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Post by Admin on Jul 19, 2023 22:16:52 GMT -5
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“CALVINISM...The Truth”
The truth is never popular. We are, however, not concerned with what is popular, but with what is right. The truth of Scripture is one thing. What men would like to be true is another. The question is, Are we willing to be bound by the Word of God? no matter what the cost? Too few are willing to be that self-denying. The hatred of the natural mind against God is such that though a man be shrewd, intelligent, and able to see the arguments on both sides, yet he will not admit the fundamental doctrine of absolute sovereign grace to be true; or, if he know it to be true, still he refuses to receive it. If an angel from heaven were to stand before him, and declare that God redeems both objectively and subjectively only His elect people, and that Christ Jesus prays not for the world, but only for those the Father gave Him, such a (natural) man will not, cannot believe it. This whole system of truth is contrary to the old nature; it is the opposite to what men think to be in agreement with justice and experience. So that the many who hate this doctrine are always ready to oppose it. Therefore also comprehended under the brand of Arminianism are the following evil forms of the same proud heresy: Universalism, Romanism, Pelagianism (naturalism), Socinianism (modernism), Amyraldianism (synergism), Baxterianism (hypothetical redemption), New School Presbyterianism (religious humanism), etc. Calvinists, then, are the most hated people in the universe! We know this from Scripture, reports, history, and personal experience.
But this does not change the eternal purpose of God. For "the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are His" (II Tim. 2:19). Suppose every preacher in the U.S.A., or in the world speaks the very opposite to these points! That means, humanly speaking, we are in a very, very unpopular minority. But, with God and His truth on our side (or rather, we being on His side), we are on the side of the majority! Finally, it is our calling to preach that which God has clearly revealed. We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard. CALVINISM...The Truth
Rev. Robert C. Harbach
Part 1 of 4
● Introduction
● Divine Sovereignty
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INTRODUCTION
Where there is access to a good theological library or to the old editions of worthy religious books, there are, in this anti-intellectual age, few professing Christians who avail themselves of the privilege of exploring the subject of "The sovereignty of God." How few have ever read a book bearing such a title! One must make a rather exacting search to find material comprehensively treating the entire scope of this field -- the whole counsel of God, the doctrine of Predestination in its two parts: election and reprobation. For though in the "making of many books there is no end" (Eccl. 12:12), yet this truth is made gradually to disappear and at length be forgotten. This is due to a determined decline from what is both Calvin's and the Church's Calvinism. This becomes evident when sovereign reprobation, if not expunged altogether from popular literature, is removed from its rightful place of prominence next and subordinate to election, and is relegated to a mere footnote or appendix. Repugnant to "the flesh" (Gal. 5:17) it is, but no mere appendage to holy Scripture. It is an integral part of the fundamental principle of that system of truth taught in the Bible and known as the Reformed Faith.
In the interest of that Faith it is much more than in good taste once again to place this Gospel nicknamed "Calvinism" before the public. For the true church always fulfills its obligation to do so. The true church over against the false church is readily identified by its distinctive marks: the pure preaching of the Word of God, the proper administration of the sacraments, and the maintaining of good order in life and worship. Such a church is no hypocritical church. It stands, as the truth does, antithetically to the lie. The truth is, "our God is in the heavens: He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased" (Ps. 115:3). The truth is God's thesis. The truth is also God's antithesis to the lie. Calvinism is the eternal truth. Arminianism has always been an inveterate lie. The motive, therefore, for publishing these fundamentals of faith is not, contrary to the spirit of the times, to secure premature "decisions" for, or unintelligent acceptance of the Christian position, but to proclaim the Word of truth, leaving conversion and salvation, which are impossible as well to the eloquent preacher as the pleading evangelist, to the sovereign will of God and the power of the Holy Spirit (I Cor. 2:4-5).
DIVINE SOVEREIGNTY
1. ARMINIANISM is that rejected error which has become the most insidiously devised heresy ever to lay claim to Biblical support. Its allure and popular appeal arise from its subtle flattery of depraved human nature, and in its apparent Scripture basis. In loud tones it pretends to the sovereignty of God. "He sovereignly controls all creation, universal nature and the whole of mankind; His supremacy pertains to all things, everywhere. Nothing escapes His surveillance and all-pervading control. 'The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good' (Prov. 15:3). It includes our lives; for 'in Him we live.' It embraces our actions, for 'in Him we move.' It extends to our very being, for in Him 'we have our being' (Acts 17:28). We devise our own plan, but the Lord 'directeth our steps' (Prov. 16:9). Yet His superintendency is so exercised that God is not the ordainer of sin, but only by His providence permits it. Neither does He coercively prevent it, and thus infringe upon man's free will and responsibility. Indeed, in that providence God does not allow His sovereignty to interfere; for He has created and maintains man's free will inviolate. Hence Joseph says of the crime of his wicked brethren, 'But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive' (Gen. 50:20). In the spiritual realm, God tenders His primary will that men be saved by obedience to the covenant of works (Gen. 3). When man broke that covenant, He, according to His ultimate will, employed an emergency plan -- the Cross -- that men be saved by compliance with the conditions: 'except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish' (Luke 13:3, 5)." Here is the lie fostered that man takes central position at the hub of the universe. Man is almighty man!
CALVINISM has for its first principle, "In the beginning God!" He is the center of the universe. "For of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things: to whom be glory for ever! Amen" (Rom. 11:36). In the realm of creation, nature, and providence, absolutely nothing occurs without God's appointment; but He works all things according to the counsel of His own will (Eph. 1:11). Nothing happens by chance, but by the direction and ordination of our gracious heavenly Father. "My counsel shall stand and I will do all My pleasure:...yea, I have spoken, and I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed, I will also do it" (Is. 46:10-11). Also God does more than merely to permit evil: He gives the power to perpetrate it: "Thou couldest have no power against Me, except it were given thee from above" (Jn. 19:11), for "power belongeth unto God" (Ps. 62:11). Further, He sovereignly determines beforehand that the evil shall be done according to His eternal counsel: "for of a truth against Thy holy child Jesus, whom Thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together for to do whatsoever Thy hand and Thy counsel determined before ('foreordained,' ASV) to be done" (Acts 4:27ff). Though Joseph's brethren did wickedly sell him into Egypt, it is nevertheless true that it was not they but God Who sent him there; for it was God Who ordered their evil act (Gen. 45:8). The principle of Scripture is that evil rulers and their wicked actions come to pass by His ordination. "The Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever He will, and setteth up over it the basest of men" (Dan. 4:17). "The powers that be," though the most degraded, "are ordained of God" (Rom. 13:1). The evil of war also is God's work: "for it was of the Lord to harden their hearts, that they should come against Israel in battle, that He might destroy them utterly, and that they might have no favor, but that He might destroy them" (Josh. 11:20). In fact, man acts only when activated by God. "In Him we love and are moved" (Gr., passive), so that we cannot turn to what is right unless God turns us. "Turn Thou us unto Thee, O Lord, and we shall be turned" (Lam. 5:21). A man's heart indeed does devise his way, but never independently of God's control. For his very thoughts and words come by the sovereign operation of God upon his heart. "The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue are from the Lord" (Prov. 16:1). "Man's goings are of the Lord, how can a man then understand his own way?" (Prov. 20:24), i.e., by his own would-be autonomous way? God's will alone is absolutely free; and man's will is always subject to His. "And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and He doeth according to His will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and who can stay His hand, or say unto Him, What doest Thou?" (Dan. 4:35). God is equally as sovereign in the field of grace. Here His mercy is free, never suspended upon conditions required beforehand, as for example, that man should repent, or use the light of nature aright. No unregenerate man can or does live up to the light of nature (Rom. 1:20ff; 8:8); and repentance is a gift of free grace (II Tim. 2:25; Acts 11:18). Finally, the saving death of Christ was designed chiefly for the praise and glory of God, not merely as a means to rescue souls from hell. "To the praise of the glory of His grace," "that we should be to the praise of His glory," and, the whole of "redemption (is) unto the praise of His glory" (Eph. 1:6, 12, 14). "Unto you (God's elect people only) ...a Savior... (Why? Primarily for man's betterment? No!) Glory to God in the highest!" (Luke 2:11, 14). The highest truth of Scripture is that God in His eternal purpose seeks His own glory. God is God!
To be continued...
REV. ROBERT C. HARBACH
—Rev. Robert C. Harbach
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Post by Admin on Jul 19, 2023 22:24:07 GMT -5
THE REFORMED WITNESS HOUR
"The Bible is the Word of God"
Rev. Carl Haak
Dear Radio Listeners,
This program of the Reformed Witness Hour is brought to you out of the unashamed conviction that the Word of God is the power to work faith and holiness.
There are many Christian churches and many Christian organizations which no longer make that unashamed confession. There are some who deny the inspiration and the authority of the Bible; they do not believe that the Bible is, word for word, the Word of God without error. They point to supposed errors and contradictions in God's Word and believe that God's Word is perhaps true in some respects but not all respects. The result of this is that, instead of using the Word of God to build faith and holiness, these turn more and more to gimmicks and to drama and to other things to build faith and holiness.
There are others who believe that faith and holiness is within the power of men. These would say, "Yes, we believe the Bible is word for word the Word of God, but we believe in the doctrine of free will and that man must make his own decision to have faith and to be holy."
There are still others who are indifferent and complacent and have no affection whatsoever for the truth of God's Word and do not care to bother themselves with these things.
The truth is this: The Bible is word for word God's Word. And it is the Bible, which is brought to the heart by the Holy Spirit, which is able to build faith and holiness. It is the power of God unto a true Christian life. The Word of God, as it is to be preached from the pulpit, sound, biblical preaching; the Word of God which is to be brought in catechism classes whereby children of the church are instructed in the truths of God's Word; the Word of God which is to be taught in your home as a parent to your children; the Word of God which is to be read in your home and to be read by you personally-you are to open and to read that Word of God. The Word of God is the power to build the kingdom of Jesus Christ. It is the power unto faith and holiness.
This is the teaching of Jesus Christ. This is the teaching that Christ gave repeatedly. He spoke it in word and in parable. One of those parables is recorded in Mark 4:26-29. We call this parable the parable of the Invincible Seed-that the Word of God is an invincible power and will cause true Christian faith and holiness in the hearts of God children, in the hearts where the Holy Spirit has implanted the seed of God's Word.
This parable that we find in Mark 4 was spoken to a multitude by the seaside while Jesus was in a boat. It was spoken to a general audience (not simply to His disciples). It is recorded for us only in Mark. And it is not interpreted by the Lord. As to its place, we find that it is a wonderful complement to the parable of the sower, or better, the four different kinds of soil. In that parable which Jesus spoke, the man went forth to sow seed in his field. Some of these seeds fell on the wayside; others on stony ground; some among the thorns; and some on good ground. In that parable Jesus taught our responsibility to embrace the Word of God with a believing heart and to guard against all who would make that Word of God unfruitful in our lives (whether that is the false, subtle suggestions of Satan; whether that is the persecution of an unbelieving world; or whether that is the cares and the lusts of this present time).
Now the parable that we consider today, the parable of the invincible seed, teaches us the sovereign power of God, the power of God's Word, to accomplish God's purpose in His children. God will certainly and surely, through the invincible power of His Word, bring His children to faith and to holiness.
In this parable Jesus sets forth an aspect of the kingdom of God. We read, "And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; and should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come."
As I said, this parable was meant to teach us an aspect of the kingdom of God, the kingdom which Jesus Himself had come to establish and was establishing in His ministry. What is the specific principle of that kingdom which Jesus teaches us? It is this: Jesus is teaching us the invincible power of the Word of God when it is brought to a prepared heart.
In the parable we read of three times: the sowing time, the growing time, and the harvest time. Jesus speaks to us first of the sowing time. The picture is that at the proper time of the year the farmer, taking a bag upon his shoulders, casts forth his seed and sows the seed. That is all that is said. Then we read of the growing time. And of that growing time, we read of two activities. The activity of the farmer-that activity is described as sleep: he rises night and day, he goes about his normal business, and he sleeps. He does not arise every three hours, take a candle, get down on his knees, and dig around in the earth to see if the seed is doing anything. No, with the growth of the seed he has nothing to do. He has sown the seed and now he does nothing.
But we also read of the activity of the seed. The seed sprouts and lengthens and grows into an ear and a blade and brings forth fruit. This totally transcends the ability of the farmer to comprehend how that little seed grows. It first sprouts through the earth as a little blade, and there is a hue of green across the field. Then it turns into an ear, swelling forth in a bud, a kernel of wheat or corn. It does this of itself. The farmer does not know how this happens. He simply stands before it and praises God.
Then we read of the harvest time. Immediately, straightway, the farmer will thrust in his sickle because the harvest is come. No matter what other projects he may have around on the farm, he knows that the field is ripe for harvest, everything is prepared, and he sends forth reapers into his harvest because the harvest will be damaged if he waits too long.
There you have it. And the point of the parable is this: the invincible power of the Word of God to work in the heart of God's children to bring forth growth and maturity, to bring forth faith and holiness, until at last, being ripe, they are ushered into heaven.
The seed which is sown is the Word of God. That is very plain from the parable of the sower and from Jesus' own words that the sower soweth the Word of God. That Word of God is compared to a seed. It is a living Word. And when it is implanted in the heart of faith it must bring forth repentance and holiness. Now the kingdom of God is like that. It is like a seed which is sown in a field which sprouts and brings forth a fruit. So in the kingdom of God the Word of God is sent forth and, by the Holy Spirit, brought to the heart of God's children. That Word of God sprouts and brings forth the visible life of faith. That is the meaning of the parable.
The Word of God is the invincible power of God to produce faith in the life of His children. That is very important. That vividly underscores the origin by which the kingdom of God is established from its very beginning to its culmination. The kingdom of God, said Jesus, is advancing. It is expanding. And it does so by the Word of our God. From the point of view of men we would expect to read the following. "So is the kingdom of God, like a king gathering nobles to plan his conquest." Or, "So is the kingdom of God, as a brilliant man gathering together counselors, bringing them into a 'think tank' to plot the expansion of his business." No. We read the simple, faithful, tireless proclamation of the Word of God: this is the way the kingdom of God comes, at the heart of which is the preaching of the gospel by the church. By this means the kingdom of God shall be established and extended on this earth-through the preaching and teaching of God's Word.
