(Kersten, Heidelberg Catechism, Vol.1. part 12)
The Name Jesus
Lord's Day 11
Psalter No. 421 st. 6
Read Isaiah 7
Psalter No. 203 st. 1, 2, 5
Psalter No. 425 st. 3
Psalter No. 3 st. 2, 3, 4
Beloved!
With much clearness and power Isaiah has foretold the coming of
Christ in the flesh, saying, "Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and
bear a Son, and shall call His name Emmanuel."
It was to the wicked King Ahab, who had built his hope of
deliverance upon the covenant with the King of Assyria, that the
prophet spoke this word of the Lord. Rezin of Syria, and Pekah, the
son of Remaliah, the King of Israel, had gone up to war against
Jerusalem and Ahab could not prevail against them. In one day
120,000 of the men of Ahab fell, while 200,000 women, sons and
daughters were carried away captive by Israel, and the land was
plundered. Moreover the Edomites and the Philistine had invaded the
South. Was it any wonder that the hearts of Ahab and of his people
were moved as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind? At his
wit's end, Ahab made a covenant with Tiglath-Pileser of Assyria,
which took all the gold and silver that was found in the house of
the Lord and in the treasures of the king's house. How very glad
Ahab was to have received the mighty king of Assyria as his ally!
This clever act of statesmanship saved him!
But now Isaiah came to him with the message that he must trust
in the Lord. Evidently the prophet had a good message, for he came
at God's command to Ahab with his son Shear-jashub, whose name means
"the Lord saves." No mighty ruler, but the Lord shall save His
people, regardless of the abominable sins they have committed. The
Lord condescends so far, that He is willing to confirm His promise
with a sign. Ahab may ask for a sign either in the depth or in the
height.
But Ahab declined to do so. What business was it of Isaiah? The
king shall take care of the matters of state, let the prophet
confine himself to religion! Very piously but with bitter hatred
Ahab said, "I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord." And
then, when Ahab cut off all divine help, the Lord gave a prophecy,
"Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign, 'Behold, a virgin
shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call His name Emmanuel'."
The faithful Jehovah shall, in spite of the hardness of Ahab, save
His people. Judah cannot disappear until Shiloh comes to deliver His
people from their enemies, but that deliverance is not the work of
men. God shall provide a Branch, Who shall sit upon David's throne
forever. A virgin, conceived by the Holy Spirit, shall bear a Son
without intervention of a man. The Son of God became the Son of man.
His name shall be called Emmanuel, that is, God with us. Already in
the 5th and 6th Lord's Days, the instructor showed us clearly that
only such a Mediator could save Adam's sons and daughters from their
state of deep misery. He only can and shall save His people.
Therefore at the annunciation of His birth the angel already called
His name Jesus, that is, Savior.
The eleventh Lord's Day of the Heidelberg Catechism for which I
now ask your attention speaks of that name Jesus.
Lord's Day 11
Q. 29: Why is the Son of God called Jesus, that is a Savior?
A. Because He saveth us, and delivereth us from our sins; and
likewise, because we ought not to seek, neither can find
salvation in any other.
Q. 30: Do such then believe in Jesus the only Savior, who seek their
salvation and welfare of saints, of themselves, or anywhere
else?
A. They do not; for though they boast of Him in words, yet in deeds
they deny Jesus the only deliverer and Savior; for one of these
two things must be true, that either Jesus is not a complete
Savior; or that they, who by a true faith receive this Savior,
must find all things in Him necessary to their salvation.
The name Jesus is given to the Son of God
I Because He alone saves,
II So that for our salvation we reject all else,
III Because in Him by faith His people have everything.
I
The twelve articles of faith are divided into 3 parts. The first
part of God the Father and our creation has been clarified in Lord's
Days 9 and 10. Lord's Day 11 begins the explanation of what is
confessed regarding God the Son and our redemption. No less than
nine Lord's Days are devoted to this important part. Three Lord's
Days teach us about the person of the Mediator by explaining His
names. The next three speak of the state of His humiliation, while
the last three speak of His exaltation. Lord's Day 11, then,
considers the name Jesus.
