MISSION TIDINGS

GIFTS RECEIVED FOR MISSIONS IN MARCH 1982

CLASSIS MIDWEST SOURCE AMOUNT

Friend in South Holland Gift $ 10.00

Friend in Jenison Gift 100.00

Friend in Michigan Gift 150.00

Friend in Lynwood Gift 125.00

CLASSIS WEST

Corsica Mission Sale 700.00

Junior Rebecca Circle

(Corsica) Gift 125.00

Friend in Pella Gift 25.00

CLASSIS FAR WEST

Fort Macleod Mission

Club Calendars 81.00

Artesia Mission Guild Gift 1190.41

Lethbridge Gift 150.00

Chilliwack Calendars 600.00

Chilliwack Gift 150.00

OTHER

Friends in Australia Gift 160.00

TOTAL: $3,566.41

Dear friends,

Herewith we want to thank everyone for their kind gifts for the Mission. May the Lord bless you and your gifts.

We are sorry to inform you that Tom and Meta Moerdyk were very sick on the Mission field. So far the Lord has made it well. Mike and Carol Meeuwse are quite lonesome at times, but so far the Lord has helped them.

We read in Acts 28:30, ‘And Paul dwelled two whole years in his own hired house, and received all that came in unto him.’ And in verse 31, ‘Preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him.’

Oh my friends, may we be made jealous of the grace the Lord gave to the apostle Paul, he was active in season and out of season, to proclaim that faithful saying, ‘worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am the chief,’ which we read in I Timothy 1:15.

American General Mission Fund Netherlands Reformed Congregations of United States and Canada

John Spaans, Treasurer

2376 Shadow Lane N.E.

Grand Rapids, Michigan 49505

Tel. (616) 364-8379

A REMARKABLE EVENT

That which the aged Simeon has said to Mary in Luke 2:34, ‘Behold this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be spoken against’ has been confirmed in the life of Christ.

For various persons who were called savingly by Christ, He has become a resurrection. They have been called out of death unto life, out of the darkness into the light. But also to many, He has become a fall. After Christ’s first preaching at Nazareth, they wanted to cast Him headlong into the depths so that He would perish.

And in John 6 we read: ‘From that time many of His disciples went back and walked no more with Him.’ They were those, of course, who initially had followed Him. They had said, ‘This is a hard saying, who can hear it?’ They have offended themselves at His preaching and could not fall under it. The ‘Why’ has already been explained by Christ.

Without having been quickened by God’s Spirit, we cannot understand the truth aright. To the natural mind, it is impossible to understand the truth, and no one can come to Christ except it be given him from the Father. Man is spiritually dead and must be drawn by the Father.

It is a one-sided work which God glorifies in the heart of the elect. Man falls entirely outside of it. Man wants to comprehend it, and wants to do something himself, but God cuts it all off, and that rouses the greatest enmity. To natural man, it is a complete impossibility to accept his fall in Adam. Shall that ever take place, then God has to step in by His omnipotent and all-conquering grace.

We must be conquered, delivered and gathered in to be saved by grace. Moreover, faith is a gift of God, wrought in the heart of a quickened sinner, by the operation of the Holy Spirit. No, it is not something we pick up ourselves and accept. From our side, it is an impossibility, and from God’s side, it is a matter of course.

But there is still something else which is remarkable in that incident and which is told us by the apostle John. Christ has directed Himself and spoken to His disciples, but to those who went away, Christ said not a word. Did that then leave Christ feelingless? No, far from that. One of our old divines wrote that Christ was deeply grieved, but yet He did not run after them or ask them to remain. Neither has Christ spoken one word to them. Did they lay it to heart? O, no, death has no feeling. The heaviest burden for God’s people is when God keeps silent. They say at least a thousand times, ‘O God, do say something to me even though it be but one word.’

Ah, how it should take hold of us since everything that is written has been written for our learning. No heavier judgment can strike us in this world than that God let us go. Although a person does not always realize it, yet it is to be considered a benefit when God constantly opposes us, and that it become impossible for us to continue in our own ways.

The ancient poet sang at one time, ‘O Lord, our ways are entirely wrong, and nothing but foolishness proceeds from a fool.’

In Paradise, the running away from God commenced. In Adam, we have run away from the God of truth, and we have surrendered ourselves voluntarily to the father of lies. The Father has sent His Son into the world, and He was the Mouth of truth. But, oh, thousands have turned their back toward Him. Some are born under the truth, and others have been brought under the truth. O, what a responsibility! How it should abase and humble a person; how it should be our constant inquiry if the truth may once become truth to us. And only then, if the truth may really become truth to us, then the constant sighing that the truth may make us free. Yea, that God might really give truth in our heart. The Lord, Himself, has promised His people, ‘I will direct their work in truth.’ We, ourselves, can put no seal upon it. God’s Spirit shall have to bear witness within our heart.