And this is the Word of God throughout. This is not only the formal teaching of the Word of God, but this is also the record of what happened in the early church in the book of Acts. The kingdom expanded from Jerusalem out into the Gentile world. And what was the means of this expansion? How did this take place? Not by the coming together of great lords and great minds to plan the expansion of this new religion. But by humble men who preached and taught the Word of God. The Word of God preached and taught and witnessed-hat is the means whereby the kingdom is built and established. Do you understand that?
If you understand this, then you will not simply tolerate church services centered in the preaching of the Word, but you will defend that to the death. You will understand that God has willed that the worship of the church find its center in the preaching of the Word. For it is that Word and the preaching of that Word which is the primary means for the building of faith.
If you understand this, then you will teach your children the Word of God. And you will do your utmost to see to it that they are taught it. You will see that in the catechism classes of the church or in the Christian school.
Still more, if you understand this, you will be jealous for the expansion of the Word of God. You will do all, according to your gifts and your talents, to speak of that Word of God to your neighbor.
And still more, if you understand this, then you will be those who support a solid seminary where men may be taught, according to God's Word, to be faithful preachers and teachers. Not brilliant scholars who are able to show their learning merely by writing articles for journals, but sowers of the Word, good farmers, men who preach the Word of God.
Yet still more. This parable then assures us of a certain growth of God's kingdom by the means of the Word even unto the moment of harvest. No mention was made of a drought, or of any seeds which do not germinate, or of fowls or stony ground or of tares among the wheat. Rather, Christ wishes to emphasize the certainty of the link between the sowing of the Word and the final harvest. We read in verse 29, "When the fruit (not if the fruit) is come." The Lord wants us to understand the certainty, the invincibility of the Word to accomplish in His children all that God intends to accomplish. By the Word He brings us to the blade, that is, to the first apprehensions of God and of sin. But He brings us, more, to the ear, to the growth in grace and an understanding of the Christian life. Then He brings the full corn and the ear-maturity of faith and dependence upon God. But God uses that one Word of God from the very beginning to the end to accomplish His purpose. Jesus said, "I will build My church." Jesus said, "All that the Father gives to Me shall come to Me." The apostle Paul says, in I Corinthians 3:7, "The Lord shall give the increase." By what means? By the Word of God.
That means that the church which preaches the gospel and sees to it that the gospel is preached faithfully on the Lord's day is not on a fool's errand. When the Word is preached, that Word will never return in vain. When we pray for the gospel causes, when we desire the gathering of the church, when we pray for the conversion of all those whom God has given to Jesus Christ, we are not speaking in the air. We are not exercising ourselves in futility. But we may have confidence. The Word of God is able to gather the kingdom from the very beginning even unto the end.
Still more. Jesus is underscoring the mighty operation of grace in the establishing of the kingdom. In this parable we read that the farmer knows not how. It is not in his knowledge to understand the way whereby the seed germinates and grows into a harvest. The power of the seed is in the hand of God. Why does a seed do what it does? It does it because God made it that way, by the active providence of God. The farmer understands these three things: he is impotent-he cannot do it; he is ignorant of exactly how this happens; he stands in the expectation that nevertheless the seed will sprout and grow.
The seed of the Word of God is sown. How is it that the word of the gospel gets beyond the ear and into the heart and opens the eyes? God does that. The Holy Spirit does that. God works, and God's is the power to make that Word of God powerful and effective. What a beautiful truth we have. This is the understanding that the church must have; this is the understanding that a minister of the gospel must have. He must do all in his power to make the Word of God, as he preaches is, clear and understandable, personal and applicable. But, at the same time, he realizes that he is impotent to make this Word fruitful in the lives of the people; he is, ultimately, ignorant-that is, he does not see the work of the Holy Spirit actually bringing that Word to the heart; but, nevertheless, he is confident that God will do it. Through the preaching of His Word, God will build His church.
And that is the confidence we have also in teaching and reading the Word of God, and of witnessing the Word of God.
Do you believe this? The Lord has shown us that one of the most significant indicators that someone has been brought into His kingdom is that he reverences the Word of God.
What is the indication of being brought into the kingdom? An emotional response? Shivers up and down your spine? Feelings, deep affections, being drummed up into a powerful emotional state in which you cry? Is that the evidence? No, the indication is this: when a person takes the Word of God seriously.
Are you in the kingdom? How do you know? Simply that you can point to a moment in your life? No. This is how you know. Do you take the Word of God seriously? Has the Word of God come with power in the Holy Ghost and with joy? Has God opened your eyes so that you say, "God is not the God I thought Him to be. God is not simply as I want Him to be. But He is as He has revealed Himself to be in His Word. I am not a little independent kingdom off on my own to do my own thing with everything revolving around me. But I fell in Adam. I am a sinful person. My heart is such that apart from divine intervention I would never believe; I would go to hell."
Do you take the Word seriously, personally? Do you acquaint yourself with that Word so that the Word lives, sprouts, and grows in your life? This is the indication of passing into the kingdom of God. The Word of God is reverenced in a person's life. The Word of God follows that person. That person hears that Word of God. That person has that Word of God echoing in his heart. It is with him wherever he is; at home, at work, at school, wherever he is. That is the message of the Lord to us.
Let us be jealous. Let us be faithful. Let us be diligent. Let us sow the Word of God in home, in church, and in our lives. And let us be confident. For this Word of God, above all human powers, abides unconquered. It will establish God's kingdom. It will tear down and it will build up. It will work faith and holiness. The Word of God will work these in the heart of God's children even until the day of the harvest when Jesus Christ appears to take His own to Himself.
Now he that hath ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
Let us pray.
Father, we thank Thee for the mighty power of Thy Word. We pray that we may reverence it in our hearts. We pray that we may have a thirst to hear it preached to us. And give Thy church ever, O Lord, that zeal and obedience to preach the Word of God and to believe that it is Thy Word which is the power unto faith, the power unto holiness, the power to build the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. In His name do we pray, Amen.
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Post by Admin on Jul 20, 2023 0:47:05 GMT -5
GOOD NEWS FOR THE AFFLICTED
(Brief Meditations written by Rev. Herman Hoeksema)
Beginning with this post, the pamphlet “Good News For The Afflicted” will be serially published. The complete presentation consists of twenty-six brief meditation topics—sixteen articles and five poems, enumerated as follows:
(1) Introduction: Heidelberg Catechism Lord’s Days 1 and 2
(2) Father's Perfect Way
(3) God's Purpose in Suffering
(4) The Love of God is Greater Far
(5) The Christian's Answer
(6) The Glorious Ways of God
(7) Contentment in the Lord's Way
(😎 The Christian's Hope
(9) Day By Day Our Savior Leads
(11) Looking At things Unseen
(12) Afflicted? Why Me?
(13) Meeting the Lord in Afflictions
(14) All Things Work For Our Good
(15) Patient Trust in God
(16) He Doeth All Things Well!
Poems:
(1) Race (Hebrews 12)
(2) Desire for Rest
(3) God Our Deliverer
(4) Life With God
(5) The Fatherly Love of God
(6) Satisfaction in God
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Introduction: Heidelberg Catechism Lord’s Days 1 and 2
The meditations which follow all appeared on the bulletins of the First Protestant Reformed Church of Grand Rapids, Michigan during the war years of 1941 - 1946. They were prepared by the Pastor of the church, the late Rev. Herman Hoeksema, (1886 - 1965).
They are being published in this Booklet as a testimony of the marvelous grace of God in Jesus Christ which alone is able to sustain God's children in the sufferings and trials of this present life. It should be stated that the titles and texts above each Meditation were chosen by the Evangelism Committee of.
Protestant Reformed Church
16511 South Park Avenue
South Holland, Illinois 60473
The following summarizes what we believe is the true comfort of the Christian, especially in suffering:
The Heidelberg Catechism, Questions and Answers 1 & 2:
Question 1. What is thy only comfort in life and death?
Answer: That I with body and soul, both in life and in death, am not my own, but belong unto my faithful Savior Jesus Christ; who, with his precious blood, hath fully satisfied for all my sins, and delivered me from all the power of the devil; and so preserves me that without the will of my heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from my head; yea, that all things must be subservient to my salvation, and therefore, by his Holy Spirit, he also assures me of eternal life, and makes me sincerely willing and ready, henceforth, to live unto him.
Question 2. How many things are necessary for thee to know, that thou, enjoying this comfort, mayest live and die happily?
Answer: Three: the first, how great my sins and miseries are; the second, how I may be delivered from all my sins and miseries; the third, how I shall express my gratitude to God for such deliverance.
Romans 14: 7-9 : "For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living."
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Post by Admin on Jul 20, 2023 0:54:52 GMT -5
The Comfort for God's People
This precious truth of God's sovereign and particular love affords a marvelous comfort for God's people. Let us return to our question for a moment. Does emphasis on the love of God lead to Arminianism, or to comfort for God's people? To Arminianism? Never! God's love is sovereign and particular. Arminianism cannot stand that! To comfort for God's people? Most assuredly. This is all of our comfort. Knowing that God's love is sovereign and particular I am assured of my election into Christ; God's love does not depend upon me. Looking at that love of God as manifest in the cross of Jesus Christ, I am assured of my redemption. Considering that that love is always the same and never changes I am assured of my Preservation unto glory. That is my comfort. It is a comfort grounded in the Almighty Sovereign God. —Prof. Robert D. Decker
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Post by Admin on Jul 20, 2023 1:00:25 GMT -5
REPROBATION
4. ARMINIANISM bitterly repudiates the doctrine of sovereign reprobation. It is this point which raises the most controversy, and where we meet with the most serious and violent agitation. It is precisely at this point that the carnal mind has the greatest difficulty in submitting itself to the confines of the Word of God, and of bowing to the incomprehensible counsel of God. When we ask, "What of the fact that there are certain angels and men who were not 'ordained to eternal life'?" the answer often given is that "God never sends anyone to hell, for His cross bars the way thence, so that the damned send themselves there, as a result of treading the cross underfoot: 'who hath trodden under foot the Son of God,' (Heb. 10:29). Indeed, for the sake of that cross God does not determine by an indisputable will to leave anyone in the Fall of man, or to pass by or leave anyone in the state of sin and condemnation. For 'God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance' (II Pet. 3:9); [but cf. this under Limited Atonement.] Then it cannot be absolute predestination which determines the reason why God sends the gospel to one people and not to another, but rather because one is better and worthier than the other to whom the gospel is not sent: 'But seeing ye put it (the gospel) from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles' (Acts 13:46). Why is one consigned to perdition while another is not? Not as the result of an arbitrary partiality: 'there is no respect of persons with God,' (Rom. 2:11); but rather because one is good and the other bad; the one became a believer, and the other remained an unbeliever: for 'some believed the things which were spoken, and some believed not,' (Acts 28:24); or the one is obedient and the other rebellious. Cf. 'Come, ye blessed...For I was an hungered and ye gave Me meat,' etc., with 'Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire... For I was an hungered, and ye gave Me no meat,' etc. (Matt. 25:34ff., 41ff.). If all this be so, 'reprobation' is no decree, nor is it included in the decree of God, for wicked men reprobate themselves; and some of the elect can and do perish, regardless of any decree of God.
CALVINISM declares that we know only so much about reprobation as God has seen fit to reveal, but that it is important we do know that much. The Bible teaches that the elect are by nature just as wicked, depraved, and worthy of damnation as the reprobate: "Are ye not as the children of the Ethiopians unto Me, O children of Israel? saith the Lord" (Amos 9:7). Yet the Lord had chosen the Israel of God (Gal. 6:16), and rejected the rest. For there is a personal election of some to salvation (II Thess. 2:13). There must, then, be other persons who are not elected to salvation. God has not appointed His elect unto wrath: "For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ" (I Thess. 5:9). There must, it follows, be others who are appointed to wrath, and to fatal stumbling: for Christ is "a stone of stumbling...to them which stumble at the Word, being disobedient; whereunto also they were appointed" (I Pet. 2:8). There are some God gave to Christ: "all that the Father giveth Me" (Jn. 6:37); there are others He did not give to Christ: "I pray not for the world, but for them which Thou hast given Me" (17:9). There are some whose names were written in the book of life (Rev. 21:27); there are others "whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world" (Rev. 17:8). To some "it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them (that are without, Mk. 4:11) it is not given" (Matt. 13:11). There are some whose welfare we are to seek (Neh. 2:10); there are others concerning whom Christ commands, "Let them alone" (Matt. 15:14). Cf. Jer. 14:11; 7:16. Some are made accepted in Christ (Eph. 1:6); others, "natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed...and shall utterly perish" (II Pet. 2:12). But it is altogether out of place to object here that "God is no respector of persons." For if He were, no one would be saved! All would be damned; for all sinned. It is not so amazing that God saves "whom He will" as that He saves any! But this is not to present the complete picture. As Judge, God has respect to no man's person, and so can do no less than to conclude all under sin (Gal. 3:22). But as Savior, He makes men to differ (I Cor. 4:7); He distinguishes by "distinguishing mercy" one person from another. This is evident from the free dispensings of His grace. "The Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering; but unto Cain and to his offering He had not respect" (Gen. 4:4-5).
Furthermore, it is only the reprobate who are such children of disobedience that they judge themselves unworthy of eternal life; they make a covenant with death (Is. 28:15). To that disobedience they were sovereignly appointed (I Pet. 2:8), and that self-adjudged unworthiness is their actual state and condition to which they were of old (from eternity) ordained ( Jude 4). Hence, "Art Thou not from everlasting, O Lord my God...? we shall not die. O Lord, Thou hast ordained them for judgment" (Hab. 1:12). Concerning that "we" God says, "You only have I known (loved) of all the families of the earth" (Amos 3:2). Here is reference to the Divine, eternal foreknowledge which is not synonymous with prescience or mere knowledge beforehand. "To foreknow" means to love from eternity. "God hath not cast away His people which He foreknew" (Rom. 11:2). This love of God to the believer is the ground of the believers' love to Him. "I know (love) My sheep, and am known (loved) of Mine" (John 10:14). But of the rest Christ denounces, "I never knew (loved) you" (Matt. 7:23). Not even before the universe came into being did He know them -- He never knew them! "For our God is a consuming fire" (Heb. 12:29). Every plant which He has not planted shall be uprooted (Matt. 15:13), and for the reason that it was not the Divine purpose to engraft them into Christ or plant them as trees in His garden. This makes clear the fact that God is not only sovereign in His goodness, but also in His severity (Rom. 11:22), and that His sovereignty is absolute and independent: "He hath mercy on whom He will, and whom He will He hardeneth" (9:18). The hardened ones are so because He willed to harden them; He wills to show the power of His wrath upon them; they had to be prepared unto glory (as were the vessels of mercy), but are vessels made unto dishonor, "vessels of wrath fitted to destruction" (Rom. 9:21-23).