Jesus is the personal name of the Mediator, as Christ is His
official name. Other names are also given to the Messiah in the Word
of God. He is Emmanuel, God with us; the Son of God; the Son of Man;
and His name shall be called, Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God,
the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. The name Jesus is a
summary of all these names. This name was given to the Mediator at
the command of God. "Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall
save His people from their sins." In accordance with that, the angel
spoke of Mary to Joseph, "She shall bear a Son and thou shalt call
His name Jesus." Therefore "when eight days were accomplished for
the circumcising of the child, His name was called Jesus, which was
so named of the angel before He was conceived in the womb." (Luke
2:27). During His sojourn on earth He was known by that name. Above
His cross was written: "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews."
The apostles preached in that name. The dying Stephen cried out:
"Lord Jesus, receive my spirit," and to Paul He appeared saying, "I
am Jesus whom thou persecutes." And till the end of time remission
of sins will be preached in His name. The name Jesus is the
Mediator's personal name.
This name was commonly used among the Jews. We also find it in
the New Testament. A helper of Paul bore this name. (Col. 4:11). We
also read of the sorcerer Bar-Jesus, (Acts 13:6) and in Heb. 4:8,
Joshua is called Jesus, for the name Joshua, as also Hoses, means
the same as Jesus. Joshua was a type of the Savior, both Joshua the
successor of Moses and Joshua, the High Priest.
Moses could not bring the people into Canaan. He himself would
not enter Canaan for he had struck the rock instead of speaking to
it. He had spoken, but entirely wrong, for in that speaking he had
robbed God of His honour. Moses said, "Hear now, ye rebels; must
*we* fetch you water out of this rock?" *We*, Moses and Aaron? But
could *they* do so? Does not Paul teach us that this miracle that
water flowed from the rock was possible only because Christ was the
rock of His people: "The spiritual rock that followed them was
Christ." But Moses did not point to Him; on the contrary, He was
pushed aside, and thus he struck a blow to the true salvation, to
the true rest of Israel. Therefore the Lord said to Moses and Aaron,
"Because ye believed Me not to sanctify Me in the eyes of the
children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation
into the land which I have given them." Moses, the representative of
the law, was not able to give rest. His successor Joshua would lead
the weary tribes into the rest, destroying the mighty Canaanites,
and taking their inheritance. Thus Joshua was a type of the Lord
Jesus. He crushes the head of every enemy, and brings His elect into
the spiritual and eternal rest.
The High Priest Joshua also points us to Christ. In Zecharia 3
he is pictured as standing before God, clothed in filthy garments.
The people are all unclean, and in the high priest the people are
justified in spite of Satan, according to God's good pleasure. That
was possibly only because the Lamb was slain before the foundation
of the world, and would one day in our flesh take upon himself the
sins of all His people. He was the Joshua who stood before God in
filthy garments, not for His own sins, but for the sins of His
people. He paid the debt for their salvation. His name is Jesus, for
He saves His people from their sins. Saving them is so great a work
that He alone is able to do it, and we cannot seek nor find any
salvation with anyone else. He who was given of the Father, He alone
is the Savior, excluding everything of the creature. "There is none
other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved."
He only merited salvation and He Himself applies it to His people.
For saving Adam's posterity not only means to merit salvation, but
also demands the application of the merited salvation to the heart
of him for whom it is merited. That is overlooked too much in our
days, not only by those who teach that God wants all men to be saved
and that Jesus died for all men, or worse, by those who scorn,
ignore or reject Jesus as the Nazarene; but also by many, although
they emphasize that there is salvation in none other (for it was
merited only by His suffering and death), yet in practice they
diverge so much that it seems while praising Him with the mouth,
they deny Him by their deeds.
