MISSION TIDINGS

GIFTS RECEIVED FOR MISSIONS DURING MAY 1981

CLASSIS MIDWEST SOURCE AMOUNT

Friend in Lynwood Gift $ 100.00

Plymouth School Misc. 50.00

Friend in Michigan Gift 300.00

Plymouth School Misc. 25.00

Friend in Grand Rapids Gift 300.00

Hamilton Tins 380.00

CLASSIS FAR WEST

Timothy Chr. School Gift 1500.00

Chilliwack Calendars 500.00

Port Alberni Mission night 104.00

Port Alberni Collection 455.00

Lethbridge (Tabitha) Sale 8300.00

TOTAL $12,014.00

Dear friends,

Once again in behalf of the mission board we want to thank you all for your kind support. May the Lord bless you and your gifts.

Mike and Carol Meeuwse are still being trained for their work.

Tom and Meta had a good trip back to Nigeria.

We also received a letter from Rev. Kuijt. May the Lord remember all our mission workers.

AMERICAN GENERAL MISSION FUND

Netherland Reformed Congregations of

United States and Canada

JOHN SPAANS, TREAS.

2376 Shadow Lane N.E.

Grand Rapids, Michigan 49505

Telephone: 616/364-8379

A LETTER FROM REV. G. KUIJT

Nipsan/May/1981

Dear Mission Friends,

Via this general mission letter, we want to thank you very much for all the cards and letters that we received for season greetings, birthdays, etc. We do appreciate your thoughtfulness although we cannot always answer with a personal letter. Please, continue to pray for and with us, so that the Lord’s work won’t be hindered. Satan knows that his days are numbered and he will grasp at every opportunity to destroy God’s work, if he could.

Since the end of last year, we are back again on the mission field. We had a busy furlough, as usual, but except for the negative things, which are good for us, the Lord has richly blessed. Oh, people, we may believe in a great God. The God of father Jacob who experienced many trials, but....the Lord delivered him out of all of them.

On the 19th of December, my two sons, Wim and Gert, and myself left The Netherlands for Indonesia. After a quick and safe journey, for which we thank the Lord, we arrived safely in Nipsan on the 24th of December. Here we faced some difficulties. There was a shortage of food and our Evangelists and workers wanted to leave the place. The soil is very poor in Nipsan. There is not much production from the gardens and it may be they have been a little lazy in making the gardens. They were too dependent on the local population, so that when the gardens of the local people were exhausted, they could not sell to our helpers, who failed to make new gardens. But now there is fresh production and all our helpers have changed their minds. They want to stay, for which we thank the Lord.

My wife and our three daughters, Klazina, Wilhelmina and Cornelia departed from The Netherlands on the 26th of December. Actually my wife should have stayed a little longer. When I had left, she suffered from an almost deadly fever, but although still weak, she wanted to follow me. Klazina stayed in Jakarta to catch her connection to the Rep. of the Philippines. She moved from Ukarumpa, P.N.G., where she was in High School, to Manila. For those, who want to write her, here is her address:

Miss Klazina G. Kuijt
Faith Academy
P.O. Box 820 MCC
MAKATI, METRO MANILLA 3117
PHILIPPINES

On the 31st of December my wife, Wilhelmina and Cornelia joined me, and the boys, in Nipsan.

Klazina is coming on Monday, May 11, the Lord willing. Wim is graduating from the Sentani International School, by the end of May. In July, Wim is hoping to go to Manila as well.

Gert goes to the 8th grade and Wilhelmina to the 2nd. Their addresses are as follows:

Sentani International School
Pos 7
Via M.A.F., SENTANI
IRIAN JAYA
INDONESIA

Cornelia is still at home. Mom is going to give her 1st grade and hopefully next year, the Lord willing, she is going to 2nd grade.

We are all fine. Grandma Bos (71) is visiting us just now. She has been here for more than 3 months. We will miss her when she returns back to The Netherlands on the 22nd of May.

In Nipsan, we continue our Bible class with 25 students. They are all in 1st grade of the elementary school. This afternoon I noticed, some of them are starting to read some words. It will be nice when they are able to read, so that we can read the Scriptures with them. What they learn by heart they spread in their own surroundings.

By the end of June we are hoping to have some 25 Evangelist families. We are intending to occupy this entire valley, the Bo-Valley and two more valleys towards the North East. Time and again we discover hidden valleys and it will be great to bring this whole area under the Word of God and visit these villages continuously, to preach the Word and support the Evangelists in their lonely circumstances. Pray with us, for His Names’ sake.