Consequently, why some are gifted with faith (and all good works) by God in time, and some are not so gifted, is determined by God's eternal decree. And that decree does not have chief reference to the Fall of man, or even to the sins of the reprobate. For it was made, "the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil" (Rom. 9:11). Rather, the decree has primary reference to the sovereign good pleasure and will of God, "who worketh all things (including reprobation) after the counsel of His own will" (Eph. 1:11). Election is the main object of the eternal purpose of God. The Fall and reprobation are subservient to that main object. "The Lord hath made all things for Himself (for His own purpose); yea, even the wicked for the day of evil" (Prov. 16:4).
LIMITED ATONEMENT
5. ARMINIANISM supposes that the Atonement of Christ is "not according to a certain and definite decree to save some, but was made according to a general, conditional offer of grace which God desired to make to all men absolutely and indiscriminately, 'who will have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth' (I Tim. 2:4). But, being conditional, the death of Christ does not infallibly secure the salvation of anyone. The word 'atonement' is not to be understood in the sense that it makes salvation actual, but that it merely provided a possible salvation for the whole human race: 'and He is the propitiation (provided remedy) for our sins, and not for our sins only, but also for the sins of the whole world' (I John 2:2). This possibility remains even for the so-called reprobate: cf. Cain -- 'if thou doest not well, sin (a sin-offering) lieth at the door' (Gen. 4:7). In its extent, therefore, the atonement is universal: He died for all the ungodly; the gospel being for 'whosoever,' 'whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved,' (Acts 2:21). God loves everybody; He can hate nobody (John 3:16). The preaching of the gospel is grace for all who hear; for 'gospel' means 'good news'; but if the gospel provides salvation for the elect only, it cannot be good news to those for whom no possible provision of salvation has been made. This being so, the cross must be outfitted like a blank check, providing universal redemption, payable to the endorser, merely for his endorsement, which in turn completes the stipulated terms of the atonement." By reason of this the final effectuation of election and salvation depends upon the free will of man. As a result, all or none may be saved! "Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by?" (Lam. 1:12) is so understood as that it may be anything to anybody.
CALVINISM sponsors the Biblical doctrine of particular atonement, which does more than to render salvation possible, but secures the actual salvation of those for whom Christ dies; and He died for those the Father gave to Him (John 17: 2, 12). In the same manner, that death is not for a vague, general "whosoever," but for "whosoever believeth" (3:16); and they only believe who were ordained to eternal life (Acts 13:48). This implies that the "whosoever shall call" must be the called according to His purpose and grace (II Tim. 1:9). Notice then, when the Scripture says that Christ died for the ungodly (Rom. 5:6), it does not say that He died for all the ungodly. Where the word "all" does appear in connection with the atonement of Christ, it has a meaning limited by the context. The arm of the Lord is not revealed to all (Is. 53:1). Why not? Because the Lord had sovereignly determined to harden and blind the rest so that they could not believe (John 12:37-40). In I Cor. 15:22 (Rom. 5:18) "All" means all in Christ; otherwise the Armenian will prove more than he wants to prove. In I Tim. 2:4 it is all classes of men. So with the word "any." Cf. II Pet. 3:9, "The Lord is not slack concerning His promise (which is never made to the reprobate), as some men count slackness; but is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." God is long-suffering to us (His elect); and is not willing that any of us should perish. Who are the "any?" the "us?" According to the context, the "beloved" of v. 1, the "beloved" of v. 8; He is not willing that any of His beloved should perish. So He is long-suffering over them. But take "any" in the unqualified, absolute sense, and the text is made to contradict other Scripture, where, for example, it says that God is "willing to show His wrath" upon the "vessels of wrath," and cause them under that wrath to end in destruction (Rom. 9:22). However, it is different with His "beloved." They shall never perish. Another distinction is to be noted in the word "world." Did Christ die for the whole world of men without exception? No, but for the world of "whosoever believeth" (John 3:16), for the world which has its sin actually and really "taken away" (1:29). The Lamb loves that world; He takes away its sin. But of the wicked world it is said, "your sin remaineth" (9:14). Their sins lie (crouch) at their own door, to pounce on them like a roaring lion, dragging them down to the pit of hell. For them the sin-offering and intercession of Christ are not, nor for the whole world of all mankind, but only for those the Father gave Him (17:9). But assuming He did die for absolutely the whole world, why does He not pray for it? "I pray for them; I pray not for the world." The truth of the matter is that there is an elect world, a world with its sin removed (1:29), and a "world of the ungodly" (II Pet. 2:5). Teach, however, that Christ died for all the sins of all men, and the following results: God demands the penalty for sin twice! -- once at the hands of His Son Who paid it all, and again at the hands of those for whom He died (now in hell, themselves paying that already canceled debt!). But Christ lays down His life exclusively for the sheep. To the rest He says, "Ye are not of My sheep" (John 10:15, 26). He does not lay down His life for them. Nor will it do to say that God originally intended to save all. For from the beginning it was not so: (Gen. 3:15). At the first, God put enmity between the children of God and the children of the devil. From the first, the cross divided all men into these two separate companies. Clearly, the cross was never intended to save the serpent's brood. For the cross sovereignly maintains the ordained enmity against the serpent's seed. And though temporal gifts flow from the cross, they are not a blessing, but a curse to that reprobate seed: "the curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked; but He blesseth the habitation of the just. Surely He scorneth the scorners, but giveth grace unto the lowly" (Prov. 3:33ff.). The gospel itself must be and is to them a curse (II Cor. 2:15ff.), not a blessing. They "are perishing" (Gr.) because the cross is not saving to them (I Cor. 1:18). From this it should be plain that God does not love all without exception. Did God love Pharaoh (Rom. 9:17)? Did He love the Amalekites (Ex. 17:14ff.)? Did He love the Canaanites (Deut. 20:16)? the Ammonites and Moabites (23:3)? Does He love the workers of iniquity (Ps. 5:5)? Does He love the vessels of wrath (Rom. 9:22)? Did He love Esau (Rom. 9:13)? Does He love "the people against whom He hath indignation for ever" (Mal. 1:4)? What is the central purpose of the cross? To "save His people (and them only) from their sins."
IRRESISTIBLE GRACE
6. ARMINIANISM insists that man can and does often resist Divine grace (Acts 7:51); that the gospel does not present impossibilities to the sinner, but where God commands, there man is able to obey. For the Lord gives every sinner the ability to believe, then expects the sinner by his free will to exercise faith and consent to the terms of salvation. Sinners can therefore accept or reject the offer of grace at their pleasure, since it obviously is of him that willeth and of him that runneth (holds out). God does His part for man's salvation, in fact, has done all He can for man without destroying his free agency. So that God, frequently, in His great efforts to save man is displeased with Himself and the results He finally obtains. He sets His heart on the sinner to deliver him, and, as it were, labors till the going down of the sun to deliver him (Dan. 6:14). Why He sometimes experiences this lack of success in accomplishing the attempted deliverance is that He has created man with a will sovereign in its own right: "wherefore say My people, 'We are lords (sovereigns); we will come no more unto Thee' " (Jer. 2:31). For this reason God's counsel can be annulled and rendered ineffectual by the perverse wills of impenitent sinners: "I have called and ye have refused; I have stretched out My hand, and no man regarded; but ye have set at naught all my counsel, and would none of My reproof" (Prov. 1:24-25). The unavoidable inference is that it remains in man's power to be regenerated or not, to be converted or to continue unconverted. And since man has such power to choose or refuse, it may very well happen that all the works of grace which God uses to convert man may be so opposed, the Holy Spirit so resisted that his salvation is prevented, though it was originally possible.
CALVINISM rejoices in the truth that saving grace is irresistible. God does not save any against their will, it is true. Nevertheless "it is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of God that showeth mercy" (Rom. 9:16). The counsel of God as to its precepts the wicked do invariably and consistently disregard. But the counsel of God as to its eternal purpose, which embraces sin itself in its Divine plan, is incapable of being set at nought. "For who hath resisted His will" (9:19)? Man's will is always subservient to God's sovereign will. God is always Almighty God! Therefore they who did resist the Spirit, did not resist the Spirit in them, for they were devoid of the Spirit. But that resistance is to the Spirit in the prophets, and in the ministers of the Lord; it is resistance to the external calls and reproofs through the preaching of the Word. But when the Spirit is in men in His grace of conversion, and so acts with a will to convert, He thus makes them willing, and turns them forever to Himself. "Thy people shall be willing in the day of Thy power" (Ps. 110:3). Unregenerate men may and will refuse and repudiate God's Word all they please, disregard His admonitions years on end, but when the time comes for God's counsel to be fulfilled in their conversion, then God's mercy at the precise moment decreed shall invincibly overcome their obstinacy, causing them gladly to trust and obey Him. "thou shalt arise and have mercy upon ion: for the time to favor her, yea, the set time, is come" (Ps. 102:13). What more conclusive testimony that never by free will (John 1:12, 13; Rom. 9:16; Zech. 4:6) are we saved, but by God's irresistible power (Eph. 1:19) working in us a new heart, removing hardness (and unwillingness), and inscribing God's law in our heart (Ezek. 36:26ff.)! The dead sinner does not open his heart to the Lord Jesus Christ and let Him come in to save. That is an idea prominent in Arminian hymnology, but is nowhere in Scripture. Christ must first open the heart (Acts 16:4), and then the heart receives Him. Christ must first come to the sinner, so that the sinner may come to Him. God gives the elect to Christ in eternity. That guarantees that in time, they "shall come" to Him (John 6:37). Man, of himself, has not the ability to come to Jesus, will not come (John 5:40), and cannot will to come until the Father draw him (6:44). God's giving the new heart causes the renewed sinner to walk in His ways. How else can a heart of stone open to Him? How can a heart that is enmity against God be willing for Him to improve it? But, assume that the power of God's saving grace can be baffled, and God must be supposed to will that all men be saved, yet nevertheless it must finally be, not as He wills, but as they will! However, the truth remains that grace saves those who are "the called according to His purpose" -- saves with an almighty power -- for they must be saved with an everlasting salvation!
To be continued...
– ROBERT C. HARBACH
Next: Part 4 of 4
● Perseverance of the Saints
● Conclusion
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Post by Admin on Jul 20, 2023 1:02:42 GMT -5
TOTAL DEPRAVITY
2. ARMINIANISM, however, under its breath croons the siren son of man's essential goodness. Man is only "very far gone from original righteousness," not really nor utterly dead in sin, nor destitute of all powers to spiritual good, but is wounded, badly corrupted, and left half dead ( Luke 10:30 ). Though he be totally depraved, yet he remains a free moral agent, and can still hunger and thirst after righteousness and life ( Matt. 5:6 ); he can believe ( Acts 16:31 ), if he will; he can will and choose, or not will and not choose Christ, and all manner of good which may be offered to him: "How often would I have gathered thy children...and ye would not" ( Matt. 23:37 ), and, "Choose you this day whom ye will serve" ( Josh. 24:25 ). Therefore the initial grace of God is not that almighty power whereby He raises us out of death into life, but is only a gentle advising whereby God does not produce the consent of man's will, but merely proposes that consent to the will, and leaves man to comply and convert himself: "Save yourselves from this untoward generation" ( Acts 2:40 ). Man, therefore, after the Fall not only has power to do good, but can so resist God ( Acts 7:51 , but see under 'Irresistible Grace') that he can entirely prevent his (conditional) regeneration, since it is in his power to be regenerated or not. For before regenerating grace can work efficaciously in man's new birth, the will of man must first move, and determine to comply with the conditions of regeneration, e.g., "I have set before you life and death...therefore choose life..." ( Deut. 30:19 ). To be sure, God must give the grace to conform to the prescribed prerequisites, as we ourselves can do nothing. Nevertheless, regeneration is a work of God in harmony with the free agency of man and performed on conditions required of man. "As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God" ( John 1:12 ).
CALVINISM confesses the Scripture truth that man is wholly gone from original righteousness, has in his sinful flesh "no good thing" ( Rom. 7:18 ), and that "there is none righteous, no, not one" (3:10). Man, though physically (half or all) alive, is totally depraved, totally deprived of all spiritual ability, "dead through trespasses and sins" ( Eph. 2:1-3 ), and this death passed upon all men ( Rom. 5:12 ). "We ourselves had the sentence of death within ourselves" ( II Cor. 1:9 ). Calvinism alone takes man's spiritual death seriously. For man is dead, not merely half-dead; he is drowned, not simply drowning. By the Fall, man lost all power unto good, or to better himself. He is "wise to do evil, but to do good he has no knowledge" ( Jer. 4:22 ). He can do no good when it is his nature only and continually to do evil ( Jer. 13:23 ). Freedom of will for fallen man is the ability to act according to his nature. What is his nature? One totally corrupt, for "the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? I the Lord search the heart" ( Jer. 17:9-10 ). His "carnal mind is enmity against God. It is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then, they that are in the flesh (unregenerate nature) cannot please God" ( Rom. 8:7-8 ). This being true, unregenerate man cannot and will not believe..." (5:44), and, "they could not believe (12:37, 39). And we never will until "we believe according to the working of the strength of His power" ( Eph. 1:19 ); for we "believe through grace" alone ( Acts 18:27 ), i.e., our believing is the result "of the operation of God" ( Col. 2:12 ). Why is this? Because faith is the gift of God, an exotic something, not something native to man. Not all men have it: when Paul speaks of "they which are of faith" ( Gal. 3:7 ), he implies that some are not of faith: "all men have not faith" ( II Thess. 3:2 ). Again, why? Faith is "the grace given" ( Rom. 12:3, 6 ), not to all, but "was once delivered unto the saints" ( Jude 3 ). Furthermore, in regeneration and in the receiving of faith, man is passive, as an infant in physical birth (and has all done to it and for it -- no co-operation!), and as in the initial work of salvation. Then it is not "save yourselves," but as in the original, "Be saved" (aorist passive), and indicates that God permanently makes alive the sinner dead in trespasses and sins. Then he acts and lives Godward. Thus the "receiving" and "believing" are acts of the regenerated who already "were born of God" ( John 1:12, 13 ), and so believed as born again, and because regenerated. It is never true that one believes, and so is for that regenerated; but one is regenerated so that he may and does believe: "he that heareth...and believeth...hath eternal life" (5:24). Why he hears and believes is because he "hath passed out of death, into life" (Gr.). He had to be in life before he could believe! For believing is evidence of regeneration.