Their constant advice is, "You must go to Jesus with your sins;
you must accept Him and believe in Him. It is your own fault if you
remain outside, for Jesus calls you, so go to Him", etc. A right
professor of the truth will never deny that if a person is lost it
is his own fault, and that the condemnation shall be doubly heavy
for those who have lived under the offer of grace; but on the other
hand, it is of free grace if anyone comes to Christ. "No man comets
to the Father but by Me, and no man comets unto Me except the Father
which sent Me, draw him", said Christ Himself. A man can receive
nothing, except it be given him from heaven. We cannot and will not
come to Jesus even though He has been preached to us from childhood,
and although we confess Him according to the Scriptures, we shall
never seek life in Him, nor go to Him in truth with our sins. He
merited salvation perfectly; not a mite more shall ever be demanded;
no sacrifice shall ever again be required. What would this benefit
us, dead in sin and full of enmity as we are against free grace, if
this merited salvation were not applied to us. The application of
that salvation is also the work of Christ. He finds His people in
the state of death, and there He calls them by their names. The
saving work of the Lord does not commence in our souls when we ask
and seek timidly for Him, but when in enmity against God we hasten
on to our destruction, without Christ, and without hope. There the
Lord takes those He has purchased with His blood as a fire brand out
of the burning. There He Himself applies that salvation to them, and
they shall never be lost. But oh, how very necessary that Christ
Himself shall work the application and also the appropriation by
faith, so that the soul shall acknowledge Christ as the perfect
Savior. How often we see in the lives of God's children that the
heir, though he be lord of all, differs nothing from a servant,
because he is under tutors and governors. Here those heirs mistake
the meriting, there the applying. Here they seek peace in their
prayers and tears and instructive reading and sweet communion with
God's people. They think it is well with them when they are in a
sweet frame, as though God's justice can be satisfied with anything
less than the righteousness of Christ; and they lose hope as soon as
the sweet frame passes. Thus many souls are held in the bands of
unbelief, and are prevented from coming to Jesus, in whom alone
their salvation and redemption can be found. Oh, if the Lord did not
apply salvation, the poor soul oppressed by shame and guilt, would
wander away from Christ to eternal perdition. Yet He leads us upon
ways and paths that are entirely unknown to us; and He uncovers us
and causes us to complain bitterly that it is becoming worse with
us, and we are losing hope until we are brought to our wit's end,
and guilty of death, we throw away our money as of no value on the
market of free grace, and learn to know Him who reveals Himself to
us as the only and complete Savior. There is salvation in none
other. Then He becomes precious above all others. Our soul pants and
thirsts after Him as a heart pants after the water brooks. How can
we leave Him? He has the words of eternal life. Oh, such souls would
want to cry after Him all their lives, that they might receive Him
as their only salvation. However, they find that their arms are too
short to receive Jesus as their complete Savior. Their claim upon
Jesus is so furiously contested, the question is raised whether He
ever paid for their sins, and they have no might against that great
multitude. Oh, could they but come to Jesus, could they accept Him!
Nothing is more impossible than that, and it becomes more and
more impossible. All those things that formerly gave them hope, that
serious seeking, those heartfelt longings, the earnest pleading upon
God's promises, that listening to the Word with fruit for their
soul, and so many other things have all disappeared, making place
for dullness, and lukewarmness and even enmity against free grace.
Truly, if anything of man were necessary to attain salvation, these
souls could give up all hope of being saved. Oh, what an unspeakable
blessing: Christ Himself applies salvation, as He has also merited
it. He cuts them off from their old root and grafts them into
Himself. He is able to apply it since He has conquered death and the
grave, and no enemy can hinder Him in His work. Satan's head is
bruised, nor can the enmity of our heart prevail over His love.
God's elect shall glory that they were reconciled with God as
enemies, and that this Mediator is their Jesus because He saves His
people from their sins, and moreover, that no salvation can be
sought or found elsewhere. He saves, yes, He alone, by having us
here in this life lose ourselves more and more and lean upon Him,
and later by leading us by His power through death to eternal glory,
so that in never-ending song we shall acknowledge with the
innumerable hosts of those purchased by His blood, "Thou art Jesus,
Savior, for Thou hast merited and applied salvation to us."