We must close for now. May the Lord bless you richly for Christ’s sake.

Sincerely,

Your friend, Rev. G. Kuijt

My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee. Keep my commandments and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye. Proverbs 7:1-2

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Gifts received for the Banner of Truth Tract Mission during the months of April, May and June 1981.

American General Mission Fund $1,805.00

Clifton Church 200.00

Artesia Church 90.75

Bradford Church 75.00

Trinitarian Bible Society 170.00

Friends in California 20.00

Friends in Canada 20.00

Friends in Florida 5.00

Friends in Grand Rapids 800.00

Friends in Indiana 5.00

Friends in Iowa 10.00

Friends in Kentucky 3.00

Friends in Missouri 1.00

Friends in Montana 50.00

Friends in North Carolina 5.00

Friends in Scotland 17.66

Friends in West Va. 10.00

$3,287.41

The Banner of Truth Tract Mission hereby expresses its sincere appreciation for the gifts received. The Tract Mission is maintained by voluntary contributions.

SONGS OF DEGREES

Psalm 132:1, “LORD, remember David, and all his afflictions.”

David, the man after God’s heart, had suffered much during the days and years of his dwelling here upon earth. Through many tribulations he has entered the land without sin. Here he experienced that the fruits of sin are bitter; here on earth he also found out that it is good and sweet if the Lord Himself comes over, and, despite his own great stumblings, nevertheless remembers in favour His child and servant.

How much David also had to suffer and wander as a fugitive on account of the devilish hatred of Saul, the king over the people of Israel in God’s displeasure.

Yet, when our text speaks here, “LORD, remember David, and all his afflictions,” then the afflictions which we described above are not intended.

Here it concerns a different affliction, a different grief.

Is it the affliction, then, which his son Absalom caused him? No, the affliction here depicted, is an affliction of his soul because the service of the LORD had so degenerated; it was neglected. David’s heart yearned that the Lord would dwell again among, and remain, with the people in the visible signs of His presence.

The ark had fallen into the hands of the uncircumcized Philistines. True, later it had been returned to Jerusalem, but for many years it stood in the house of Abinadab at Kirjath-jearim. The ark stood, as it were, forgotten in that place. David himself testifies in I Chronicles 13, “for we enquired not at it in the days of Saul.”

Now, by grace, David had come to love the Lord but also his people over which God had set him. And for the sake of that people he knew that they would only experience the favour of the Lord if the signs of the Lord were in their midst once again.

Did you notice how David was not only a leader for his people but also a shepherd? He knew their needs and their wants for he was closely acquainted with them. The needs of the people became his affliction. He grieved because Israel did not have the ark of the testimony in their midst. That is true shepherdly care.

Above all else, however, David was concerned for the honour of his God. That honour was bound upon his heart. That honour exceeded everything. It was his great goal.

If the Lord in truth has become the God of our life, then His honour will also move our heart. It cannot be otherwise. Then we love the institutions of the King more than all the goods of this world.

Still, the Lord did not fulfill David’s desire entirely. In the way of bringing the ark to Jerusalem he had to learn profitable lessons, but they are not the subject of our meditation now. David desired to build a House for the Lord and His institutions. It would be a Temple where the Ark of the Covenant would find its place, where the Lord would dwell with the sounds of Israel’s praises. David had waged the wars of the Lord but at the same time shed much blood in doing so. Presently Solomon, the king of peace, would arise. And he, the seed of David, was privileged and enabled to carry out that which David had desired to do.

We see in this that the Songs Hamma’aloth are the Psalms of a continual pilgrim’s life. “Arise, O LORD, into Thy rest; Thou, and the ark of Thy strength,” sang the poet. David desired that the Lord would ascend unto Mount Zion and arise unto Jerusalem. He wanted to erect God’s House as a resting place for God’s ark. But he had to learn that the Lord does not perform all things in one day or at our time. God works step by step. David had to learn in this that he had to look to the greater Solomon, Prince Messiah, the Prince of Peace, for full salvation.

When presently Solomon was to build this house and the ark was brought up to the mountain temple, then it was he who exclaims in this Psalm, “LORD, remember David, and all his afflictions!”