The other texts Arminians appeal to under this heading must not be made to say what they do not say. First, the will of man can never disappoint or checkmate the will of God. Christ does not say, "I would have gathered you, and you would not." Nor, "I would have gathered Jerusalem, and she would not." Nor even, as some force the text to say, "I would have gathered thy children, and they would not." But, "I would have gathered thy children, and ye would not." That plainly does not teach that the children Christ would gather were unwilling to be gathered, but rather that the "generation of vipers" were not willing that they should ( Matt. 23:13, 15 )! Of the two wills here, the finite will of "ye would not," and the infinite "I would," the latter never fails, and the former is always subservient to the latter. Secondly, it is Arminian philosophy, not Scripture truth, which exhorts us to make a decision between Christ or some other alternative. Scripture allows no other: it is Christ or nothing! Moses does not bid us either to choose life or death. His precept is "choose life!" This is further borne out by the fact that Joshua did not give sinful Israel a choice between Jehovah and idols. Instead, since it seemed evil to them to serve the Lord, preferring either the gods of their fathers "or the gods of the Amorites," it was in severe denunciation (not "invitation") that they heard, "choose you this day whom ye will serve...but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!... Ye cannot serve the Lord" ( Josh. 24:14, 15, 19 ).
UNCONDITIONAL ELECTION
3. ARMINIANISM pretends to believe the doctrine of election. "Election is of such persons as believe and persevere in faith." For God has chosen the act of faith as a condition of salvation, which condition is a prerequisite unto the final establishment of man's election: "repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ" are everywhere presented as the conditions. If then, some men do not fulfill the conditions, they may possibly have an election unto faith, but not an election unto salvation. They may once have had faith, but unless they also fulfill the condition of perseverance, they at last are lost: "lest...when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway (reprobated)" ( I Cor. 9:27 ). Thus their election can be unto a justifying faith, without being a decisive election unto salvation. For it is necessary to "give diligence to make your calling and election sure" ( II Pet. 1:10 ). God elects believers, it is contended, because He foresaw their faith, their holiness, obedience and turning to Him in final perseverance. These good qualities, therefore, do not have their source in sovereign, immutable election; they are not fruits of election; nor is election the cause of all our fruitfulness; but the performing of these as conditions are the cause of the election. Where we do read, "as many as were ordained to eternal life believed" ( Acts 13:48 ) we are to understand that it means, 'as many as believed to eternal life were ordained.' Or, if the familiar word-order be retained, we are to understand "ordained" to mean, 'those who were ready' (Twentieth Century N.T.), or 'those disposed,' i.e., 'those who felt led to exercise faith.' Arminianism takes the basic virtues of salvation and makes them previously necessary causes of election, foreseen as being fulfilled by the finally faithful.
CALVINISM maintains with Scripture that the Lord chose us not because we were holy, but "he hath chosen us in Him...that (in order that) we should be holy" ( Eph. 1:4 ); not because He foresaw our obedience, but we are "elect...unto obedience" ( I Pet. 1:2 ); nor because He foresaw our faith, for "God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation, through...belief" ( II Thess. 2:13 ). The effect of election is that none believe except those ordained to eternal life, chosen to faith and to every saving good. The word "ordained" pertains to the eternal, sovereign counsel of God. According to that counsel it means, "to place": 'as many as were placed to eternal life believed,' i.e., to be placed in such a way as to be rooted in and invested with eternal life; it means "to give": 'as many as were given to eternal life,' i.e., those under the dominion and ownership of eternal life believed. And since the word is a passive verb ("had been ordained"), it implies that a word omitted is to be understood. That word can be nothing else but "Lord," which appears in the first part of the text. "As many as had been ordained" -- by whom? By the Lord! It is not man's act, but God's. "I speak not of you all: I know whom I have chosen" ( John 13:18 ), for, "ye did not choose Me, but I chose you, and ordained you" (15:16). Our election does not depend upon anything in us, but upon His own sovereign ordination. From God's point of view, it is absolutely eternally firm and sure. Our diligence cannot make His decree any more secure; it rather furnishes us with the comfort and joy which knowledge of election affords ( I Thess. 1:4 ). God's election guarantees that none of His elect can be fatally deceived ( Matt. 24:24 ); that none can perish ( John 10:27ff .) or be lost (6:39). God Himself is omniscient, omnipotent, and never changes ( Mal. 3:6 ). Therefore it is impossible that His election be changed, recalled, disturbed, or disannulled. Nor can the elect be cast away by God (Is. 41:9). They are cast away by men ( John 6:37 with 9:34); and sometimes, because of their sins, they bring reproach upon the Gospel, and so are blamed and disapproved by men, enough, perhaps, to become useless in the Lord's service. But even if an elect person should have a fear that he may become a reprobate, still he is not, nor can he ever be. Scripture does not contradict itself ( John 10:28, 35 c). As to all God's people, their names were forever written in heaven ( Luke 10:20 ), and He unconditionally promises that He will not blot out their name form that record ( Rev. 3:5 ).
To be continued...
Rev. Robert C. Harbach
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Post by Admin on Jul 20, 2023 1:07:01 GMT -5
THE REFORMED WITNESS HOUR
The Building of a Christian Family (3/3)
Rev. Carl Haak
How does one go about building a Christian family?
In the past few weeks we have attempted to answer that question from the Word of God. We saw, first of all, that a Christian family has to be built upon the proper foundation. That foundation can only be the Word of God. We saw, secondly, that a Christian family has to be erected with the proper materials. Those materials are principles drawn from the Word of God, principles held by faith and intelligently practiced in one's family life. And then we turned to the husband/wife relationship and saw that that relationship is the very center of a Christian family; that that relationship must be in God, and must involve a clear understanding, by the husband and the wife, of their particular duties and responsibilities as God sets those forth in His Word. That husband/wife relationship is sending forth a powerful influence in every direction in your home. Already in your husband/wife relationship you are teaching your children concerning authority, concerning their sexual nature, concerning the church. All of that is being extended as an influence in your home simply through the husband/wife relationship.
Now today we want to conclude our brief series on how to build a Christian family by considering the parent/child relationship.
We begin, then, with the question, What is the position of a parent in the home? Can you give an answer to that question?
This is what contributes so much to the mess and the anarchy and the horrible scars of many families. Many do not know what God made them when He made them a father and a mother.
What is a parent? Is a parent simply a glorified "horn of plenty," there to supply whatever the child wants or needs (clothes, food, college tuition)? Is that a parent? One who writes out the checks? No, not at all. The Word of God tells us that a parent is God's appointed mediator in the home. Let me explain that.
Mediator is, of course, a word that is applied to Jesus Christ in the Bible. I Timothy 2:5 tells us that there is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. As a mediator, Jesus Christ is literally the go-between. He is the one through whom we come or go to the Father. Further, the Bible teaches that Jesus functions as the mediator, as the one who brings us to God, in a threefold capacity: as prophet, priest, and king. What I am saying is this: the parent is appointed of God to be the prophet, priest, and king in the family; and that, with reference to his children.
As a parent, you are appointed of God to be a prophet. That means you are responsible to declare the will of God, to teach your child the truth of God. Who is responsible to do that? Parents are responsible to do that. Isaiah 38:19, "The father to the children shall make known thy truth." In every aspect of their life, they are to be taught what God says about that aspect of life. They must grow up to be able to look at everything through the eyeglasses of the Scriptures. Now who is going to teach them that? Who is going to train them and give them that ability? Certainly not the TV, not the neighbors, not the public school, but you as the parent. God constituted you such. You are the prophet unto your child to teach him the way of God. You must not say, Well, I would like to be a prophet. You are a prophet. The question is: are you a faithful prophet or an unfaithful prophet?
I would like to interject here that this is also something that should be aimed at in Christian education. Christian education stands upon this principle: the teacher in the school then stands as the substitute or in the place of the parent and must reflect the parent, that is, share the same convictions as the parent in order to teach the child the convictions and the beliefs that the parent has found in the Word of God. So you are to be the prophet.
But you are also to be the priest. When I say "priest," I do not mean that a parent saves his child. Rather, the idea would be that you bear their weaknesses and bear them before God in prayer. For a full explanation of this, you should read such a chapter as Hebrews 5. There Jesus Christ is explained to us as our High Priest (also the last part of Hebrews 4). It says He is touched with the feelings of our infirmities and He has perfect compassion. As a priest, you must bear with the childhood weaknesses and imperfections of your child. Those imperfections and weaknesses must not bring out of you a yell and a fit of frustration. But you are their priest to bear with those weaknesses and patiently to mold and instruct them and to bring prayer to God in their behalf.
Finally, as a parent, you are a king. As a king, you rule over your household. Joshua expressed this parental and kingly aspect in Joshua 24:15 when he said, "But as for me and for my house, we will serve the LORD." You are there, as a parent, to admonish and to rule in the Word of God over your home. Parents must not be afraid to administer the rule of God in their home. They must not be afraid to administer order and discipline in their home. You must not jump every time your child balks. What would you think of a king who sat upon his throne and issued forth a directive for his kingdom, a directive that he had thought out carefully, which he thought would be for the welfare of his subjects. Then, the moment that directive goes forth, a citizen or two begins to complain and balk, and the king begins to jitter upon the throne and changes his directive. You would say that that king is not fit to rule. You are God's king in the home to bring the rule or order of God to your home.
Very often a child will come in and say to you, "But, Mom and Dad, why do you say we have to do that? The neighbors do this. And the boys and girls over there do this." Then you must say to them, "Oh, but we do not look outside of our home. We look inside of the Bible. We go to the Word of God to determine how we are going to live in this home. We go under the authority of God's Word. Sunday is the Sabbath. That will be the day that this household worships." And we could go on.
The parent is the mediator in the home, the one who is called of God to bring his children up onto God and to do so as a prophet, priest, and king. And you are to train your child. That is what we read in Proverbs 22:6, "Train up a child in the way he shall go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it." The word to "train" means "narrow down," narrow down the child in the way he should go. Train this child in the way he is to go in every aspect of his life. We read a very interesting thing in Luke 2:51 about Jesus Christ. We read that Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man. He increased in wisdom; that is, He was trained in the mental aspect of His manhood. He increased in stature, that is, His physical life. He increased in favor to God; that was His spiritual life. And He increased in favor to man; that was His social life. Your child's mental, physical, spiritual, and social life - all of this you must train in the way that he is to go, that is, in the way marked out for him in the Word of God. Train him in such a way that when he leaves the home he will be able to take up his God-given role that he has learned from you: how to be a good father or mother, a good husband or wife, a good worker, a good member of the church of Jesus Christ.
For a child to go forth into life unprepared, for the home to fail and cause the child to limp through his life because these things have not been impressed in childhood - if that happens, nothing can take up the slack. That is the parental calling. And that is why you must not say, "Well, I'm just a carpenter; I'm just a farmer; I'm just old me; I'm just a housewife." Never, ever say that! You are the servant of God, to prepare that child and to teach him in the way that he should go. You are the instrument in the hand of God for the good of the child.
If you are going to do that, then you must, as a parent, watch over the atmosphere of your home, the things that are in your home - what you keep out and what you keep in. Especially you have to be concerned about the evil and subversive influence of the world which seeks to infiltrate a Christian family. One way that that is done is through the television. Are you, if you have a television, the master of the TV ... or are you the servant? What would you think of a person who knew that there was something corrosive in his house, so corrosive that it was eating out the pillars of his home, the pillars over which his little girl's bedroom had been built (or, that there was a bacteria or poisonous gas set loose in the living room of the home), and, knowing all this, nevertheless did nothing, but let his children continue to breathe it, or allowed his child to go to sleep in a room where the very foundation was threatening to fall down? What would think? You would say, "That's terrible!"
Well, TV has a greater influence to spread things in your home than does anything else. It has an influence over men which is perhaps greater than any other instrument known to mankind. The television is a most powerful conveyer of thoughts, of attitudes, of outlook on life. According to Psalm 1, as the people of God we are to be those who walk not in the counsel of the ungodly nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in the seat of the scornful. Ninety-nine percent of television programming is controlled by non-Christians. It is simply saturated with all that God calls evil. Sex scenes, murder, blasphemy, cursing, anti-God. As we live in a TV-oriented society, and we are told that a child can spend as many as thirty-forty hours a week in front of a TV, do you control that television? Do you know what your child watches?
I have another question. What would you think of a father who takes his son to a tavern and says to his son concerning the men who are at the tavern (drunkards, perhaps wife-beaters), "I want you now to idolize these men, son, as your heroes." Or what would you think of a mother who brought her daughter to have fellowship with harlots, with unchaste women? Would you leave your child with a known child-abuser? Would you leave your child with rats and rabid dogs running through the house? And yet, the TV influence is so great that all of these things, these great sins and evils, can be brought right into your home, right before your child, and can leave such influence with a child that those influences can not be erased on this side of heaven.
The psalmist said, "Turn thou my eyes from beholding vanity." Proverbs said concerning adultery and concerning sexual sins, "Avoid it. Pass not by. Turn away." Do not plop your child down in front of the television, for the television could be the baby-sitter. Do not let your child watch anything which you are not thoroughly familiar with. And do not, for yourself, simply plop down for an hour just to watch the tube and to flip through the channels. How many entire evenings have been wasted in front of that television! Then, concerning some of those things that you yourselves will watch as a husband and a wife, ask yourself this question after you have watched them: "Can you go and pray? Do you feel like praying?" And after viewing some of the things, can you even look your wife in the eye without having shame?
You must place a filter around your house. You must keep out the evil influences of this world. But that is not enough. You must fill your home with that which God gives you to fill it. You must make it a happy and joyful home. You must spend time with your children. You must love them and show genuine interest in them and talk with them and develop communication with them when they are just little children. Bear with their weaknesses. Talk to them about every aspect of their life. And make family devotions an important part of your home. Each day you must bring the Word of God. Have a time when you read the Bible with your family. You do not need to be a minister to do that. Genuinely, from your heart, open your Bible. Perhaps do a little study yourself on the passage before you read it. And then read it. Occasionally stop and ask a question and discuss it with your wife and your children there. Have a set time of family worship, of prayer and Bible reading. And allow nothing to shove it outside of your home.