His people shall forever ascribe to Him all the glory to which
He, as the only and complete Savior is entitled. If already in this
life we shall acknowledge this Jesus by faith, it is necessary, as
we shall now hear in the second place,
II
to reject all other help to our salvation.
Question 30 speaks of this very clearly: "Do such then believe
in Jesus the only Savior, who seek their salvation of saints, of
themselves or anywhere else?"
And the definite answer of the instructor is: "They do not, for
though they boast of Him in words, yet in deeds they deny Jesus, the
only Deliverer and Savior."
There are saints; they are in heaven, and even upon earth by the
renewal of the Holy Spirit. Are God's children not called a holy
nation, a peculiar people, that shows forth the praises of Him Who
called them out of darkness into His marvelous light? But those
saints were saved only by Jesus through grace. Saints as the Roman
Catholic Church have are nothing; people who by their good works
enjoy special favour with God, and can "commend" us before God, or
have a treasury of merit, do not exist. Those saints in themselves
are also condemnable before God. Hence, as our confession says, it
is dishonoring instead of honoring the saints, when we seek our
welfare and salvation from them, and kneel before their images
crying "Holy Mary, or Peter, or who it may be, pray for us." The
Roman Catholics indeed deny Him, the only deliverer and Savior,
although they boast of Him in words. They have neither part nor lot
in Him. Mary did not rejoice in her holiness, but called Jesus her
Savior. Hence he who seeks his welfare and salvation with the
saints, denies the Lord Jesus Christ, Who is the only and true
Savior. Outside of Him no salvation can be sought or found. Everyone
feels that this question is directed against the Roman Catholics,
for with their words they praise Jesus, but by their actions they
deny Him. Oh no, they do not say that Jesus is not the Savior, but
they deny Him as a complete Savior and they also teach that we need
an intercessor with that Savior. They would honour the Savior so
highly that we, poor sinners, cannot approach Him. We must have
someone to intercede with Him for us, and that can be done by the
saints who excel in holiness and have entered into glory. Those
angels and saints are special favorites with Him, and therefore we
must call upon them so that by their intercession we can be saved.
Tell me, can Jesus as Savior be denied more by any other means?
Does not all that is within Him yearn to save sinners? For whom else
did He give Himself unto the death on the cross, than for lost
sinners? How were the saints saved otherwise than by this Savior
alone, without any of their good works, hence as miserable,
condemnable sinners before God? On what then could they rest their
plea? Away then with the doctrine of worshipping angels and saints!
It is a denial of Jesus' perfect atonement and of the eternal love
with which He has loved and always shall love His own, so that He
shall save them freely. Away with that cursed doctrine! Scripture
teaches us so differently: "Abraham is ignorant of us, and Israel
acknowledges us not: Thou, O Lord, art our Father, our Redeemer; Thy
name is from everlasting." When Cornelius, the centurion of
Caesarean, fell at Peter's feet, the apostle took him up and said,
"I myself also am a man." Paul and Barnabas also refused the honour
the heathens of Lystra would have heaped upon them, rending their
clothes and crying, "We also are men of like passions with you."
When John on Patmos would worship the angel, he was reprimanded:
"See thou do it not; for I am thy fellow servant, and of thy
brethren; worship God."
Hence, saints may not be worshipped, nor angels. Jesus is the
only and complete Savior of miserable sinners. Yet in practice we
are so Roman Catholic. Here we cling to a dear child of God, there
we lean upon a god fearing father or mother in heaven, yonder ...
but if you are no stranger to your innate enmity against free grace,
you feel that in thousands of ways we deny in deeds the only Savior
Jesus, although we boast of Him in words. We must be loosed from all
creatures to lean only upon the Lord.
Neither can the angels be our saviors. They have not suffered
for us. They are of another nature than we. Upon God's command they
will protect the elect, but they are unable to do anything toward
our salvation. Whoever seeks the salvation of their soul with them
is deceiving himself.
Nor may we seek our welfare and salvation elsewhere. God fearing
parents or other relatives or friends can do nothing for our real
welfare. Cursed be the man that maketh flesh his arm. There is but
one Savior who can save us.