By virtue of love to his Maker, David had laboured much, suffered much, had been grieved much. He might make the preparations. Solomon might execute the work. And now the latter pleads upon that which the Lord had promised to his father David. Yes, Solomon in this Psalm, referred back to the inner grief by which David was afflicted on account of the missing of God’s presence in the religious life of Israel.

Solomon knew that without the Lord, all religion is empty and vain. If the Lord is not present, the profession is vain. But to experience the Lord’s favour and presence, also in the official administration from His throne, is that which could grant true happiness to all Zionites who lived at that time. That same favour and presence, however, cannot be missed by us either.

Blessed is the people who are grieved on account of the Lord’s absence, who need that the Lord comes over.

Is this the case with us? Do we also carry about true grief in our heart for the so little experienced favour-rich presence of the Lord? Or do we just continue living and pretending that we can manage things ourselves?

That ends in eternal disaster. That leads to our downfall.

The Lord, therefore, give to experience such grief, such afflictions that we cannot miss Him, also in the midst of the congregations, so that also among us it may be established:

I will abundantly provide

For Zion’s good, the Lord hath said;

I will supply her daily need

And satisfy her poor with bread. Amen.

(Psalm 132, Psalter 368)

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

THE DIVINE CONTENTS GOD USES IN HEALING BACKSLIDING

Sanctification

Part IX

Justification and sanctification form the Divine contents God uses in healing backsliding. After having attempted to uncover the healing role of justification, it only remains to stress the necessity of Divine healing through sanctification in this subsequent and concluding article dealing with backsliding.

As with justification, much ignorance abounds concerning sanctification. In fact, much confusion exists with respect to the inter-relationship of justification and sanctification.

Justification and sanctification possess several like denominators in the believer’s salvation. (1) Both proceed from free grace, being rooted in the sovereign good pleasure and eternal covenant of Triune Jehovah. (2) Both are made possible only by and through the Head of the eternal covenant, Jesus Christ, acting in behalf of all the elect. (3) The elect, consequently, are the only true subjects of both, causing justification and sanctification to be inevitably inseparable in soul-experience. (4) Both are necessary unto salvation, commencing already from the moment of regeneration, though the convicted sinner be ever so far from viewing these rich contents of Divine healing lying secure for him in God through Christ. (5) Initially and by renewal, God’s saints are absolutely helpless to give or take either unto themselves.

Despite similarities, however, various important distinctions can be made between justification and sanctification. (1) Justification, in its essence, takes place already from eternity outside of God’s elect; sanctification takes place in time within them. (2) Justification declares the sinner righteous and holy in Christ; sanctification makes the sinner righteous and holy as a fruit flowing from Christ. (3) Justification takes away the guilt of sin (having to do with the legal state of the elect sinner); sanctification takes away the pollution of sin (having to do with the daily condition of the elect sinner). (4) Justification is a complete and perfect act, in its essence taking place only once; sanctification is an incomplete and imperfect process, taking place daily and not perfected until the last impure breath of God’s child is sighed. (5) Justification gives God’s people the title for heaven (in and through Christ) and the boldness to enter; sanctificaton gives them the meetness for heaven (in and through Christ) and the preparation necessary to enjoy it when judgment’s blissful day shall dawn. (6) Justification gives the right to salvation; sanctification gives the beginning of salvation.

The elect need a Savior who is sufficient as heavenly Physician to cure them not only from the guilt of sin (justification), but also from the dominion, power, and love of sin (sanctification), shall they be truly healed. Such applicatory saviorhood can be found only in Christ Jesus. “Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no Physician there?” (Jer. 8:22a) “But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, Who of God is made unto us Wisdom, and Righteousness, and Sanctification, and Redemption,” (I Cor. 1:30).

Heaven’s healing surgery is unique. The same Surgeon Who suffered death, giving His blood to raise His patients from death, also applies His blood to heal all their diseases. He uses His bloody righteousness in the healing of the self-righteousness; His submission as a closed-mouth Lamb to heal their rebellion; His humility to heal their pride; His self-denial to heal their self-love; His heavenly-mindedness to heal their plaguing worldliness; His weeping to heal their indifference; His sufferings to heal their lukewarmness; His heavenly power to heal their hellish unbelief.