Today there is the temptation, with our busy schedules, never to find time to sit down together as a family. We are always out - as if we are teaching our children that the real life is outside of the home. You have to get out of the house to have a good time, because you cannot possibly have a good time at home. Especially if the TV is broken, right? No, wrong! Absolutely wrong! Your home ought to be a wonderful and joyful place, and not only in those formal times of devotion when you read and talk about the Bible with your children, but also the times when you are cultivating attitudes, and working hard as a parent for spiritual openness with your children, and just being with them.
It takes a lot of work. It takes a lot of communication between the husband and wife. You talk these things over carefully with each other. You talk about each child, his weaknesses, his strengths. You try to figure out the best way of dealing with various situations and problems that come up in his life. Then you give of yourself, with an intelligent and loving direction, for the good of your home. This is important.
It takes a lot of work. It is whole lot easier to do other things. But this is vitally important. It is important for your child because the family is the place where his spiritual life is nurtured. God is pleased to use that family. He is pleased to give children to us and to give us a family, that that family might be the nursery for faith in Jesus Christ. That is the wonderful truth in the Bible of the covenant of God - that fathers to their children make known the truth of God. Or, as the apostle Paul says of Timothy in II Timothy 1:5, and again in II Timothy 3:15, that Timothy learned the faith and learned the holy Scriptures which made him wise to salvation, when he was a little child, from his mother and from his grandmother.
How do you come into the world? You do not come into the world, as a child, as the finished product, but you come moldable, under the influence of the home. The home is going to fix the influence and mold upon a child. The child is not born with the right attitudes or the right patterns of thought and right actions, contrary to all the teaching of evolution and all the philosophy of men. No, they have to come under the stamp of a Christian home where the molding is undeniable. That means that, as a parent, you do not wake up one day and say, "Well, I want to start molding my child and preparing my child. Perhaps I want to start teaching them about authority or sex education." Oh, no. You have been doing that already from day one. Your life before your children, your entire home, has been molding them from day one.
If you adopt the permissive philosophy that you must simply let the child go its own way and make its own choices, so that, when there is something the child does not like, you allow him to kick and scream and have a tantrum, you do not seek to curb that in the child, then I am going to tell you that that same pattern of behavior which showed itself in the child will later, when he is thirty, cause him to curse his wife when she does something he does not like, slam the door, and go find a divorce lawyer. Why is he going to do that? Because he has always had his own way and he never learned to face obstructions to his own will.
You are molding your child. The child is breathing in the atmosphere of the home, the atmosphere of the parents concerning work, the Sabbath, authority. You are teaching your child in all of these aspects, whether they are important or whether they are not important. How does a boy learn what the role of a wife is? He learns that from you, mother. And a daughter. What does she learn about a good husband? She learns that from you, Dad.
If your child sees you, father, being angry and evil to your wife and barking at her like a dog and never repenting from that sin, you are teaching that child, your son or your daughter. You are teaching him that the Word of God has no authority. That is what you are teaching.
You exert a powerful influence upon your children. This is so important. Be convinced of this. Be convicted of it. Then understand that as a parent you have no abilities of yourself. Of yourself you are only a sinner, and of yourself you can only pass on your sins to your children. You need the grace of God. You need the Word of God. You need daily to walk with God. That is a true parent.
A true parent is one like Enoch, who, in the midst of a busy family, walked with God, also in a world which was filled with evil and ridicule against everything of God. Enoch walked with God as a parent, in front of his wife and in front of his children.
Depend upon God. Even though you see all of your weaknesses and shortcomings and sins, hear His promise: I will be with you.
Let us pray.
Our Father, we pray that Thou wilt make us godly parents and that Thou wilt build Christian homes. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.
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Post by Admin on Jul 20, 2023 1:09:08 GMT -5
FUTILITY OF CONTENDING WITH A FOOL
PROVERBS 29:9, “If a wise man contendeth with a foolish man, whether he rage or laugh, there is no rest.”
“A wise man is here advised not to set his wit to a fool's, not to dispute with him, or by contending with him to think either of fastening reason upon him or gaining right from him: If a wise man contend with a wise man, he may hope to be understood, and, as far as he has reason and equity on his side, to carry his point, at least to bring the controversy to a head and make it issue amicably; but, if he contend with a foolish man, there is no rest; he will see no end of it, nor will he have any satisfaction in it, but must expect to be always uneasy. 1. Whether the foolish man he contends with rage or laugh, whether he take angrily or scornfully what is said to him, whether he rail at it or mock at it, one of the two he will do, and so there will be no rest. However it is given, it will be ill-taken, and the wisest man must expect to be either scolded or ridiculed if he contend with a fool. He that fights with a dunghill, whether he be conqueror or conquered, is sure to be defiled. 2. Whether the wise man himself rage or laugh, whether he take the serious or the jocular way of dealing with the fool, whether he be severe or pleasant with him, whether he come with a rod or with the spirit of meekness (1Co_4:21), it is all alike, no good is done. We have piped unto you, and you have not danced, mourned unto you, and you have not lamented.”
Matthew Henry
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Post by Admin on Jul 20, 2023 1:13:40 GMT -5
It is not evolution. Evolution says that, after all, marriage and the relationship of men and women is simply something that has evolved and gone through different patterns and periods and we are free to redefine that relationship according to what we think best suits our culture or our needs. That is not pious but wicked unbelief. The religion of evolution (evolution is not a science, but evolution is a religion) is anti-God, as it talks about the creation evolving, evolving to who knows where, and about the relationship of men and women today evolving and who knows to where or what.
That is not what the Bible says. That is not what the living God says in His Word. In His Word God, in the beginning, clearly defined marriage. He said that marriage would be one man and one woman united in faith in the living God. We read that He made them male and female, and that He gave to them in Genesis 1 the command to be fruitful and multiply. He further clarified that in Genesis 2:24 when He said that a man shall "leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh."
Now that union of one man and one woman must be a union in the living God. God never intended marriage to be anything other than the involvement of three: the man, the woman, and God. Adam and Eve were not made only for each other, but they were made for God. They were made to know God, to love God, and to serve God. And they were made to know, love, and serve God in their marriage. That was the will of God. And the idea is not simply that a little bit of religion will do us good in our marriages, and perhaps we should make sure that the kids get into Sunday School or something like that. But the Scriptures teach that it is the will of God that a man and a woman be united in the living God, revealed in Jesus Christ and in His Word. We read in I Corinthians 7:39, marry in the Lord. The husband/wife relationship with God is the most important factor in the success or failure of a Christian family.
The most important single factor in the success of the family is not, first of all, the compatibility of the man and the woman. The most important single factor in your marriage is not the figure of your wife. But the most important single factor in a marriage, and therefore in a family, is the relationship of the husband and wife to God.
Why is that so? Because, by nature, a man or a woman is a rebel against God. Romans 8:7 teaches that the natural mind is not subject to the will of God, neither, indeed, can be. Until one is made subject to God, he will fight like crazy against the directives which are given in the Bible. If you are not rightly related to God, your flesh is going to crawl because of the standards of God's Word with respect to marriage and the family. All of those standards are going to cut across the grain of your flesh. The most important single factor is the relationship of the husband and wife unto God, a living relationship unto God.
Listen! If there is no spiritual oneness in your marriage then the deepest hunger that you have will not be met. The deepest capacity for love will not be there. The deepest capacity that a man or woman has to love is only to be found in God. And if there is not spiritual unity in God, the God of the Bible, in your marriage, and if you do not make that primary, the thing upon which you work day after day, then the deepest intimacy in your life can never be cemented.
Now, if I am speaking today to young people, and if I am speaking to those contemplating marriage, this is absolutely crucial! Marry in the Lord. Make your relationship to God as He is revealed in the holy Scriptures in Jesus Christ the fundamental aspect of your union. And do so now. The home is built on the unity of the husband and the wife, whether there are children present or not. And what a beautiful thing it is when, by God's grace, they are united in God.
We might interject here a moment that this truth also brings out the horror of pre-marital sex. God has intended that sexual union be the gift that He gives to the husband and wife (to one man and one woman) in a lifelong bond of marriage. When that is taken out of that bond and is engaged in before marriage, the parties involved are eroding their very future family. The Bible and sex are very simple. The Bible teaches that that sexual union is given exclusively to marriage as a picture of the intimacy of the love of God that is given of the husband and the wife to each other.
The husband and wife must also know how to live with each other. God has created the man and the woman equal, as being creatures, equal in being depraved in their sins, and equal in the redemption of Jesus Christ. You see, it is not the Bible, and it is not God, but it is man that degrades a woman.
But the Bible also teaches that God has given to the man and to the woman their distinct places and responsibilities. The pro-feminist movement, as it is in our country, is not pro-woman but is anti-God, and anti-His-order for marriage. For, as God has created them equal as creatures, and as they are both assumed equal in depravity, and as they are both equal in the redemption of Jesus Christ, so also God has given to the man and to the woman in marriage their own individual responsibilities and calling. To argue against that is not to argue against some culture. It is not to argue against some mind-set that comes to us from the first century, from the apostle Paul perhaps. But it is to challenge and to go to war against God Himself.
We read in Genesis 1:26, "Let us make them (that is, the man and the woman) in our image." And again, in Genesis 2:18, God said concerning Adam, "I will make an help meet for him" - that is, a help answering to him. So the woman was made to complement the man, or the man and the woman were made to complement each other. The woman was made to answer to man's needs emotionally, intellectually, physically, spiritually. The husband is incomplete without his wife, and the wife was not made to exist on or for her own, but to exist with her husband. That is further made plain in Genesis 2:24, where we read that the man and the woman shall cleave to one another and shall be one flesh.
That idea of being one flesh means this: there must be a total commitment to intimacy in every aspect of their life, symbolized in the sexual union of one flesh. To be one flesh is not simply two bodies joined together. It is not simply two people sharing one house. It is not simply splitting the duties or going Dutch or whatever. That is not marriage. But to be one flesh refers to a total commitment to intimacy between the man and the woman in all areas of life, mind, heart, affection. And that comes to tangible expression in the sexual union.
Out of that one-flesh union comes the birth of children. The child represents what God has done - that He has made the man and the woman one. That is seen in the miracle of birth and the miracle of a child. That child represents the union God has made between a husband and a wife. If that marriage comes to divorce, then the question is asked, What do you do with the child? Can you unmake the child? You cannot do that! That child represents the union that God has made between a man and his wife.
But, as I was saying before, God has also given to the man and woman individual responsibilities. One of the most beautiful and clear passages in the Bible on this is Ephesians 5. If you are not familiar with that passage, I would suggest and recommend to you heartily that you study it, especially beginning at verse 21. And read all the way through to chapter 6:4, where you have some of the most wonderful and profound teaching of the Word of God with respect to marriage and with respect to the parent/child relationship. You will notice, when you read that passage, that the apostle Paul weaves two things into those verses: the creative order and the redemptive pattern. That passage of Scripture teaches that when God created the man and the woman, the husband and wife, there was a certain order that He made: the husband must be the head of his wife, and the wife must submit to her husband.
But the apostle Paul does not speak there only of the created order that God made. He speaks also of the redemptive pattern. That is, you will find in those verses that he continually speaks of Christ and the church, and that he says that that pattern of redemption must also be the pattern reflected in marriage. So we read in Ephesians 5:22: "Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord," and Paul goes on to say, "even as the church is subject to Christ." The duty or responsibility of the wife in the marriage is submission. God made man to be the head of the wife and the woman to follow. That was the created order. But also there was a redemptive pattern, that as Christ is the head of the church, and as the church willingly and lovingly submits to Christ, so ought a wife submit to her husband.
You have there, then, both the creative order and the redemptive pattern: as the church submits to Christ, so must the wife submit to her husband. God made Adam first. He took the woman out of the rib of man, out of that part which was very close to his heart, in fact, out of the portion of his body which protected his heart. There is the created order: man first, the woman taken out of the man. But also, as the church submits to Christ out of faith and love, so must the wife live under or in submission to her husband. That is her place: subjection, submission to her husband.
Then the apostle Paul in that passage turns to the husband and says, "Husband, love your wife." And he brings the redemptive pattern. How are you to love your wife? As Christ loved the church. That is absolutely awesome. What is the measure to which a man must love his wife? He must love her so that he is reflecting the love of Christ to the church. The apostle goes on in those verses to teach us that that love of Christ to the church was exclusive: He gave Himself for His church. It was a particular love, centered only upon His church - not upon all, but only upon His church, those given Him of His Father. Further, the love of Jesus Christ was not only exclusive, that is, for the church alone, but it was also sacrificial. He gave Himself, even to the death of the cross. And it was a nurturing love. He nurtures and cares for that church. That is the love that a man must have for his wife.
I hope that you see the difference between the love which leads us to the altar on our marriage day, and that love as it deepens and enriches through marriage. How much did you know of love when you got married? How much were you prepared to say "No" to your own likes and to your own objects of joy and to live for your wife, even as Christ lives for the church, with that sacrificial and nurturing love? How much does Christ love the church? That has to be reflected in you.
That means this: to any child who asks me, as a pastor, what it means that the church submits to Christ, I ought to be able to say to that child, "Look at your Christian mother. As your mother submits to your father, that is what it means that the church submits to Christ." Then, when that child comes and asks me, as a pastor, "Pastor, you have taught us in catechism that Christ loves His church. What does that mean?" I ought to be able to look at that child and say to him or her, "You look at your Dad. Do you see the way your Dad loves your Mother? That's what it means that Christ loves His church."
I ought to be able to say that to your children and to mine. It is that relationship, that husband/wife relationship, which is vital to the family. This is the relationship which is constantly giving off a powerful influence in every direction in the home. Even if the husband and wife were dumb, that is, unable to speak, their married life would be giving a most eloquent and powerful instruction to their children of the very fundamentals of the gospel.
Think about it. Conform your marriage relationship to the pattern that God has revealed in His Word. That is how you build a family.
Next week we will break off from our study of the Christian family to commemorate the holiday of Thanksgiving as it is celebrated in this country. But we will return to the subject a week after that and talk about the parent/child relationship. You'll want to be with us for both of those messages.
Let us pray.
Our Father who art in heaven, we pray that Thou wilt apply Thy Word, as we have heard it today, to our hearts, and that our marriages may indeed reflect the union of Christ and His church. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.
