).

David, the poet who had received grace and who composed this brief Psalm with such great contents, confesses here in child-like simplicity that his heart is not haughty. He appeals to the omniscience of God that God knows everything, for he begins by saying, “LORD.” It is as if the sweet psalmist wants to say, “Lord, Thou knowest all about it. Thou hast searched me and known me. What I am going to say now, comes out of my heart as a fruit of Thy grace.”

Rightly it has been remarked about this Psalm: It is a precious stone set in a golden ring.

Through regeneration, through renewal of heart, David’s own “I” had been chained. Self had been arrested. Anxious sometimes the battle was with the remnants of his corruption. However, led by God’s Spirit, he may testify at times, also here, that his heart is not haughty. Yes, that it may dwell in the valley of lowliness.

The corrupt nature of man does not teach this. Indeed, the Lord says of king Uzziah, “But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction” (II Chron. 26:16).

Nor were David’s eyes lofty. Oh, of many eyes it must be said that they exceed even the imaginations of the heart. In attitude, in expression of our face, but also by way of our eye it becomes evident how arrogant and haughty man really is.

But whoever receives a humble heart from the Lord, receives certainly no lofty eyes for they shall be humbled.

Happy is he who has a humble eye and whose heart may go in the trodden pathways of the Lord. It is only fruit of free grace. At the Fall man lost also the humbleness of eyes. The woman saw that the fruit of the tree was desirable and she ate.

Blessed is he who may be humbled and made low. Such a one may also stammer after God’s servant, “Neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me.” On the contrary, here the word of the Psalm may hold true, “I have declared my ways, and Thou heardest me: teach me Thy statutes” (Psalm 119:26). Here the poet sings of a godly walk according to the measure of grace received from the Lord.

No, the seeking of high things, David knew it from the experience of his own soul, the seeking of high things yields nothing but grief and misery.

Some people want to act “big” and “great” in natural things, sometimes they also want to put forward “things too high” for them. Usually those people turn out as failures. Spiritually, however, this is certainly the case. Whoever seeks great and high matters, by and by falls so badly that God’s Name is blasphemed by it. And we should not exercise ourself in things too high for us either, things that appear wonderful, miraculous, but which are really beyond us. Why not? Usually it is an attempt to copy things which others received from the Lord. And whatever we copy turns out badly in the end anyway.

Grace does not make haughty Christians, grace humbles. These were David’s best times. So, let us remember these three matters from the text: heart, eye, and walk must be for the Lord.

The Lord, therefore, give a holy walk during the time of our dwelling upon earth. The petition which the Lord Jesus taught His disciples, He cause to have much power in our heart, “Learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart” (Matthew 11:29).

The Lord give the experience of this simple but precious text in the midst of the congregations. Verily, we would have the benefit and the Lord would receive the honour. Amen.

Chilliwack, B.C. Rev. A.W. Verhoef

THE DIVINE STEPS GOD USES IN HEALING BACKSLIDING

Part VII

Last month we have considered the emptying steps God uses to begin the healing of backsliding: spiritual enlightenment, holy remembrance, and true repentance. After concluding by uncovering the five steps of true repentance (searching out sin, grieving over sin, confession of sin, fleeing from sin, and bowing under sin’s demanded punishment), we are now prepared to discuss the filling steps God uses to complete the healing of backsliding.

When God’s backsliding child is brought back to the critical point of holy submission, room is finally available within the death-signing sinner for the outpouring of two Divine steps of grace essential to fulfill and complete Divine restoration—steps which we now hope to examine, with God’s assistance, as they are experienced within the returning backslider: (1) a fresh baptism of the Holy Ghost’s graces and (2) a Spirit-wrought revelation of Christ and His benefits.