With Christ as Healer the healing of sanctification is inevitable. We turn for proof of this bold assertion to the conscience of those savingly wrought upon. Child of God: have you not experienced Christ to be the only Physician Who has received His degree and license to heal from His own Father in eternity? Has He subsequently ever applied the wrong medicine or dosage for your deadly diseases? Having never misjudged your spiritual diseases, has He not also performed all His physician labors without money and without price, having paid the high cost of His medicine once and for all with His own precious blood? Oh, how He knows all your symptoms, inclinations, and complaints as His sin-bound patients! Is not His work so complete that you are brought to the realization that He knows diseases within you which you have never yet been brought to see or feel?

Yes, sometimes His medicinal labors are painful, especially when He touches your sore places, and insists, as faithful Physician, to probe the depth of the wound. Often you have begged Him to stop His Divine probing out of pain, weakness, and self-survival. Just as often He did and does not stop. He handles you, it has often seemed, even more roughly. Only when His beams of enlightening grace have shone over your past paths could you observe His mysterious roughness to be a roughness of tender love and infinite concern for your eternal welfare, (Rom. 8:28).

Oh, battered believer, is He not rough because His welfare is bound up in yours”! He is a Physician who will never separate Himself from His patients. Nor can He be separated from them, or they from Him. They are united in Him. He is the Vine; they the branches. He is the Head; they the body. Without Vine-branch, Head-body union not one speck of true healing sanctification would ever take place no matter how religious the most religious could make themselves. All of sanctification lies in Christ. “Without Me ye can do nothing” (John 15:5).

God will take care of His people. “He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings,” (Ps. 40:2). He will sanctify His people for He will establish their goings.

All His people shall be taught of him the paradoxical way of sanctification. Through His sanctification they shall learn the way forward is a way backward, the way of exaltation is through humiliation, the way to the crown is via the cross, the way of living is through dying, the way of total possession is through the channel of total missingness. The heartbeat of all true sanctification shall become their portion: “He must increase and I must decrease,” (Jn. 3:30). Through a descending way they shall grow in grace continually, till brought to cry with cut-off Jonah time and again from the fish’s belly: “Salvation is of the Lord,” (Jonah 2:9). Yes, God will cause them to become increasingly unconverted in self-estimation so that they increasingly need Divine grace to become and remain converted. Though it necessitate painful trials, burdening afflictions, absolute impossibilities, His honor and cause and Name shall be brought by Himself to the foreground time and again. Such is healing sanctification, whereby He fulfils His own Word out of love: “I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely, (Hosea 14:4a).

Nor shall He ever leave them for one moment. He shall never cease to make intercession on their behalf for one particle of a second in the courts of heaven. He teaches them they would be lost forever were He to do so. Drawn piece by piece, inch by inch, stitch by stitch, and lesson by lesson, they are brought to confess Christ alone to be their Sanctification. His death once became their life, but now His life must permanently become their death. They must die to all self-sanctification attempts, learning to find all their life in Him, the Resurrected Lord, who has the keys of hell, death, grave, sin, Satan, and yes, blessed be God, their own heart in His hands. Their only hope lies in Him as exalted Lord of lords, King of kings, and Prince of princes.

They are brought to that place where everything leads back to and through Him, ending in God Triune. They come to understand what our forefathers wrote in their rich Lord’s Supper Form statement: “that our hearts may not cleave to external bread and wine but be lifted up on high in heaven, where Christ Jesus is our Advocate, at the right hand of His heavenly Father, whither all the articles of our faith lead us.”

When active faith may bow before the throne of grace from the right hand of the Father, true sanctification does and must ensue. God becomes God, and the sinner becomes what he is before God: sin and guilt, rejectable and condemnable. The adorable God becomes all-in-all; the humbled sinner becomes nothing-at-all. The Triune cannot be extolled sufficiently high; the sinner cannot be abased sufficiently deep.

Prayer becomes prayer. Prayerful prayer redounds spontaneously. Sensible access to Jehovah’s throne and vital communion with Jehovah’s presence becomes an experiential privilege, a blessed mercy, and a wondrous door through which the soul may lay its complaints, confessions, praises, and earnest breathings in the very lap of Jehovah.

The means of grace become means of grace. In and beneath them, the soul receives renewed freedom to carry its guilt to Divine blood, its corruption to Divine grace, its afflictions to Divine providence, its impossibilities to Divine omniscience, and its love to the Divine heart.

The Bible becomes the Word of God. The once treasured Book of books becomes a wet gospel by renewal, causing inward softenings and meltings into meekness and contrition, raising up hearty affections to “things which are not seen” (II Cor. 4:18), even eternal realities, deadening sin and world and the shadows of time and sense. The dry bones of the preached Word gain flesh and Divine breath, causing grace to sacrifice self-worship and experience-worship for Triune-worship.

