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BE THANKFUL UNTO HIM

Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting, and his truth endureth to all generations.—Psalm 100:4–5 

It is not difficult to close our eyes and hear the saints of all ages making a joyful noise unto Jehovah and coming into his presence singing this psalm. It is not difficult to imagine the saints when they at last enter into the eternal gates and the heavenly courts of God, overcome and delighted by the beauties and glories of heaven, singing this psalm of thanksgiving to Go

There is something grand about this psalm: its sweeping expressions of praise to Jehovah as God and as good, merciful, and faithful; its steadfast refusal to point anywhere else but to Jehovah, the only good; its profound statement of the essence of the Christian life as gratitude for grace received; and its exuberant intonation of the praise that swells in the believer’s heart when he contemplates the glories of Jehovah his God.

 

 

 

 

There is something grand about this psalm: its sweeping expressions of praise to Jehovah as God and as good, merciful, and faithful; its steadfast refusal to point anywhere else but to Jehovah, the only good; its profound statement of the essence of the Christian life as gratitude for grace received; and its exuberant intonation of the praise that swells in the believer’s heart when he contemplates the glories of Jehovah his God. The psalm breathes unshakable confidence and assurance that, God being for us, nothing can be against us; for we are his people and the sheep of his pasture. He has made us and not we ourselves. Psalm 100 is a grand psalm. 

There is also something grand about the congregation of God gathering on Thanksgiving Day to do exactly what the psalm commands his people to do: enter into Jehovah’s gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. What a contrast—stark and telling—does this activity of the church of Jesus Christ form to what passes for thanksgiving celebrations in the world. The church’s sober, reverent, holy, and joyful rejoicing in the Lord is lovely; the world’s godless celebration of things is ugly. The church’s thanksgiving to God for his goodness is light over against the darkness of the beastly eating, drinking, and merrymaking of the world’s besotted revelry. Blessing God’s name instead of blessing our own names and accomplishments. Rejoicing in Jehovah instead of bowing down to worship mammon.

Be thankful unto him! Be thankful to Jehovah. He is the great i am that i am. He is the perfectly self-sufficient one, fullness and perfection itself, possessing all things and needing nothing. He is the creator of all things by the Word of his power and the one who upholds all things by the utterance of his mouth. All is his.

Bless Jehovah’s name. Wherever and however God has revealed himself is his great name. The name of God is God. To bless his name is to bless him. To praise his name is to praise him. His name reveals that he alone is God. He alone is the sole object of worship and therefore of all thanksgiving and praise.

He has clearly revealed his name in creation. All the world knows! The whole of heaven and earth and all of history are the theater for the brilliant display of his glory. The earth and everything in it was created for no other purpose than to glorify him. The creation and every creature find their highest purpose in the glory of God, and all creatures are so many instruments to praise him. From the creation of the world are clearly seen his invisible power and Godhead. History speaks of nothing except of the glory of God in upholding and governing all things.

A revelation because of which all men—every man, woman, and child—are inexcusable in the day of judgment for refusing to give Jehovah thanks and to worship him. The world knows that God is and that he must be worshiped because the invisible things of God are clearly seen in the creation, and God has manifested them unto all people. But the world does not praise God; they do not thank him; and they do not bless his name. Inexcusably mad, they take the knowledge of God and hold it under in unrighteousness. Immediately, with their reprobate minds they corrupt that knowledge. Stubbornly, they continue in their sins, knowing the judgment of God. They change the glory of the incorruptible God into the image of corruptible things, and they worship the creature rather than the Creator. The Greek worshiped Zeus and the rest of the Olympian gods. The Roman worshiped Jupiter and the other gods of his Pantheon. The modern man worships himself, his money, his work, the false gods of his apostate philosophies and theologies, and whatever other idols he makes and conjures for himself.

So unthankful! They do not bless his name. They may be thankful that their gods of money, prosperity, rich food, and good health have not abandoned them. But they are not thankful unto Jehovah, and they do not bless his name. The natural man is earthly, sensual, and devilish. Although he sees God’s eternal power and Godhead displayed in creation, he holds that truth down in unrighteousness and reaps for himself the wrath and judgment of God revealed against that ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. And according to Jehovah’s very purpose, the natural man is without excuse.