(1) To be baptized afresh with the Holy Spirit’s graces is the great need and secret of all personal healing and spiritual reviving. Possessing this in a large degree, God’s child possesses every blessing, for this includes and/or is the pledge of all blessings. Christ consolingly instructed his spiritually distraught disciples that His bodily presence in their midst was not to be compared with the spiritual and permanent dwelling of the Spirit among them. Through fresh, inward pouring out of Spirit wrought graces God’s backsliding child is effectually reconverted, and nothing short of this will quicken their dying graces, melt their frozen love, arrest their secret declension, and restore their backsliding soul.

Oh backsliding child, arise, pray, agonize for the outpouring of the Spirit upon your soul; give up your lifeless religion, your form without power, your prayer without communion, your confessions without brokenness, your zeal without love. Seek grace earnestly, perseveringly, and believingly to be filled with the Spirit’s saving graces. Seek grace to set out afresh for God and Divine favor as if you had never trod this path before. Commence at the beginning; seek the Spirit’s quickening, uncovering, healing, sanctifying, and gracious influences. Let this be your prayer at the footstool of mercy, presented and urged till answered: “O Lord, revive Thy work! Quicken me, O Lord! Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation! Fulfill Thy own Word, ‘He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass; as showers that water the earth’, (ps. 72:6).”

Blessed are they who receive refusing grace—grace to refuse to rest short of the song of the church: “My Beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, My love, My fair one, and come away. For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land. The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, My love, My fair one, and come away,” (S.S. 2:10–13). Has this Spirit-wrought grace been experimental reality for you?

(2) No grace is so necessary and effective in Divine restoration as a Spirit-wrought revelation of Christ and His benefits. The real experimental heartbeat of Divine healing takes place for a wounded people—bleeding at all points, when the Holy Spirit opens up a wounded Savior who bled in soul and body with sacrificial, atoning, substitutionary, mediatorial, vicarious, and eternally covenanted blood—blood that is sufficient “to cleanse from all sin”.

When the Triune God’s precious blood-decreed, blood-purchased, and blood-revealed salvation goes open in their soul, when the entire way of salvation from eternity to eternity is revealed with power in their heart, and a way of escape is revealed in and through Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit—then, and then alone is there true, spiritual healing. Then the soul views the passive and active obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ laid open as the foundation and way of Divine sovereignty’s great act of grace. Then the cross of Christ displays both the most awful exhibition of God’s hatred of sin as well as His richest manifestation of His readiness to pardon it. Pardon, full and free, is then written legibly in every drop of Calvary’s blood dripped from the middlecross—blood that is glorious, free, and accessible to the chiefest of sinners! Oh, unspeakable revelation when the soul may behold for the first time or by renewal that in and through Christ a way of salvation is available which not only reconciles and magnifies all God’s irreconcilable and trampled upon attributes, but also that it is a way open for the sinful, the vile, the guilty, the unworthy, and the penniless.! In that moment the soul beholds the death of Christ as the opening and the emptying of the full heart of God; it views Christ as the outgushing of the Divine ocean of eternal mercy which heaved and panted for an outlet. In one word, “Christ crucified” shows how God could love such a poor, guilty, wandering sinner as the backslider is.

In one moment the soul beholds Christ as the Answer to all its soul-riddles, soul-burdens, soulvexations, soul-iniquities, and soul-wanderings. Oh the fullness of Christ when unreservedly revealed by the Spirit—to Him, in the moment of faith’s exercise, the weary soul may bring its burden, the broken soul may bring its sorrow, the guilty soul its sin, and the backsliding soul its wandering.

In a revealed Christ and His benefits, God’s people find their all-in-all. They find far more in Him than the Queen of Sheba ever found in Solomon, and with her they confess at such moments: “It was a true report that I heard in mine own land of Thy acts and of Thy wisdom. Howbeit I believed not the words, until I came, and mine eyes had seen it: and, behold, the half was not told me,” (I. Ki. 10:6–7). More than the earthly Solomon, Christ not only has all answers for His peoples’ hard questions, but He is the Answer.

Are you nothing but sin? Christ became sin on behalf of His people to redeem them from it (II Cor. 5:21).