Christ becomes Christ. The Savior becomes alive to them, and they to Him. Sanctifying revival of faith in the Person and work of the Son inevitably grows toward greater simplicity and clarity than ever before. Never does the suitability of Christ, or the riches of His grace, appear so great as to a soul awakened out of the spirit of slumber, brought through sanctifying grace to look again to Him. How the soul wonders at and admires His longsuffering patience, His kind and tender forbearance, His wondrous grace in bearing so long with such unworthy returns for all His goodness and mercy! How it admires and adores His glorious Person, sees and feels the efficacy of His most precious blood and righteousness, and the sweetness of His dying and living love!

How tender is now the conscience of sinning against such mercy and such love! What a bitter and evil thing sin is seen and felt to be! What a discovery there is, too, of the hidden corruptions of the heart, of the danger of being entangled in any secret snare! What a separation in spirit from the world and worldly things! Never till now did the soul seem truly and really to repent of sin with that godly sorrow which needs not to be repented of; never were there more earnest desires after holiness, spirituality of mind, and communion with God and His dear Son.

Growing numbness of conscience steps aside, making way for revived tenderness of soul. Such soul-tenderness fructifies the special new-covenant gift and grace Scripture calls the fear of God. Called by God a choice treasure and a fountain of life to depart from the snares of death (Jer. 32:40; Is. 33:6; Prov. 14:27), holy fear counts the smile and frown of God greater than the smile and frown of man. Sanctifying fear brings into the heart a holy reverence of God’s Name, and a deep sense of His glory, majesty, presence, and power; it bows down the soul before Him in humility and self-abasement; fills it with hatred of sin and earnest desires and longings after holiness; is attended with godly sorrow, and produces quietness of spirit, submission, and patience. Is not this fear, child of God, a chief safeguard against the approach of evil, making you watch your words both to God and man, to be circumspect in your movements, upright in your actions, cautious in your ways, and consistent in your life? During such soul-healing moments does not the more impure fear for sin-punishment bow to the more holy fear of offending Jehovah; does not unholy compromise toward sin yield to holy boldness against sin; are not besetting sins temporarily conquered by besetting self-examinations? And yet, though sinning far less, do you not confess far more? Less sin, but greater sinners—is not this the rich contents of sanctification Jehovah uses to heal your backslidings?

Dear reader: I cannot conclude our consideration of backsliding without asking you if you are intimately acquainted with its evils, as well as with the Divine means, steps, and contents God uses in healing this deadly disease. What is the condition of your soul?

(1) Are you a total stranger of the life, marks, and steps of grace laid out in the foregoing articles? Oh, how poor you then are! Poor because you have not learned what it means to be unconverted; poor because you are without the only comfort in life and death, not belonging to Jesus Christ; poor because you are still journeying through this life on your own account, without essential cleansing blood, without the righteousness of Jesus Christ which alone can satisfy Divine justice; poor because you have no place to go with all your needs, no interest in the covenant of promise, no lot or portion with the people of God, no prospect for the life to come, and no title to heavenly inheritance. How poor, if God prevent not, you shall appear one day before His judgment bar without a Surety for your debts, without an Intercessor to step between you and angry Jehovah, without an Advocate to plead your case, yes, without God, Christ, and hope forever, directly exposed to the wrath of God and the Lamb.

Oh sinner: your need is urgent, your case is desperate; fly to God’s throne. “Make haste for your life’s sake.” If you truthfully complain you lack the ability to fly to God, still do not leave the Lord alone. Seek wrestling grace to confess: “I will not let Thee go, except Thou bless me also,” (Gen. 32:26). Seek grace to follow the advice of Ralph Erskine:

Do what you can to fly up; if you cannot fly, endeavor to run without wearying: if you cannot run, endeavor to walk without fainting; if you cannot walk because of your broken leg, then creep to the Physician with it, and hold out the broken leg, the withered arm to him; if you cannot creep, cry to Him: “He hath not said to the seed of Jacob, seek ye me in vain;” if you cannot cry, look to Him: “Look to Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth;” if you cannot look to Him, long for Him, for “He satisfies the longing soul”: sigh, and sob, and groan after Him. And if, after all, you think you can do nothing, because of your absolute weakness; then, wait on Him in the use of means: lie at the pool, and you cannot tell how soon you shall get strength: “Wait, I say, on the Lord.”