Neither with the saints may we seek salvation, nor with the
angels, nor with ourselves, nor with anything else. Yet we are
always inclined to do so.
"Of ourselves." Think of that Pharisaical life. Paul is a clear
example. He thought he was pleasing God when he boasted above others
that trusted in the flesh, that is, in self; he was circumcised the
eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a
Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the law, a Pharisee; concerning
zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in
the law, blameless." He sought all his salvation in self. How many
are like Saul, who consider their baptism, and family, and legal
zeal, or clear understanding of the way of salvation as their
Savior. You meet people who have no knowledge of spiritual life, yet
have such a clear understanding of the Word and the way of God's
children, that they make you think of those described in Hebrews 6:
they were enlightened, have tasted of the heavenly gift, were made
partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good Word of God,
and the powers of the world to come. Yet they never have the least
need in their heart for the only Savior Jesus. Let everyone take
heed, for outside of Jesus there is no way to life. With our own
manufactured saviors we will be eternally lost.
We must give up all that is ours if we would trust that only
Savior, for He does not divide His work with us; He is our Savior
alone, or He is not our Savior at all. Oh, how hard it is for God's
people to honour Him as such, and how often we perceive that we have
many saviors. The words of the daughters of Jerusalem are not
strange to us: "What is thy Beloved more than another beloved, that
thou dost charge us so?" We often turn aside by the flocks of Jesus'
companions. It is as if we had other lovers of our soul, as if we
knew other shepherds, and other flocks. That causes us to remain
hidden; we cannot come out, our heart lacks liberty; we cannot
attain a firm foundation for our soul, and we are beaten by the
waves of doubt and unbelief. Often we seek salvation where it is not
to be found. We must be taken off so many foundations, while we need
the Holy Spirit to cut us off from everything so that we will truly
trust in Christ. We must die every day if we shall have some
exercise of faith in Jesus as our own Savior.
That exercise of faith is of the most importance. I repeat this
also for their sake who seek their life in their emotions. We are
headed for other times. Since the intellectual view of Scripture has
become hollow and is rejected, men want a religion with feeling;
religion must have warmth. Already men are looking to the East,
where men's mentality is so much warmer and deeper than with us
superficial, cool Westerners. Sadhu Sundar Sing (formerly a kind of
Buddhistic Nazarite) had to come out of far away India to tell
Holland Christians what God had taught him of salvation. Has God
then in Netherlands no more people that know and fear Him? Could
they not tell better, and without the fallacies of Sundar Sing about
heaven and hell, what their soul has experienced of God and of
divine matters? But men want a feeling that is not based upon
Scripture; a blessed feeling, but not salvation in Jesus. That
foolish religiosity has something to say to us. They who seek
salvation in that dethrone the Savior, deny Him. I pray you, do not
rest upon a tear and a strong emotion. Can we be saved without
Jesus? Awake, thou that sleepest! We, lost sons of Adam, must be
reconciled with God by the blood of the Lamb. There is no other way,
no other way needs to be opened. In Jesus alone lies all salvation.
"He that believeth on the Son has everlasting life, and he that
believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God
abideth on him."
That makes salvation possible for the most wretched sinner, who
sees no way of escape; to whom all seems empty; who can not live on
the tastes of God's goodness and mercy, however much they refresh
the soul. The justice of God demands satisfaction which cannot be
rendered by previous experiences, nor by our emotions, which have no
foundation. God's holy majesty cannot allow us in His fellowship
because of our sin.
Christ invites the weary and the thirsty ones, those that cannot
keep alive their own soul, to find their salvation outside of self,
in Jesus. Oh, that our heart would thirst after Him. Come ye to the
waters, buy without money, and without price. Nothing of ours need
be added, no sigh, no tear, nothing! Jesus merited salvation and
applies it. We ourselves are standing in the way. We are too rich;
we have too much to be reconciled to God as an enemy. May the
discovering grace of God take away all of self, making room in our
hearts for Him Whose name is Jesus, because He saves His people from
their sins.