God stands above everything, but we are bound to God’s ordinances and the means of grace. Through the foolishness of preaching, he wants to save those that believe.

As long as man lives, it is still ‘Today’. And as long as he is still alive, he may still be converted. In the grave there is no device nor knowledge. Would that we became interested instead of withdrawing ourselves. Those people that left Christ were not interested, neither were they desirous to receive further information with respect to the eating of His flesh and the drinking of His blood. They were offended at His preaching and left Him. Man works out his own misery, and by and by in the judgment day, poor man shall not be able to answer one of a thousand questions. The only thing that remains shall be that they shall become speechless.

Here we may slander the truth and oppose it, but in eternity every mouth shall be stopped. All weapons wherewith we have fought to justify ourselves shall fall from our hands, and then forever too late.

But now finally, that which may not escape our attention in this ‘remarkable event’ is that Christ had such a great concern for His own disciples who at times were in such great jeopardy.

‘For well He knows our weakness and our frailty,
He knows that we are dust, He knows our frame.’

Psalter 283:3.

Not hypocrites, but only God’s poor people, not only receive ‘blows’, but they are shaken with everything. Enemies are reconciled with God, and they also must experience that to be carnally minded is death and enmity against God. They must also be won over for the truth. All heights and strongholds that exalt themselves in their heart against the doctrine of free grace must be cast down by God. It was so remarkable that Christ, turning to His disciples, did not ask them to remain with Him, but His question was: ‘Will ye also go away?’ Christ tried His own work. God’s work is tried, but God’s work is also able to stand the test. The work of man does not last. However beautiful it appears, and however much zeal may also be manifested, sooner or later, it comes to nothing. A faith which is never tried, is of little value, and in the trying of the true faith, it becomes manifest how strong or how weak it is. God vouches for His own work. And those people who constantly fear that it shall come to nothing, and that one day they shall run away, may remain with Christ. Because they are so steadfast? Ah, no, they would also run away if they were given over to themselves, but the secret lies there that they are kept in the power of God unto salvation which is prepared to be revealed in the last time. God holds fast to these people. And Christ has said, ‘Neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand.’

It is also evident as at one time with the disciples, that the trial of faith casts a God-glorifying and soul-saving fruit. That binds them closer to God and to Christ. We are constantly afraid and apprehensive to be cast into the oven of trial because we do not trust ourselves, and God’s Name and cause shall be slandered. But,

‘For Thou art with me and Thy rod
And staff me comfort still.’

God accompanies His people if they must enter into the fire. And in that fire, the scum and the filth is burned up, but the gold of the Divine grace obtains an ever greater luster.

In the trials, faith is strengthened, hope is enlivened, and love is increased. And instead of apostatizing, in the strength of God they are reunited. God cannot separate Himself from His people, and therefore they remain bound to Him.

The truth becomes ever more precious to them: ‘Thou hast the words of eternal life.’

THE RIGHT FOUNDATION

‘The fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is’ I Corinthians 3:13.

How careful and anxious we should be to have two points well secured in our hearts. First, to be right as concerns the foundation. ‘Do I believe in the Son of God? Have I clear views of the Sonship, the Deity, and the pure humanity of the Christ of God? Have I drunk in no secret error? Am I hiding in my bosom no corrupt doctrine? Is my creed sound? Is the Word of God received by me, as God has revealed it, into a believing heart? How many are wrong as to the foundation itself.” Then comes, ‘Am I upon the foundation? Did God Himself put me there? Did I see its suitability to my lost and undone soul? Did the blessed Spirit take the things of Christ and reveal them to my soul in the hour of need? Was the Son of God made precious to my soul by an act of faith? Am I looking to Him, cleaving to him, longing for him, hanging upon him, and trusting wholly to His Person and work? How stands the foundation? Am I on it?’

The next important question is, ‘How stands the superstructure? Has the Holy Ghost wrought anything with a divine power in my soul? The faith I profess, is it of God? The hope I enjoy, do I believe it came from the Lord Himself to support my soul in the trying storm? My repentance, is it genuine? My profession, is it sincere? My walk, is it consistent? My conscience, is it tender? My desires, are they spiritual? My prayers, are they fervent? My heart, is it honest? My soul, is it right before God? What am I looking to as the foundation, and what am I looking to as the superstructure? Do I hang all my hopes upon Christ as the Rock, and all my religion upon the work of the Holy Ghost in my heart?’

If you can answer these questions as in the sight of God, ‘Yes, yes, ten times yes;’ then you are right, you are right. If you stand upon the foundation that God has laid in Zion, you are right; you are right if God the Spirit has wrought a living faith in your heart. But you are wrong, you are wrong if you stand not upon God’s foundation; you are wrong, you are wrong, and that for eternity, unless the Holy Ghost is at work upon your conscience.

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