Remember, no case is too hard for the Lord. However vile, no sinner was ever spurned from His presence whose only plea was precious blood.

(2) Are you a backslider slidden so far from God you can not believe He has ever begun the good work of saving grace within you? Filled with your own backslidings (Prov. 14:14), must you cry out on occasion, “Oh that it were with me as in months past when gospel sermons were the food of my soul, when gospel ordinances were banquets of love, when secret prayer was kept up with delight, and God’s Word was sweeter than honey to my taste, but now a guilty conscience, hard heart, and prayerless life have taken the place of all I once thought I enjoyed, rendering me an object of scorn in the world, a disgrace in the church, and a constant burden to myself, being incapable of enjoying either carnal or spiritual things”?

If these be the genuine breathings of your soul, let the language of your heart be, “I will wait at the posts of His doors to hear what God the Lord shall say unto me. I will look again toward His holy temple” (Jonah 2:4). Seek grace to pray and plead on God’s Word: “I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself ... turn Thou me, and I shall be turned ... Is Epharaim my dear son?... for since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my bowels are troubled for him; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord” (see Jer. 31).

“Lord, if it is Thy work within me, confirm it; if not, undeceive me.” May this become your daily petition.

(3) Are you a backslider who cannot deny having been a subject of Divine, sovereign grace, but know you are presently not in the right place before God? At one time you could answer with Chrysostom when sent a threatening message from the empress, “Go, tell her that I fear nothing but sin “, as well as with a godly forefather when offered promotion by King George II, “Sir, I want nothing but more grace”, but now you are often leaning more upon sin than upon grace.

Listen to the advice of godly Octavius Winslow:

I entreat you, I implore you, I beseech you, to arise and go to the Father, and say unto Him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and in Thy sight.” By all that is tender and forgiving in that Father’s heart,—by all that is melting, persuasive, and precious in the work of Jesus,—by His agony and bloody sweat, by His cross and passion, by His death, burial, and resurrection, I beseech you to return! By the honour of that holy religion you have wounded, by all the hopes of glory you have indulged in, by all that is sacred and precious in the memory of the past, and by all that is solemn and real in the prospect of the future, I implore you to return! By the faithful promises of God, by the tender yearnings of Jesus, by the gentle drawings of the Spirit, by all that you will experience in the joy and peace and assurance of a restored soul, by the glory of God, by the honour of Christ, by the nearness of death and the solemnity of the judgment, I entreat, I implore, I beseech you, wanderer, prodigal, to return.

Return, O wanderer, return!
And seek an injured Father’s face;
Those warm desires that in thee burn,
Were kindled by reclaiming grace.

Return, O wanderer, return!
Thy Saviour bids thy spirit live;
Go to His bleeding side, and learn
How freely Jesus can forgive.

Return, O wanderer, return!
Regain thy lost, lamented rest;
Jehovah’s melting bowels yearn
To clasp His Ephraim to His breast.

Seek, wanderer, a full return. Avoid the sin of being slightly affected with sin so as to be healed slightly. “Beware,” says John Bunyan, “of your sin going off the wrong way.” Seek probing conviction and total restoration.

(4) Are you still a child of God who can honestly say you are not currently in a condition of “perpetual backsliding” (Jer. 8:5), but rather, precious restoration (Ps. 23:3)? Guard soul-revival with holy jealously. Remember you are still in a state of imperfections, snares, and dangers. No matter how spiritual your present condition, you have not yet got beyond the reach of temptation, but are still subject to fresh temptations which will not only incline but prevail upon you to fall into the same sorrowful condition you have recently emerged from except Divine grace interpose to your succour. “As long as I am in the body,” wrote Joseph Irons, “I am not yet out of the enemy’s gunshot.”

Lord, though I walk ‘mid troubles sore
Thou wilt restore
My faltering spirit;

Though angry foes my soul alarm,
Thy mighty arm
Will save and cheer it.

Yea, Thou wilt finish perfectly
What Thou for me
Hast undertaken;

May not Thy works, in mercy wraught,
E ‘er come to naught
Or be forsaken.

This is sanctification: still feeling more than ever the strength of sin and the weakness of the flesh, and knowing painfully what it is to be left to self, the soul begs of the Lord to keep it as the apple of His eye (Ps. 17:8), to hold it up in every slippery place, to shine upon it continually with the beams of Divine love, and to water it ever more with the Divine Spirit and grace. Oh, to ever walk and live to His praise, to know His will and do it, and be found fruitful in every good word and work (II Thess. 2:17)!