Never shall we be able to fathom the depth that lies in the Name
Jesus. Every time we are shown from another side what that name
means, for always anew our own sinful self reveals itself; it
refuses to walk the way of grace, but turns to sin and corruption.
Therefore that name becomes more and more precious to us, and the
wonder becomes greater that the Son of God became the Savior, and
that for us. He glorifies His power more and more for the
mortification of our members that are on earth. He not only is the
ground of our justification, but in Him is also deliverance from
sin. He would have His people know more and more their need of Him,
so that with all the evil that continually besets them they may find
forgiveness in Him and may be freed from their bonds. In Him, yea,
in Him alone they shall glory by faith; His name is Jesus, for He
saves His people from their sin. Thus He begins here on earth to be
glorified in and by His people and there will be in them a growing
in the knowledge of the Savior, that causes them to cry out in
adoration, "Thou, Lord Jesus, hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood."
Here already they taste the beginning of eternal joy, which shall be
complete when they cast their crown before Him and will honour Him
perfectly to all eternity.
He bears the name Jesus, because, as we now consider in the
third place,
III
His people have all things in Him by faith.
How simply but very truly the Catechism says, "For one of these
two things must be true, that either Jesus is not a complete Savior;
or that they, who by a true faith receive this Savior, must find all
things in Him necessary to their salvation."
The Roman Catholic Church and all others who deny man's state of
death, deny that Jesus is a complete Savior. They take the crown
from His head and place it on theirs. They ascribe the attaining of
salvation partly or completely to their free will and good works.
Oh, how they will find themselves deceived! The Lord Jesus is the
only and complete Savior. Nothing, not even the least bit of man can
serve for his salvation.
He is the Savior, because as Mediator He both merited and
applied salvation. He delivers His people from the greatest evil,
and makes them partakers of the supreme good. He delivers from sin.
The angel announced to Joseph, "He shall save His people from their
sins," and therefore this is a faithful saying, and worthy of all
acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,
sinners who are condemnable before God, and live without Him in the
world; sinners who neither can nor want to do aught but add sin to
sin, thus increasing the gulf between themselves and God unto
eternal perdition. They do not want to know the way of salvation,
but are bitterly opposed to free grace. Adam's sons and daughters
Jesus saves, them He purchased with His blood, for in eternity He
offered Himself to His Father as their Mediator. To them He applies
salvation when He stops them on their way of sin and fells them with
His Spirit, and to them He reveals the eternal Savior in the measure
in which they know themselves to be sinners. The important thing for
everyone is to become a sinner before God, for he who does not know
himself as a sinner, knows not Jesus as a Savior. Becoming a sinner
before God is something quite different than merely realizing that
we do wrong things, and are often inclined to wickedness. Such a
realization is found in some measure in heathens that have some
sense of justice (Rom. 1:19, 20) and that sense may certainly be
supposed to be in all professors of the truth. But the true
knowledge of our misery is the work of the Holy Spirit, and is quite
different. It stirs up fear of God in us, and yet not slavish fear,
although the soul is often held in bands, but rather filial fear
that leads to God, and causes one to confess his sins to God
uprightly and with sorrow. That sinner has to do with God, with the
implacable righteous One, with the spotlessly Holy One. That makes
sin so dreadful.
In the light of man's own reason and conscience, sin can be so
desperately great, but what must sin then be in the light of God's
glorious perfections. "Woe is me! for I am undone," called Isaiah,
and would not every uncovered sinner cry out about himself, "I am
undone"? Sinners shall be saved, and whatever we think we are more
than sinners, prevents us from knowing the complete Savior. Notice
the Bible saints, and let the children of God bear witness out of
their own experience, whether it was not thus. To the degree that
Jesus had become a more precious, more necessary and more complete
Savior, to that degree they had learned to know themselves as
sinners. That shall be the only hope of salvation for all that
people. "He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities."