REV. CARL HAAK
Reformed Witness Hour, November 17, 1996 No. 2810
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Post by Admin on Jul 20, 2023 1:17:38 GMT -5
Is Denial of the "Well-Meant Offer" Hyper-Calvinism? (3/3)
David J. Engelsma
The Weight of Christian Tradition
In our view of the logical nature of truth, we have the whole, great weight of Christian tradition on our side. Read Augustine. Read especially Augustine's close argumentation in his anti-Pelagian writings. Listen to Luther say at Worms, "Unless I am convicted by Scripture and plain reason.... I cannot and will not recant..." Read the church's creeds, not only the Reformed creeds, but also the ecumenical creeds. They are logical (and ominously all are being discredited today as "philosophical" and "scholastic"). Consider the Westminster Confession's view of the nature of biblical truth when it says in Chapter I, VI, "The whole counsel of God... is either expressly set down in scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture...." Deduction of the counsel of God by good and necessary consequence is an absolute impossibility unless Scripture is logical.
Jesus is perfectly logical in Matthew 22:14 with regard to the matter at issue: the call of the gospel. First, the very fact that He explains the twofold effect of the call shows Jesus to be a logical thinker (if truth is illogical, explanations are ruled out): "For many are called, but few are chosen." Second, the explanation is the difference in the call itself, corresponding to God's differing purpose with the different objects of the call - a logical explanation: The "few," He calls according to election; whereas the "many" are called only outwardly, without any divine love or will to save.
It is part of our defense of the denial of the offer that we take the offensive against the offer. We charge that the offer involves a Calvinist in sheer contradiction. That God is gracious only to some in predestination, but gracious to all in the gospel, and that God wills only some to be saved in predestination but wills all to be saved by the gospel, is flat, irreconcilable contradiction. It is not paradox, but contradiction. I speak reverently: God Himself cannot reconcile these teachings. Nor is there any similarity between this contradiction and the truth of the Trinity that surpasses our understanding. The truth of the Trinity is not contradictory, for it holds that God is one in being and three in persons, not, therefore, one and three in the very same respects.
There is no relief for the sheer contradiction in which the offer involves a Calvinist in the doctrine of "common grace," as though the grace of predestination were a different kind of grace from that revealed in the gospel. For the offer exactly teaches that the grace of God for all is grace shown in the preaching of the gospel. This grace is not some non-saving favor directed towards a prosperous earthly life, but saving grace, the grace of God in His dear Son, a grace that desires eternal salvation for all who hear the gospel. The offer proposes universal saving grace - precisely that which is denied by predestination.
Nor is there any relief from this absolute, intolerable contradiction in a distinction between God's hidden will and God's revealed will. This is attempted as some kind of explanation and mitigation of the contradiction: The desire to save all (of the offer) is God's revealed will; the will to save only some (of predestination) is His hidden will. But this effort to relieve the tension of the contradiction in which the offer involves Calvinists gets us nowhere. For one thing, the will of God to save only some and not all is not hidden, but revealed. It is found on every page of Scripture. It is Jesus' teaching in Matthew 22:14: God has eternally chosen only some ("few") to be saved, in distinction from the others ("many"). For another thing, the distinction leaves us right where we were before the distinction was invented: God has two, diametrically opposite, conflicting wills. 14
Such teaching is destructive of truth and fatal to knowledge of truth. Such teaching thrusts confusion and strife into the very being of God:
Does God, or does He not, desire every human to be saved? Is God, or is He not, in His own being, gracious in Jesus to every human? I make bold to suggest that the god of the offer had a very peculiar way of displaying his grace to all and of carrying out his will to save all in the time of the old covenant, when he showed his word unto Jacob, but did not deal so with any nation (cf. Psalm 147:19, 20). Is it presumptuous humbly to request of the offer-god worshipped by professing Calvinists that he make up his mind between the alternatives of the offer (the will to save all) and of predestination (the will to damn some)?
Fact is, this contradiction cannot and will not be maintained in Presbyterian and Reformed churches. The one teaching must drive the other out. The doctrine of the "well-meant offer" will drive out the doctrine of predestination. Universal grace is intolerant of particular grace. The Arminians pointed this out at the very beginning of the effort to introduce universal grace into the Reformed church. Affirming in Article 9 of their "Opinions" that God's revealed will is the salvation of all, they denied any hidden will in God that contradicts this revealed will by decreeing the salvation of the elect only.
Evidence abounds in Reformed churches today that predestination and the offer are incompatible and that embrace of the offer results in repudiation of the theology of predestination. Official decisions are made by Reformed churches in the Netherlands rejecting the double predestination of the Canons of Dordt as "scholasticism" and "determinism."
Does God Love All?
Synods of Reformed churches in the United States approve the boldest teaching of universal atonement and the sharpest attack on the doctrine of an eternal decree of sovereign reprobation. The most effective rejection of predestination, however, goes on in the preaching and teaching in the congregations and in the churches' work of evangelism. The prevailing message in Reformed pulpits, catechism classes, seminaries, and mission fields is that of a love of God for all, of a death of Christ for all, and of the ardent desire of God to save all. This explains why Reformed churches can cooperate in evangelism with the most notorious free will preachers and organizations. Of reprobation, nothing is heard. Of an election that constitutes one eternal decree with reprobation, nothing is heard. And this means that nothing is heard of Reformed, biblical election. But if nothing is heard of biblical election, silence falls over the doctrines of grace.
Indeed, it is now the rule that Reformed and Presbyterian theologians defend the universalism of the offer by appeal to those texts of Scripture that Pelagius used against Augustine, that Erasmus used against Luther, that Pighius and Bolsec used against Calvin, and that the Arminians used against the Synod of Dordt: Ezekiel 33:11; John 3:16; 1 Timothy 2:4; II Peter 3 :9b. The point is not so much that the defenders of the offer are found in the company of the conditional universalists of all ages, using select texts against the doctrine of unconditional particularism, as it is that their appeal to these texts, on behalf of the offer and against predestination, necessarily involves them in a thoroughgoing semi-Pelagianism. Their deep attachment to the semi-Pelagian doctrine of universal, conditional grace (despite their avowals of Calvinism) manifests itself in their hostility towards those whose only offense is their faithful confession of the sovereign, particular grace of predestination. They inveigh against these Reformed saints at every opportunity as "harsh hyper-Calvinists."
But denial of the "well-meant offer" destroys good, urgent gospel-preaching. Especially does it make evangelism and missions impossible. Denial of the offer is unreformed practically. This is a third charge of the friends of the offer against the denial of the offer.
Defense against the Charge that Denial of the "Well-meant offer" is Unreformed Practically
The charge is that a Reformed church that denies the offer cannot preach the gospel to all, cannot call all to believe, cannot do missions. Such a church has no compassion for lost sinners. She intends to preach only to the elect, and can only preach to the elect.
This is a damning indictment. Any doctrine that restricts the preaching of the gospel in this way is false doctrine. Any doctrine that requires the preacher to ascertain the election of his audience before preaching to them is false doctrine. Any doctrine that binds the church to disobey the "great commission" (Matt. 28:18-20) and that forbids her to command all men everywhere to repent (Acts 17:30) is false doctrine. For God commands the church: "Go ... into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, call to the marriage" (Matt. 22:9).
But this is not the doctrine of the PRC in our denial of the offer. It is not intended to be our doctrine. It is not the implication of our doctrine. We have considered the charge that the denial of the offer is unreformed practically and testify before God and men that the charge is false.
Our denial of the offer involves no restriction upon the preaching, no rejection of missions, no embarrassment at calling sinners to Jesus Christ. We believe that the gospel is to be preached everywhere, to everyone "promiscuously and without distinction" (Canons of Dordt, II/5); that the ascended Christ sends the New Testament church out to do missions; and that all who hear the preaching are to be called to come to Christ.
The basis for this, however, is not universal grace and a universal will to salvation, as the "well-meant offer" likes to have Calvinists believe. Rather, the basis is predestination. God has chosen certain persons unto salvation. These persons, found among all peoples in all places, must be gathered unto Christ by the gospel. For their sakes is the gospel preached to all. It is also God's will that the gospel come to the reprobate with whom His elect are mixed in natural life. It is not merely the case that the gospel unavoidably comes to them also, because of their proximity to the elect. But this will of God that the gospel come also to the reprobate is not a will, or desire, that they be saved. For God has eternally rejected them, appointing them to stumble at the Word and perish (I Pet. 2:8). But they have an obligation to believe on Jesus Christ (even though they are unable to do so by virtue of their bound wills). And God wills to expose their outrageous wickedness, render them inexcusable, and harden them, as "vessels of wrath fitted to destruction" (Rom. 9:22), for His own glory and to illustrate the sheer graciousness of His effectual call to the elect.
All of this is to say that the necessity, the freedom, the promiscuousness, and the urgency of the preaching of the gospel are not in spite of election, but because of election.
We appeal to the teaching of our Savior in Matthew 22:1-14. Although only few are chosen, many must be called. This condemns all hyper-Calvinistic restriction of preaching to the elect, or to the regenerated, or to the "sensible sinner." Election in no wise hampers the promiscuous preaching or the serious call to all. But neither may the call of the many ignore, or conflict with, or destroy the election of the few. The sole saving purpose of God with the call of the many is the salvation of the few. The preaching of the gospel has its source, basis, and reason in the election of the church.
Having defended the denial of the offer against the unfounded and unjust charge that it restricts preaching, we may be permitted to put the hard question to those who criticize the denial of the offer as making missions impossible: Do they really want to maintain that a faithful carrying out of Christ's command to the church to preach the gospel is impossible apart from universal grace and a universal will to salvation? This is what the defenders of the offer are really arguing here: Good, urgent, promiscuous preaching, especially a serious call to every hearer, is impossible except on the basis of a love of God in Jesus Christ for every human and on the basis of a will of God for the salvation of all men. But this has always been the objection of Rome and of the Arminians to the Reformed doctrine of predestination and sovereign grace: The Reformed doctrine of particular grace, expressed especially in predestination, makes preaching impossible.
The Roman Catholic Church condemned, as a denial of the gospel call, the Reformation teaching that grace is limited to the elect in Canon 17 of the section "On Justification" in its "Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent":
If any one saith that the grace of Justification is only attained to by those who are predestined unto life; but that all others who are called are called indeed, but receive not grace. as being, by the divine power, predestined unto evil: Let him be anathema.15
The Arminians likewise condemned the Reformed doctrine of particular grace as a fatal weakening of the gospel-call in Articles 8-10 of their "Opinions" concerning the conversion of man.16 Article 9 has been quoted above. In Article 8 the Arminians gave their own view of the call of the gospel and rejected the Reformed conception:
Whomever God calls to salvation, he calls seriously, that is, with a sincere and completely unhypocritical intention and will to save; nor do we assent to the opinion of those who hold that God calls certain ones eternally whom He does not will to call internally, that is, as truly converted, even before the grace of calling has been rejected.
In Article 10 the Arminians repudiated the Reformed doctrine that the call of the reprobate, though serious on God's part, is without grace for them (which is, of course, exactly the position of the PRC in their denial of the offer):
Nor do we believe that God calls the reprobate, as they are called, to these ends: that He should the more harden them, or take away excuse, or punish them the more severely, or display their inability; nor, however, that they should be converted, should believe, and should be saved.
Is it indeed true that the doctrines of predestination, limited atonement, and efficacious calling hinder, or even destroy, free preaching, urgent missions, and a serious gospel-call? Is it indeed the case that a Reformed church needs the teachings of universal grace and a universal will to salvation to come to the rescue, so that she is able to preach and to evangelize? Then Rome and the Arminians were right! Let us admit it! Let us renounce Dordt! Let us call a world-wide Reformed synod, preferably at Dordt, in order to rescind the condemnation of Arminianism and in order to make humble confession of our fathers' sins against Arminius, Episcopius, and the others! And let us come, caps in hand, to the head of Rome, acknowledging that at least with regard to its fundamental doctrine of sovereign grace the Reformation was dead wrong!
While we are at it, let us also make the necessary correction in the teaching of Jesus in Matthew 22:1-14. As the explanation of the promiscuous preaching of the gospel and its twofold effect, let us put, "For many are called and many are chosen, but only a few exercise their free will to accept the well-meant offer."
Thus, we will have arrived at the false gospel that Paul damns as "gospel" in Romans 9:16, "It is not of him that willeth. . . but of God that shows mercy." But we will, at least, be honest and forthright.
We warn the advocates of the offer that, so far is it from being true that the denial of the offer destroys gospel-preaching, the offer-doctrine itself corrupts biblical preaching. The teaching of the "well-meant offer" creates preaching that assures all and sundry of the love of God for them in the cross of Jesus. It creates preaching that then must proclaim faith, not as God's free gift to whomever He wills, but as the condition which the sinner must fulfill, to make God's love effective. It creates preaching that soon adopts the most atrocious free will abominations, on the mission field and in the congregations: the altar-call and all its accessories. It creates preaching that silences basic biblical truths - truths that Jesus Himself loudly preached in His own evangelism: "ye must be born again"; "all that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me"; "no man can come to me, except the Father...draw him"; "I thank Thee, 0 Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in Thy sight."17 In the end, the offer silences preaching altogether, for more effective methods of winning all to Christ are discovered.
Yet I must end with a warning to ourselves who deny the offer. There has been a cold, callous, careless hyper-Calvinism. There is the danger that we are afraid to preach to all, afraid to call all, afraid to exhort and admonish - afraid, lest we compromise Calvinism, and afraid, lest someone accuse us of compromising Calvinism.
Read Calvin.
Study the Canons of Dordt:
And that men may be brought to believe, God mercifully sends the messengers of these most joyful tidings... by whose ministry men are called to repentance and faith. ..(l/3).
This promise, together with the command to repent and believe, ought to be declared and published to all nations, and to all persons promiscuously and without distinction, to whom God out of His good pleasure sends the gospel (II/5).
Most importantly. hear our Lord: "Go ye. . . and as many as ye shall find, call... for many are called, but few are chosen."
ENDNOTES:
14. This illicit and impossible distinction between two, opposite wills in God must not be confused with a distinction in the will of God that is taught by Scripture and sanctioned by Reformed tradition: the distinction between the will of God's decree (God's plan, or counsel) and the will of God's command. There is no contradiction between these for God's decree is His decision as to what He will do, whereas His command sets before a man what he ought to do. From God's command, e.g., "Let My people go," it cannot be inferred that it is God's decree that the command shall be obeyed, e.g., that Pharaoh will let the people go.