Are they perpetual law-breakers? Christ is Law-fulfiller (Mt. 5:17).

Are they separated from God? Christ was forsaken of His Father as Judge so that they may never be forsaken of Him (Mt. 27:46).

Are they unrighteousness itself? Christ is the all-righteous one, having merited a perfect robe of righteousness through active and passive obedience (Is. 61:10).

Are they cursed? Christ died the accursed death as Curse-bearer of His elect (Gal. 3:13).

Are they under Divine wrath? Christ is Peacemeritor, Peace-maker, Peace-keeper, and Peaceapplier (Is. 53).

Are they hell-worthy? Christ descended into hell to prevent a hell-going people from coming there forever (Luke 22:44).

Are they condemned by the attributes of God? In Christ “mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other,” (Ps. 85:10).

Are they foolish? Christ is Wisdom (Prov. 8).

Are they filthy? Christ is “holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners,” (Heb. 7:26).

Are they tried? Christ was “tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin,” (Heb. 4:15).

Are they spiritually poor? Christ, who was rich, became poor so that through His poverty they might become rich (II Cor. 8:9).

Are they in spiritual bondage? In Christ there is liberty, for “if the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed,” (Jn. 8:36).

Are they weakness? Christ is Strength (I. Sam. 15:29).

Are they prayerless and thankless? Christ is the praying and thanking High Priest, sitting at the right hand of the Father, who never ceaseth to make intercession for His people,” (Rom. 8:34).

Are they restless? Christ, Who went without rest for 33 years, is now sitting on His throne of rest, causing His people to rest in Him as the Priest who has paid everything, as the Prophet who teaches everything they need to learn, and as the King who takes over everything on their behalf.

There is no end to it. “He is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand,” (S.S. 5:10). When He may be revealed in His white holiness and His ruddy righteousness in their soul by the Holy Spirit, they may finally experience: “Unto you that fear My Name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in His wings, and ye shall go forth and grow up as calves of the stall,” (Mal. 4:2). Christ’s offices, natures, states, and names form a medicine cabinet out of which the Holy Spirit, through faith, is able to administer healing and a remedy for every disease that afflicts God’s people.

There is a balm in Gilead for backsliding sinners: the all-sufficient blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then it becomes real that for sin-black creatures there is a blood-red satisfaction and a white-robed righteousness available.

The joy of even such a possibility is overwhelming for God’s people when it is revealed by the Holy Spirit. And why is their joy so great? (1) Because it is a way of salvation in which God receives all the honor and glory—a way which God Himself has ordained and approved. (2) Because it is a way of salvation in which all God’s attributes are exalted rather than tarnished. (3) Because it is a way that is not for the Pharisees and self-righteous but for sinners and enemies, even for chief sinners and chief enemies. (4) Because in a revealed Christ, the door of possibility in the Valley of Achor is opened also for me.

There are two degrees in experiencing a revealed Christ. They can both be experienced together (for the Lord is free to give everything in one moment), but usually the Lord leads His people from step-to-step. The first degree is when the sufficiency, suitability, possibility, and fullness of Christ is opened and revealed to the soul as being available for the chief of sinners, but the child of God yet remains standing outside of it no matter how precious faith sees this Christ to be. This already can bring with it some healing (Mal. 4:2), but not as fully as a revealed Christ in the deeper sense when faith may believe and embrace at that moment that this Christ has done all these things also for me. At that moment, although the soul is yet a stranger of an applied Christ as its conscious and permanent possession, God’s people may yet have a hope that the Lord Jesus Christ is their Savior. Yes, it can be at that moment that the appropriating faith which follows upon application combined with the sheer joy that fills their soul causes them to believe they have everything for time and eternity. At that moment when faith is in irresistable exercise they believe they have “full healing”. They are included by means of embracement of the promise of Christ which they have yet to learn is different from the embracement of the Person of Christ.