He *saves*. He paid for the debt of Zion to the justice of God,
but He also conquered Satan, sin and the world. Now we find a
twofold blessing in Him: as we stand guilty before the justice of
God, we find satisfaction; and as our soul is held captive by the
power of unrighteousness, we find deliverance. This makes Him so
suitable for hearts that have learned to know themselves. Oh,
everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, everyone that
thirsteth after righteousness and after the cleansing of their soul.
Their guilt is never too great; their soul is never too black;
their backsliding, and their faithless turning away are never so
that He cannot find a ransom. In Him is eternal salvation, but only
in Him. How God's children should continually stir up one another as
the poet says in Psalm 105 as we shall sing,
"Seek ye Jehovah and His power," etc. Psalter No. 425 st. 3
Application
And now, beloved, may the instruction of this Catechism be
precious, especially in these days, to us and to our children, so
that we do not yield in our warfare with the Roman Catholics and
with all that deny the only Savior. But may the Lord especially
grant us true knowledge of Jesus Who saves His people. The whole
world seeks satisfaction. We have lost God and that loss in us calls
for fulfillment. It is so in all men. That is why the stadiums are
filled Sunday after Sunday; that is why thousands are drawn to the
theaters every day, and that is why their empty souls watch whatever
is presented in movies and all things shown at Vanity Fair. All
those thousands seek and ask for fulfillment; but not where it is to
be found. Their soul is averse to Jesus and His Word, and still, the
whole world shall leave them empty. Without God and without Christ,
and therefore without hope for eternity; that is the judgment upon
all that seek their salvation, not in Jesus, but elsewhere.
May it fall as a thunderbolt upon our empty soul. Our hope is
vanity, a hope of spiders, if we are strangers of the only Savior.
Appreciate the fact that God allows us and our children to live
under the preaching of His Word; but consider that also the
preaching of that Word shall one day testify against us if we never
have true fellowship with that Mediator, whose name is Savior.
If you can find no rest, let your uncovered soul seek peace only
in that Savior. May the Lord take away all grounds outside of Jesus.
Continue seeking Him and may He grant you to know Him as the one Who
both merited salvation, and applies salvation. Do ask yourself
continually what you have learned of that only Savior. Did He reveal
Himself to your soul by the Holy Spirit, so that you must cry out
with Peter, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God"? There
can be so many changes in our life, and emotions in our soul that
are not saving. The story of Orpah was not placed in the Bible for
naught. Should we then build up ourselves and others in various
frames and marks of grace? Nevertheless, Christ does not forsake the
work of His hands. He shall confirm it, but He does it by leading us
to Jesus, and revealing Him in our soul. No one is deceived in Him,
but true knowledge of Him fills our heart with so much joy and
wonderment, that all our affections are drawn to Him. "Thy name is
as ointment poured forth, therefore do the virgins love Thee." Oh
what a precious time God's children experience when often for a long
time they may experience sweet communion with Christ! That
abominable unbelief is subdued more and more. There is not as much
drifting upon feeling, but faith is directed more and more upon Him
Who said, "Flesh and blood has not revealed it unto thee, but my
Father which is in heaven." Did it not seem as if you could taste a
little of that which the disciples were privileged to have during
the three years that they walked with Him on earth? Yet with all
that our hearts remain closed for the mediatorial work of Jesus. If
Peter could have prevented it, the Lord would never have died, and
neither do we want to be saved by Him alone. How indispensable then
it is for God's people to discover their foolishness and their
enmity against free grace. Then your life becomes so different. Then
you see yourself without Christ in the world, and unreconciled with
God. May that lack drive you in lively yearning to the Lord, that
you may know Him as your Savior. To that end it is necessary that we
lose our life and find it in Him alone. God Himself must cut us off
if we shall be grafted into the true vine. We cannot take hold of
Him, not even with all our longing after Him; but may He assure us
that He has become not only for others, but also for ourselves the
ground of eternal salvation. May He comfort our souls in the warfare
which we must fight in this life and cause us to enter into the
house of His Father, in which He has prepared mansions for His
people. Amen.
(continued in part 13...)
----------------------------------------------------
file: /pub/resources/text/ipb-e/epl-02: krhc1-12.txt
.