15. Philip Schaff, The Creeds of Christendom, Volume II (New York; Harper & Brothers, 1890), p.114.
16. Crisis, DeJong, pp. 226, 227.
For published materials on the Well Meant Offer, please click here. - www.rfpa.org/catalog/well-meant-offer.php For published materials on infant baptism, please click here
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Post by Admin on Jul 20, 2023 1:35:34 GMT -5
RUNNING THAT IMPORTANT RACE
We often think of patience as an act of waiting, and we speak of being patient when there is something that we want but that is not yet come. However, patience is endurance. We should bear that in mind when in Hebrews 12:1 we read, "Therefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which does so easily beset us, and let us with patience run in the race that is set before us."
Surely we cannot "wait" and "run a race" at the same time. We can however "run a race" with "endurance." Because we have the strength to run, we press on, even though there are things that hurt our flesh and that make running difficult. If we really want that prize, we certainly will run, even though it hurts, and some watching us ridicule us and advise us to stop.
Now, the idea here is not that we are running against others, trying to keep them from that prize. The author of this epistle speaks of a cloud of witnesses who ran in times past and reached the prize. Running with jealousy is running in a different race, for fleshly prizes.
The race set before us is one wherein one runs alone, and receives the prize because he reached the goal, not because he outran others. He must go forward and stay on the path that leads to where God gives the prize.
The saints mentioned in this verse, and called witnesses, are those of whom we read in chapter eleven. They also ran alone. In fact, they all ran in different periods of time. They received the prizes, and that encourages us to run with confidence. With the endurance, the ability, to continue in spite of the difficulties and complaining of the flesh, we must run, being thankful that our God through His Son and His cross realized the prize for us.
That prize is the crown of righteousness of which Paul told Timothy.
Read: II Timothy 4:1-8.
– JOHN HEYS
Daily Meditations for Spiritual Comfort
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Post by Admin on Jul 20, 2023 1:37:45 GMT -5
REFORMED WITNESS HOUR
Rev. Carl Haak
Blessedness Of Marriage (2/2)
Dear radio friends,
Last week we began a message on the truth of the blessings of Christian marriage. At that time we emphasized that there are three principles or truths that a Christian marriage must be built upon and which must be embraced by a true and living faith. Those three principles are that marriage is a life-long bond, that God intends His blessings and happiness to be experienced in marriage, and that in marriage our commitment and goal must be to be godly.
Continuing today: if we are going to experience the blessings of God in our marriage, then it is important that we see that we must practice certain things. There are certain spiritual virtues or graces that we must have before us as our lifelong goal, to know them and to do them. These are things that we see in the Scriptures. But they must not only be seen in the Scriptures. These are things that the Holy Spirit calls us to practice in our day-by-day living.
The first of these is obedience. That is a principle of the entire Word of God. Obedience is the way God is pleased to show His favor to us. Understand that statement. Our obedience is not the condition or the merit by which we obtain to God’s favor. But our obedience as children of God is the response of thanks that we give to God. What can be the response to God in His eternal, sovereign, free love to us in Jesus Christ? It can only be: obedience. And in that way of obedience, God is pleased that we experience His blessings. That is a very important truth.
That means that happiness in our marriage does not come by seeking or aiming at it, that is, at happiness. But happiness, true happiness, in our lives is always a by-product. It is a by-product of obedience. Now we have to get that straight. That is very hard for us to get straight because we want to make the fruit (happiness) the goal. We think we are going to get happy by aiming at being happy. And we make happiness the goal — I must be happy. Out of that type of thinking, you also begin to think, “Well, perhaps I should divorce, because I have the right to be happy, and this man (woman) is standing in the way of my happiness.” Then happiness becomes the proverbial carrot-on-the-stick. You cannot ever get it. You never get there. It is always an inch away. You are never happy. Those who pursue happiness as the goal and inalienable right of their life are never happy because happiness is a fruit of obedience. God says, “Obey Me, follow Me, trust Me, and you will be happy. Seek your own happiness,” says God, “live your life as if your feelings and your emotions are the god, the object, the great thing, and,” God says, “you will not be happy, for no idolater can be blest.”
Happiness, true happiness, in our lives
is always a by-product.
We must obey God unconditionally. That means that we must not look at the other person in our marriage and talk this way: “Well, I will, if you will.” Or, “How can I be understanding and how can I not fly into a rage when he does or she is that way?” You see, what we are doing then is making our obedience to God in our marriage conditional upon the other person’s actions. “I could be more loving, dear, if you …. I could submit and be more pleasant if you….” No, God says: Obey! The commands of God’s Word to husbands and wives are simple and clear. They are not complicated. They are straight forward.
“Husbands,” Ephesians 5, “love your wife.” What are you to do? Love! How? As Christ loved the church. To what extent? He gave Himself for it sacrificially. Love your wife with the love of Christ sacrificially. That is what you have to do every day.
Wives, what is your calling? Submit to your own husband. What? Submit, that is, place your life in service of his. How? As the church does to Christ. The extent? In everything that is lawful, according to the Word of God.
Now follow those clear words of God. God says, “Do this, not just when you feel like it, not just when it’s easy.” What a blessing it is when you have an understanding, spiritual, wise, compassionate husband; when you have a thoughtful, considerate, supportive wife. What a blessing! But that is not the condition of your obeying God. Obey God because God is worthy to be obeyed; because He is God; because He has redeemed us in the blood of His Son. Trust Him and obey Him — there is no other way!
So let us practice obedience.
Secondly, let us practice contentment. If we are going to be happy in marriage, we have to be content. That is another great principle of the Word of God. Let me read to you what we find in Hebrews 13:5 and 6, “Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.”
Contentment is the grace of being satisfied in the Lord’s provision and having our heart set upon His kingdom and its peace. We have so much! And the more we have, the less content we are. What is the cure? The cure is not that we should enter into a monastery. But this is the cure: We must understand that discontentment and covetousness lock out of our marriage the experience of God’s joy and blessing. The covetous person cannot see God’s blessing because in front of his eyes is himself and what he wants and the way he wants things. He has no eyes to see what God has given and the beautiful way that God is leading. He cannot see that.
Covetous men and women are angry men and women. They cannot have what they want and they begin to blame each other — that the other person is the reason they cannot have it — or their kids — all those children, that is why! Then materialism becomes the great goal of life and of marriage.
The Word of God says that the blessings of a marriage are to be found in the spiritual grace of contentment — contentment with the earthly provisions that God has given to us. And He has given so much! We do not need any more.
And He has given us each other. We must be content with each other. We must be content with the husband, or the wife, and receive such in meekness before God. We must understand that the wife, or the husband, has been brought to our doorstep, has been brought to us by the hand of God. Very often husbands and wives become bored with each other. They begin to look over the fence. They have a critical attitude. Or they become unbending and resentful over the other’s personality and especially over those things that irk them. God says that this is sin — pride — stinking pride! Be content. Be humble. Thank God for what He has given and who he has given you.
Contentment is the grace of being satisfied
in the Lord’s provision and having our heart
set upon His kingdom and its peace.
And then, the third thing we must practice is commitment. In the Word of God, we read in Malachi 2:14, “The LORD hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant.” There the wife is called “your companion,” which means literally, “fellow traveler.” You have entered into a covenant. In that covenant, you are fellow travelers, walking to the heavenly Zion, committed to help each other so long as God gives you breath.
The Lord, here in Malachi 2, is speaking of treachery. The treachery that He refers to is that a person would play the part of a friend or come close to another and say, “I’m your friend,” and then desert her in her difficulty or desert her when the pilgrim’s path is too difficult, when it is uphill, when it is too hard. When the path goes through bramble bushes and thorns, he says, “I don’t want to walk with her anymore.” The Lord is speaking here of the treachery of a person who deserts his friend, or the treachery of a person who comes pretending to be a friend but is intending rather to work destruction and ruin.
God says that we must, as fellow travelers to heaven, be committed to our marriages and to each other. We must be faithful traveling companions. We have made a vow before God. When we make that vow, on our wedding day, that vow is not to be spoken or taken lightly. We sign a marriage contract. We sign a license because we realize that we are standing before God and we are committing ourselves, before the face of God, to lifelong faithfulness to each other — an exclusive bond. No third party may enter into this bond. Marriage is a room in which there is no exit except the door marked “death.” “For better or for worse; for richer or for poorer; in sickness and in health; to love and to cherish till death us do part.” God severs in death. But we may not.
Marriage is a room in which there is no exit
except the door marked “death.”
We bind ourselves before God in the unconditional covenant of His grace. God witnesses upon our wedding day. God looks at that. And, looking to God on our wedding day, we look into the future. With the Word of God open before us, and rings of commitment now upon our fingers, we vow that no matter what comes we will be faithful to love one another in the love of God. Where do we find this faithfulness? We do not find it in ourselves, but we find it in God — in God who is the faithful One — and in His mercies which are new every morning. Therefore, by way of aside, I must again, as so often in the past, exhort you and me: “We must be members of a sound, biblical church that preaches to us the truth of the infallible Scriptures. If you are married, you have to be in such a church because it is only through such preaching and through such a church and through such teaching of the Word of God that you will receive that great gift of God — faithfulness to your commitments.
Going back, then, to our subject. We must be committed. When we go through difficulties in our married life, our flesh and the devil try to use those difficulties to create separation, and we use those difficulties as an excuse to draw back from each other emotionally. That’s something we can do, even without leaving each other and separating in divorce. We can continue to live together, but be separate emotionally. God, however, intends the very struggles, the very difficulties that you are having, the difficulties that you have with each other, to be the material whereby He will create greater love and greater intimacy in our marriage. I said last week that God forges marriage. He welds husband and wife together. And He uses trials to accomplish that.
We must be committed, looking to God. We must be committed to our marriage. Then we will indeed experience blessing. The blessing will be that we will grow together in the love of God, so that our marriage does not become an end in itself. But we understand that marriage has been given of God first of all for this purpose: that we might taste and see that the Lord is gracious, in the words of Psalm 34, or that we might see that we are indeed His Hephzibah, as we read in Isaiah 62: My delight. In Ephesians 5:32, you will remember, after Paul has been talking about marriage and husbands and wives and what they are to do, he says, “You know, I’m really not talking about marriage at all. I really haven’t been discussing with you marriage. I really haven’t. What I have been talking to you about is Christ and the church. That’s what I have been talking about. Yes, I’ve been talking about husbands and wives. But the reality that I’ve been conveying to you is not really earthly marriage. I’ve been conveying to you an abiding blessing in the work of Jesus Christ on the cross — a blessing that is not going to end at the grave. I’ve been talking to you about the abiding marriage of Christ and the church, and your house of marriage must be pointed toward that reality. When your house of marriage is pointed to that reality of the eternal marriage of Christ and the church, then your marriage will be blest.”
Marriage, then, is a private school, so to speak, in which you are being taught the love of God and how to grow in that love for each other. In that school, every day, God puts you in your desk and He begins to teach you. God says, “Now I am going to teach you about the love of God, the unconditional love of God.” What God teaches you is that you must love each other even when your husband, or your wife, is frustrating to you, even though you come up to God with a sigh and you say, “I’m tired of this.” God says, “I’m going to teach you what it means truly to love each other — not a love that flickers like a candle, not a love that seeks only what you can get, not a false love, but a true love of God.” Then you emerge from that school better equipped to express the love of God to the saints outside of your classroom. You study your partner in your classroom. You begin to ask questions, “What are her great needs? How do I address those needs? What are his moods? What affects his mood? How are we, before God, to bring a conflict to a mutual resolution? How do I satisfy my wife? How do I please my husband?” Both of you, then, are committed to pleasing God. Then you have the ingredients for blessing, for God says, “I will show you how to please Me. And I will show you how to be blest.”
Marriage, then, is a private school, so to speak,
in which you are being taught the love of God….
Then also we will experience the blessings of the gift of children. And we will experience blessings of children gathered around our table. Sometimes God does not work that way. Sometimes, according to His own purpose and will, He does not give the fruit of children to marriages. Then we must understand that the essential blessing of marriage is not, first of all, children. If we do not have children, it does not mean that our marriages are unfulfilled. That is not biblical. That is not true. God does not leave us unfulfilled.
But God does bless our marriages with children — the blessings of a family life. That is part of the blessings that we desire and covet. But He also blesses us with the hope of eternal glory in Christ. That, too, belongs to the blessings of marriage, so that more and more we begin to hope for that marriage of the Lamb and of His bride when we shall be one. More and more we live together as companions with that goal before us. We say to each other: “Honey, our hope is not here. Our satisfaction is not found in a home, farm, possessions, business, pleasures. Our fullness will be when we are gathered at His right hand in heavenly perfection. We shall sit down with Him at the Tree of Life. And we shall rejoice, world without end! Our hope is that world, which knows no end.” That is our hope. Now, when all the sorrows of this present life come to us in our marriage (perhaps the death of a child, financial woe, sins and troubles, old man Adam in our flesh bothering us), then we say to each other (we bring each other to the Word of God as husbands and wives), “Honey, up. This world is not our home. We cannot stay here. Flee to the mountains, for the Lord will destroy this place. But we have a building made of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens!” A godly marriage makes us eager for home, our eternal home in the marriage of Christ and the church.
These are the blessings. The blessings of God are not counted in terms of money, standard of living, style of house or car. But they are lasting blessings, eternal blessings, deep and broad and quiet and restful in the soul.
Then your marriage, which began on your wedding day, will end at the graveside. In between those two points there will be laughter and tears, anger and joy, heartbreak and heartleap. But through it all, God will see you through. May you ever turn to Him who was and who is and who is to come. And may your marriage give you to understand a little bit of what it means that He calls you Hephzibah, My delight is in you.
Let us pray.
Father, thanks for the Word. Bind it to our hearts through Jesus Christ, Amen.
Rev. Carl Haak
Pastor, Georgetown PRC, Hudsonville, MI
RWH Broadcast; Nov. 9, 2003 / No. 3175
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Post by Admin on Jul 20, 2023 1:47:29 GMT -5
THE STEPS OF A GOOD MAN
In John Gill’s COMMENTARY OF THE BIBLE, he treats Psalm 37:23 and Psalm 1:6 thus:
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PSALM 37:23
THE STEPS OF A GOOD MAN ARE ORDERED BY THE LORD,.... Or "of a man"; such a man as is blessed of the Lord; the steps which he takes in life are ordered by the Lord, both with respect to things temporal and spiritual: his good conduct is not of himself, it is a blessing of the Lord, who directs and keeps the feet of his saints, and inclines them to take such steps, and pursue such methods, which he succeeds and prospers; AND HE DELIGHTETH IN HIS WAY; which he knows and approves of, guides and directs him in.