Perhaps an illustration will make it plainer. If a child is standing before a store window, and the light is on so that he can see something that he wants very badly, it is possible that this little boy is so happy to see it and so longing to possess it, that it seems as if it is actually his at that moment—until he has to leave the store window. Then he begins to cry when he realizes he does not yet have it. Even though father or mother may promise to buy it in the future, it does not fully satisfy this child. He comes to miss something he never possessed.

So it is with God’s people. When Jesus Christ may be seen through the windows of God’s storehouse of grace by faith, He shall appear Altogether Lovely, and when the Father of this Son promises them that all God’s spiritual children shall receive Him for an eternal inheritance (and the Spirit keeps faith in exercise at that moment, granting them to embrace that promise), the joy in their soul can be so great that they think they are actually embracing Christ in personal possession as an applied Savior instead of embracing Him in the promise of possession as a revealed Savior. For the moment they are blind to the difference between possessing the promise and possessing the Object of the promise. They find it out the moment they have to leave the window (when faith goes out of exercise), because then they learn to miss Him by renewal whom they still do not yet possess.

Then they are brought to long yet again for the consciousness of full healing from the guilt of sin forever (justification) as well as from the pollution of sin (sanctification), which two matters form our last thought: the contents of Divine healing (hope to be considered next month, the Lord willing).

Dear friends, are we experimentally acquainted with Jehovah’s steps of healing? Can you confess, “I dare not deny that I know something of a Spirit wrought enlightenment, remembrance, repentance, and revelation of Christ, but oh how I long to be able to say, ‘Christ is mine and I am His’!”

May God grant you a portion of David’s courage, confession, and cry in Ps. 138:8, “The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me: Thy mercy, O Lord, endureth forever: forsake not the works of Thine own hands.”

-Rev. J.R. Beeke

RECENCY

The Zoar Publications, which are located in England, has sent me an excellent book, “The A.B.C. of Faith” written by Alexander Comrie. Rev. Comrie was born on December 16, 1706, and was taken up into heaven on December 10, 1774. This book consists of more than twenty reprinted sermons. My deceased mother received a copy of it in the Holland language from Rev. P. Siemonse after she made public confession of faith. Later it was given to me, and I am still glad with it. The Lord has used it many times for the uplifting of my soul. “The opening of Thy Word giveth light.”

It is a book which is filled with spiritual instructions for those who have become concerned about their soul’s condition; yea, more and more, God’s people may find food for their soul and comfort for their heart in this book.

It is also a heart-searching book; Christ Jesus, and Him crucified, is the only ground of salvation, but also the fountain, strength, hope and expectation for the chosen church and the redeemed people of the Lord in life and death, for time and eternity.

Buy it, read it, meditate on those precious matters which are set forth in this book.

Since it is now translated from the Holland language into the English, our young people can also read it. So much is published in our day which is misleading for eternity, but in this book we find the right and old way. Therefore, “remove not the ancient landmark which thy fathers have set,” Prov. 22:28.

May the Lord bless the reading of this “jewel” for many souls in the dark days in which we are living, and establish the old doctrine which is based on the Word of God.

Your well-wishing friend,

Rev. W.C. Lamain

Grand Rapids, Michigan

P.S. This book may be obtained for $6.90 from:

Bible Truth Books

P.O. Box 2373

Kalamazoo, Mich. 49003

U.S.A.

STILL SECURE?

Sinner, art thou still secure?
Wilt thou still refuse to pray?
Can thy heart or hands endure
In the Lord’s avenging day?
See, His mighty arm is bar’d!
Awful terrors clothe His brow!
For His judgement stand prepar’d,
Thou must either break or bow.

Deze tekst is geautomatiseerd gemaakt en kan nog fouten bevatten. Digibron werkt voortdurend aan correctie. Klik voor het origineel door naar de pdf. Voor opmerkingen, vragen, informatie: contact.

Op Digibron -en alle daarin opgenomen content- is het databankrecht van toepassing. Gebruiksvoorwaarden. Data protection law applies to Digibron and the content of this database. Terms of use.

Printen