Child of God: are these not your sighings, and on occasion, your experiences? Must you not confess that grace in your heart, striving with nature, is like a candle exposed to storm? How the very remembrance of broken bones should induce us to walk circumspectly, and, being painfully conscious of our own weakness, the psalmist’s request should become our own: “Hold up my goings in Thy paths, that my footsteps slip not,” (Ps. 17:5).

All contents of Divine healing are to be found in God for His people. From God, by God, unto God— from eternity, in time, to eternity: “I will heal their backsliding; I will love them freely.” Precious loving, healing, and fulfilling Jehovah! Truly, when God binds Himself to Himself with the soul, when the guilt of sin is nowhere to be found through justification embraced by faith, when the raging of sin is lacking through sanctification embraced by faith, elect souls may have a foretaste of that healing which shall one day be perfected forever.

On that hastening day of judgment, all Divine judgment shall become Divine communion. There it shall no longer be necessary to hear the promise, “I will heal their backsliding”; only “I will love them freely” shall indestructibly tarry on. No backsliding, no old-man self, no sin, no world, no Satan, no night, no death, no grace, no tears, no mourning, but entering a heaven unstained by sin as unstained saints—all because of God Triune, in and through the Christ Who stained His garments with sweaty-blood and the earth with bloody-sweat to bring elect jewels to the eternal, Spirit-wrought desire of their hearts: “Today thou shall be with Me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43).

“Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy Name give glory, for Thy mercy, and for Thy truth’s sake,”(Ps. 115:1).

Rev. J.R. Beeke

P.S.

I wish to acknowledge and answer by way of postscript the letters received with regard to this series of articles on backsliding. The concern and agreement conveyed in them has given an encouraging hope that there is still a struggling remnant seeking the welfare of Zion. May God revive His Word and work amongst us, confirming: “I will heal their backslidings, I will love them freely,” (Hosea 14:4).

I have also received one letter in the form of constructive criticism, questioning my biblical warrant for the following statement made in Part I: “Lord, is it possible that I can have but a little corner alone in hell where I will not have to curse Thee, but rather, where I may justify Thee.” The correspondent quoted A. Alexander, J. Edwards, and C. Hodge to the effect that God’s people can never wish to be damned to hell.

I appreciate the concern of this reader, as well as the opportunity to explain my statement briefly as it may have been unintentionally misinterpreted by others also. Re-reading the context carefully should make it sufficiently plain that I had no intention to state that God’s people wish for hell, but rather, when brought experientially to the impossibility of their salvation in the light of God’s irrevocable attributes, they experience such love to the very perfections of God which seem, to demand their condemnation that they willingly choose the untarnished maintenance of all of God’s attributes above the salvaging of their own salvation. When brought to see the inevitableness of condemnation as their just portion, it becomes their petition: “Lord, that I may not have to curse Thee forever in condemnation, but allow me to justify Thee forever.” In other words, God’s cut-off child receives such a love for who God is that the very thought of cursing God eternally makes condemnation double hell for them. May God grant us something of this love for Him that transcends all love for self, including our own soul’s salvation.

Among others, Scripture confirmation of the essential thrust of my statement, includes David in Psalm 51 (see especially verse 4), the thief on the cross in Luke 23 (see especially verses 40-42), and Leviticus 26:43b (original language: “take pleasure in the punishment of their iniquity”, i.e. pleasure because God’s attributes are glorified, and because the exercising of God’s justice gives a needy sinner the hope that God is still dealing with him, having not yet chosen to leave him completely over to himself).

I trust this will suffice.

May God make us hell-accepters, God-seekers, and salvation-finders.

THAT IS A DISAPPOINTMENT

Part II

It is a happy surprise, when according to Ps. 32:1, the Lord forgives our transgression and covers our sin. That we upon the basis of justice, and upon the basis of the merited and imparted righteousness of Christ, are acquitted and declared free by God the Judge, and may be clothed with the perfect righteousness of Christ and adorned with His perfect glory. It is a happy surprise when we lose everything, lose everything to receive God as our portion. “My refuge is the living God, His praise I long to speak.”

It will eternally exceed the expectation of those people who are worthy of hell and who had expected to go to hell. But soon it will be said unto them: “Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world”.