PSALM 1:6
FOR THE LORD KNOWETH THE WAY OF THE RIGHTEOUS:,.... The way in which he walks by faith, which is in Jesus Christ; the way in which he goes to the Father, and carries to him his sacrifices of prayer and praise, which meet with acceptance through him; the way in which he seeks for and expects justification, pardon, and salvation, namely, through the blood, righteousness, and sacrifice of Christ: and also it may denote his course, his walk and conversation; for the righteous man is a follower of God, he takes up the cross and follows after Christ: he walks not after the flesh, but after the Spirit, according to the rule of the word, and as becomes the Gospel of Christ: and this way of his in every sense the Lord "knows"; not merely as he is omniscient, for by his omniscience his eyes are upon the ways of all men; he knows the way of the wicked as well as the way of the righteous; but the sense is, that the Lord approves of and is well pleased with his way of faith and holiness; he knows this person, so as to love him and take delight and pleasure in him; his countenance beholds him with a smile; he is well pleased with him in Christ and for his sake, on whose account he has respect to him and to his offerings, to his service and duty, to his ways and works; and hence he is a blessed man, is in a happy situation, and all he does prospers, for he and his ways please the Lord: and hence also it is that neither he nor his way shall perish; the way he is in leads to everlasting life, and he being a follower of the Lord in a way pleasing to him, he shall never perish, but have eternal life;
BUT THE WAY OF THE UNGODLY SHALL PERISH; for his way is a wicked way, the way of sinners, Psa_1:1; it leads to destruction and death, and all that walk in it shall perish; for if is a way the Lord knows not, does not approve of, he abhors it; wherefore the man that continues in it will be unhappy, wretched, and miserable to all eternity. These last words therefore show the reason of the happiness of one sort of men, and the unhappiness of the other; and prove and confirm the same: the Lord knows, approves of, loves, and delights in the one; he does not approve of and delight in the other.
– John Gill
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Post by Admin on Jul 20, 2023 8:30:07 GMT -5
GOD'S SOVEREIGN LOVE, OUR COMFORT
Prof. Robert D. Decker
The subject as assigned to me by the committee was put in the form of a question: "Does emphasis on the love of God lead to Arminianism or to comfort for God's people?" At first I did not understand the question. How could emphasis on the love of God lead to Amninianism? Upon a bit of reflection, however, I think I know what the committee had in mind.
There are those who emphasize the love of God. God is love, they say. And the Bible does indeed say that God is love. But these people say this means that God loves everyone, all men. It belongs to God's very nature to love all. Because He is love, God cannot hate. God cannot and does not reprobate people, determine to condemn them to everlasting punishment on account of their sins. God in His love gives everyone a chance to be saved. Only when a person obstinately and persistently refuses to repent of his sins does God condemn. God offers His love to everyone. And some even go so far as to say that God actually saves everyone -- even unbelievers. Hence the church, according to this view, is called to preach the love of God in the form of a "well-meant offer." The church must tell people everywhere, God loves you; God has a wonderful plan for your life; God wants to save you! It's all love, love, love! And one must never talk about hatred or the wrath of God.
This extremely popular conception of the love of God not only leads to Arminianism - it is Arminianism, if not outright universalism. And, this conception provides absolutely no comfort at all for the people of God. It may sound like a comforting doctrine to say that God loves everyone and hates no one, but in reality it makes the love of God depend upon the fickle and sinful will of man. If man accepts the offer of God's love, God will save him. In other words, God cannot love unless man loves! There is nothing certain about that! A man may love one day and hate the next. There is no comfort in that. Besides, if that be true, who is God? According to the Arminian conception, man is really God for his love must be first. That is blasphemy. From this point of view Arminianism is just as destructive of the Christian faith as liberalism.
Out of all this comes a fear on the part of Reformed people, a fear that emphasis on the love of God will lead to Arminianism. I can well understand that Arminianism is the last thing we want! But in reality the fear is groundless. Why? Because the Arminian conception of the love of God is not a conception of the love of God, but is a distorted, corrupted conception of God's love. Emphasis on the Biblical conception of the love of God (as that is expounded in our Reformed Creeds) does not lead to Arminianism, but is the death-blow to Arminianism. At the same time it is the sure, abiding comfort of God's people. Therefore the church must emphasize the love of God. It must, in order that the truth may be known and defended, in order that God's people may be comforted, and in order that God's name might be glorified!
Consider this subject with me under the topic:
God's Sovereign Love, Our Comfort.
Notice:
1) What It Is,
2) Its Characteristics, and
3) Its Comfort For God's people.
What It Is
Before anything else we must understand that love, all love, is of God. This means that love is not what the world calls love. The world speaks of love: parental love, marital love, love among friends, etc. The world talks about love in many senses. In fact the world speaks of love as the cure for all of its problems. All the world needs, so it is said, is a little bit of love. That is not love. At best it is only a certain natural affection or attraction. For the rest it is only earthly, sensual, and devilish; it belongs to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. The world's love, in fact, is the very opposite of God's love. The world's love is hatred against God and His Christ and against His people. That is all it ever can be. No matter how sweetly the world may talk about love, the world, when it comes right down to it, hates God and His cause. This is not merely my opinion; it is God's Word. The Bible teaches that "the carnal mind (literally, the mind of the flesh, R.D.D.) is enmity (hatred) against God; it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be" (Romans 8:7).
Positively, love is of God. God is the only source of all love. There can be no love outside of God. This means that the only love there is, is God's love. Love is an attribute of God, a characteristic of His divine being, along with other characteristics such as holiness, grace, mercy, etc. And if we may indeed make comparisons, love is the chief characteristic of God's being. In I John 4:8 we read the utterly amazing statement: "God is love." God is love. We do not read that of the other virtues of God, to the best of my knowledge. We read that God is the God of all grace, that He is merciful, holy, full of lovingkindness, etc. But in I John we read that God is love. That means that, whatever else God may be, He is preeminently love. Love belongs to the very essence of God's being. In all that He is and in all that God thinks, wills, determines, and does, He is love. God as God, the Almighty, sovereign Creator, Sustainer of all things, and the Redeemer of His elect in Christ - in all that, God is love.
What is that love? In Colossians 3:14 we read that: Charity (love) is the bond of perfectness." Love is a bond. It unites or makes one. In love, two become one. They are united in a bond with one mind, one will, and one desire. Love is a unity in fellowship. What is more, love is the bond of perfectness - that is, moral perfectness. It is what the Bible calls holiness. That is the kind of bond love is. This, by the way, is precisely why love cannot exist in the world of sin and unbelief. Love unites in a bond of righteousness and of moral goodness. And again, let it be emphasized, love is first of all in God. God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit live in an intimate bond of fellowship, a bond based upon the perfection of God's own righteousness and holiness. God loves Himself and has no need of any being outside of Himself. God lives in the bond of perfectness.
The wonder is that God loved and still loves us! He loved us in eternity. Before the foundation of the world God in His love predestinated us to be conformed to the image of His Son (Ephesians 1). God, Who has no need of us, determined to set His love upon us and take us into His covenant fellowship. This love of God is of course especially manifest in Christ and His cross. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16). "But God commendeth His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). God loved us so much that He gave His only begotten Son to the cross, to the agonies of hell, to death and the grave for us. Looking at that amazing love of God and considering our worthlessness as depraved, filthy sinners we can only exclaim with the inspired Apostle: "Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God...." (I John 3:1). That is the love of God! Behold that love of God! Marvel at it and be thankful for it.
The question is, how do we receive the love of God? The answer is: from the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, poured out by the ascended Christ, sheds abroad the love of God in our hearts. The Bible says: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance..." ( Galatians 5:22, 23 ). Note that the text does not say the fruits of the Spirit, but the fruit of the Spirit. Hence, there are not many fruits but only one fruit. That one fruit of the Spirit is the love of God. And that love-fruit of the Spirit is composed of many virtues and blessings. Joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, etc, all belong to the love of God which is the fruit of the Spirit. It is indeed a rich fruit!
That love of God which we receive from the Holy Spirit is seen in us. We manifest that love of God exactly in loving the brother, our fellow saints. This means that we never hurt them or speak evil of them. Always we seek their welfare. We are willing even to lay down our lives for the brethren. This is emphasized very strongly in Scripture. I John chapters three and four make the point that we cannot love God if we love not the brother. Jesus said: "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love for one another" ( John 13:35 ).
The Characteristics of Love
That love of God has two main or chief characteristics. It is first of all a sovereign love. That is written on almost every page of Scripture. In Deuteronomy 7:7, 8 we find Moses addressing Israel: "The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people: But because the Lord loved you." God's love did not depend upon anything in Israel. As a matter of fact, Israel was repeatedly manifest as a rebellious and a stiff-necked people. There was nothing in them which made them worthy of God's love. The Bible teaches (cf. Ephesians 1:3-11 ) that we are blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world and predestinated unto the adoption of children by Christ And God did all of this in love, in His sovereign love. There is no other reason, therefore, for our election into Jesus Christ than the sovereign love of God. According to this same passage of Scripture, that love of God is according to the good pleasure of His will! God freely determined to love us in Christ. Then there is the classic passage, I John 4:10 : "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us." Literally the text reads: "In this is love. . ." all love: God's love to us and our love to God and our fellow saints. All love consists in this, not that we loved God, but that He loved us. God's love is always first. Apart from that there could be no love.
That is the sovereign character of God's love. Negatively this means that God's love does not depend upon anything outside of God Himself. God set His love upon Israel and chose them to be His people, not because of Israel's worth or love, but simply because God loved them. In love God chose His elect in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world. That was not because of anything in the elect. In order to love us God does not need our love. His love is sovereign. He loved us according to the good pleasure of His will, His own sovereign determination. Positively this means that God's love is always first. It is always the fountain of all our love both to God and the neighbor. In fact the love that is in us is not ours but God's.
This is the death-blow to all Arminianism. Arminianism makes God's love second. God loves all men, according to the Arminian, but He cannot save unless man loves Him. Hence, according to Arminianism, man's love must be first and then God can love him. God's love according to this does not sovereignly produce man's love, but is dependent, bound and limited by man, a response to man's love. That is the opposite of the Bible's dear teaching and it makes all comfort for the child of God impossible.
The second main characteristic of God's love is that it is particular. This too is written on nearly every page of Scripture. The classic is Romans 9:13 : "Jacob have I loved but Esau have I hated." Some, many in fact, have tried to explain that away by saying it means, "Esau have I loved less." That is sheer nonsense. The word is hate. God hated Esau, while His love was for Jacob. This became very obvious in the history of the two nations which came out of Jacob and Esau. Israel was God's chosen and precious, while Edom appeared as the reprobate enemy of God's cause. Jesus taught the same truth repeatedly. In John chapters six and ten our Lord tells us that He comes and lays down His life for those whom the Father loved and gave to Him: His sheep. He tells the unhelievers that they are not of His sheep and, therefore, they do not hear Him and follow Him. In John 17 Jesus prays for and loves those whom the Father has given Him out of the world and He does not pray for the world.
All this means that God's love is particular. It is for His elect in Christ Jesus. God's wrath abides upon the rest who are vessels of wrath fitted unto destruction (Romans 9). One can trace that, too, throughout the history of the Bible. According to Genesis 3:15 God puts enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. That seed of the woman is Abel, Seth, Enoch, Noah, Shem (with Japheth dwelling in his tents), Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Israel, David, Christ. Galatians 3 teaches that that one seed is Christ and all who are in Him by faith. That one seed is the beloved of the Lord.
The Comfort for God's People
This precious truth of God's sovereign and particular love affords a marvelous comfort for God's people. Let us return to our question for a moment. Does emphasis on the love of God lead to Arminianism, or to comfort for God's people? To Arminianism? Never! God's love is sovereign and particular. Arminianism cannot stand that! To comfort for God's people? Most assuredly. This is all of our comfort. Knowing that God's love is sovereign and particular I am assured of my election into Christ; God's love does not depend upon me. Looking at that love of God as manifest in the cross of Jesus Christ, I am assured of my redemption. Considering that that love is always the same and never changes I am assured of my Preservation unto glory. That is my comfort. It is a comfort grounded in the Almighty Sovereign God.
This is precisely the thrust of that victory song of Romans 8 . After speaking of eternal predestination, the Apostle issucs the challenge: who shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus? The answer is this: nothing! In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded that nothing shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord! That same Apostle has this prayer recorded in II Thessalonians 2:16, 17 : "Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work."
That is the love of God. It must he emphasized because Scripture emphasizes it. Only, the love of God must he emphasized, not some distorted, corrupted notion of it. And that is, indeed, all our comfort.
Prof. Robert D. Decker (1940-2021) served as pastor of the Protestant Reformed churches in Doon, Iowa, and South Holland, Illinois, and 33 years as a professor in the Protestant Reformed Seminary.
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Post by Admin on Jul 21, 2023 1:18:37 GMT -5
Perseverance of the Saints
1. What God begins, he finishes
Psa 138:8 The LORD will perfect that which concerneth me: thy mercy, O LORD, endureth for ever: forsake not the works of thine own hands.
Ecc 3:14 I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him.
Isa 46:4 And even to your old age I am he; and even to hoar hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you.
Jer 32:40 And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me.
Rom 11:29 For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
Phi 1:6 Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:
2Ti 4:18 And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
2. Of all whom he has called and brought to Christ, none will be lost
Joh 6:39-40 And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.
Joh 10:27-29 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.
Rom 8:28-31 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
Rom 8:35-39 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Heb 7:25 Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.
Heb 10:14 For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.
3. God's preservation of the saints is not irrespective of their continuance in the faith
1Co 6:9-10 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
Gal 5:19-21 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
Eph 5:5 For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
Heb 3:14 For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;
Heb 6:4-6 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.
Heb 10:26-27 For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.
Heb 12:14 Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:
Rev 21:7-8 He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.
Rev 22:14-15 Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.
4. However, it is God who sanctifies us and causes us to persevere
Joh 15:16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.
1Co 1:30-31 But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.
1Co 6:11 And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
1Co 12:3 Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.
1Co 15:10 But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
Gal 3:1-6 O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if it be yet in vain. He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.
Eph 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
Phi 2:12-13 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
1Th 5:23-24 And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.
Heb 13:20-21 Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
1Jo 2:29 If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him.
Jud 1:24-25 Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.
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