The Lord alone knows through what ways and paths they must go here, subject to the assaults and attacks of Satan, world and sin. Oh, if God were not faithful and unchangeable, then they would be eternally lost. But He “Who has begun a good work will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ,” Phil. 1:6. We will always be disappointed with ourselves. And we will become more and more disappointed with ourselves. But that it may be a comfort and encouragement for your soul; that it is not a threat, but a promise which the Lord, the faithful covenant God, has promised to His covenant people: “And they shall loathe themselves”. It is a disappointment for us, because we are so blind in the way of free grace and in the way in which God leads His people. Our aim is to become something, but it lies in God’s counsel that we become nothing. We want to become rich, and Christ calls the poor in spirit blessed. We are eager to boast with what we have, but the Lord, the eternal Jehovah, “He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise their prayer.” Ps. 102:17. We are too rich to really be poor and too wise to be real fools before God. By nature we are filled with ourselves and cannot do different than to seek and attend ourselves. That is the inheritance which we have received out of the lost Paradise. And under that we must continually be depressed and bowed down, and that wretched “I” which wants to be as God, we will have to drag along to the end. And if we would only starve that existence to death, but we often still feed it.

“This people have I formed for Myself; they shall show forth My praise,” but this is experienced in a different way than we had imagined. “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent”. Man must fall outside. And he who falls outside, falls in. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it! These things are hid from the prudent, but are revealed unto babes. And they must also still be prepared for that heavenly instruction. Enemies are reconciled with God by the death of His Son. And the ungodly are justified upon the grounds of the righteousness of Christ. The publican in Luke 18, standing in the rear of the temple, cried out: “God be merciful to me, a sinner”, and went down to his house justified.

In the loss lies the gain; by being lost we are saved; in losing lies the victory; in perishing we are taken up; and by letting loose we are accepted. In falling away from ourselves lies the glory and exaltation of a Triune covenant God. But the instruction continues. A person who has become a sinner before God by God, must become and remain a poor sinner in himself in the way of sanctification unto the end of his life.

Lazarus, in Luke 16, continued to beg until the beggar died. And with the church in Ps. 68:5 we sing, but must also experience: “Rich gifts from those that did rebel, Thou didst receive, that men might dwell with Thee, O Lord, forever”. “But the Lord has left in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the Lord” (Zef. 3:12). The Lord knows how poor and miserable they are. Happy are we if we also know and as the poor may use entreaties. Also in that respect may we be one with God’s will and way to learn to know that childlike secret and to delight ourselves in that. “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 made rich,” (2 Cor. 8:9).

The poor have the gospel preached unto them, and Christ has added those significant words: “And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me”, (Matt. 11). I will not enlarge further upon this. That the Lord may bless these few lines for those souls who want to withdraw themselves because they would rather be rich than poor. May He teach them and us the mystery explained in 2 Cor. 6:10.

Rev. W.C. Lamain

LOVE

And why, dear Saviour, tell my why
Thou thus would’st suffer, bleed, and die?
What mighty motive could Thee move?
The motive’s plain—’twas all for love.

For love of whom? Of sinners base,
A hardened herd, a rebel race:
That mocked and trampled on Thy blood
And wantoned with the wounds of God.

When rocks and mountains rent with dread,
And gaping graves gave up their dead,
When the fair sun withdrew his light,
And hid his head to shun the sight.

Then stood the wretch of human race,
And rais’d his head and shewed his face,
Gaz’d unconcer n’d, when nature fail’d,
And scoffed, and sneered, and cursed, and railed.

Harder than rocks and mountains are,
More dull than dirt and earth by far,
Man view’d unmov’d Thy blood’s rich stream,
Nor ever dreamed it flowed for him.

Such was that race of sinful men,
That gained that great salvation then.
Such, and such only, still we see;
Such they were all, and such are we.

Hart

TEACH US TO PRAY

Breathe on these bones, so dry and dead;
Thy sweetest, softest influence shed
In all our hearts abroad;
Point out the place where grace abounds;
Direct us to the bleeding wounds
Of our incarnate God.

Conduct, blest Guide, Thy sinner train
To Calvary, where the Lamb was slain,
And with us there abide.
Let us our loved Redeemer meet,
Weep o’er His pierced hands and feet,
And view His wounded side:

Teach us for what to pray, and how;
And since, kind God, ‘tis only Thou
The throne of grace canst move,
Pray Thou for us; that we through faith,
May feel the effects of Jesus’ death,
Through faith that works by love.

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