Jehovah’s name must come another way to make men thankful, so that they bless his name. His name must come in Jesus Christ. Jesus is the name of God. He is the name of God come near unto his people, come in the very likeness of their flesh, Immanuel, God with us. He bears the great covenant name, Jehovah, for he is Jehovah come to save us. In Jesus Christ we see Jehovah, the triune God Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—the God of the covenant himself and the God of a gracious covenant with his people. In Christ we see Jehovah as self-sufficient and independent. He alone is. He needs no one else to complete him. He does not depend upon anyone else. No one and nothing can add to his glory. In Christ we know Jehovah as the unchanging God, eternal and eternally the same. There is no shadow of turning in him. In Christ we see that Jehovah is the all-wise God who eternally ordains and perfectly carries out his will for his glory. In Jesus Christ we see that Jehovah is the all-sufficient, independent, all wise, omnipotent savior of his people. He depends on no one and nothing other than his own arm and strength for the salvation of his chosen people.

For we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. He made us and not we ourselves. Creator of the world. Marvelous. Raised the dead. Wonder of grace. God made us his people, recreating us in Jesus Christ after his own image. Surely, he made us in the natural sense. In him all men live and move and have their being. God gave us our lives, our personalities, and our characters. He determined everything about us. He made us who we are. This fact alone demands that we thank him and bless his name.

But more, so much more! He made us his sheep. As independent as Jehovah is, so are we as sheep utterly dependent on him. He chose us as his sheep in his eternal counsel, set his love on us, and made us the apple of his eye and his peculiar treasure and joy. He engraved us on the palms of his hands that we might be ever before him and wrote our names in the Lamb’s book of life. He sovereignly calls his sheep to him from the midst of the world and separates them to himself in Christ. God regenerated each of his sheep and gave them new, thankful hearts, creating each one in Christ Jesus unto good works, which he had before ordained that we should walk in them. All his sheep he seals with the Spirit of promise to make them inviolable and indestructible unto the day of Christ. He is our shepherd who rules in our hearts, cares for us, defends us, and preserves us. He feeds us with the blessings of salvation. He opens the stores of heaven and earth to supply our daily needs. We are his, absolutely and exclusively.

We are his people, and he is our God. We are the sheep of his pasture, and he is our shepherd.
Be thankful unto him.
For Jehovah is good.
He is good in himself. He is only good. He is all good. There is none good but God. In him alone is goodness, and outside him there is nothing good. He is good in all his perfections. He is spotless perfection and holiness. He is immaculate beauty and loveliness itself. Pleasant, altogether lovely, worthy of all praise.

And he is the overflowing fountain of all good. Jehovah lavishes goodness on his creatures. He is good to them. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, from the Father of lights.

In his goodness he loves the righteous and blesses them. In his goodness he hates the wicked and curses them. In his goodness he punishes the wicked and ungrateful for their thankless lives. And so he reveals the goodness of his holy and righteous judgments. In his goodness he had mercy on whom he would have mercy. In that he reveals the goodness of his particular mercy, for all were equally involved in ruin. He is merciful to some only, whom he has chosen. Jehovah is good, and his mercy is everlasting.

That goodness of God manifests itself in his mercy and his covenant faithfulness. He loved his people and willed to deliver them from all their woes and to bless them with himself, to cause them to know him and to taste and experience his blessedness. He was and is merciful to us in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the revelation of the goodness and the everlasting mercy of God. Jehovah gave us to Jesus Christ in eternity as his people. Jehovah sent Jesus Christ There is something grand about this psalm: its sweeping expressions of praise to Jehovah as God and as good, merciful, and faithful; its steadfast refusal to point anywhere else but to Jehovah, the only good; its profound statement of the essence of the Christian life as gratitude for grace received; and its exuberant intonation of the praise that swells in the believer’s heart when he contemplates the glories of Jehovah his God. in the fullness of time to deliver us from our sin and guilt—our death—which is our greatest misery. And in his goodness and mercy, he also regenerates, justifies, sanctifies, and glorifies his sheep. He adopts us for his children and heirs. He assures us of his goodness, love, and mercy toward us. He held back nothing from us but gave us his own Son to deliver us. Mercy shown in our generations. Good, merciful, and faithful to believers and their seed. 

Unchangeably good. His truth endures to all generations. Give thanks unto him and bless his name because he is unchangeably good and merciful. His truth is his faithfulness. His mercy endures forever because he is unchangeable and his promise is unchangeable. God’s faithfulness is the unchangeableness of his goodness and mercy. In his faithfulness he does not change, turn back, or swerve from his eternal purpose to bless his people in Jesus Christ. Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. He so preserves us that not a hair can fall from our heads; yea, all things must be subservient to our salvation.

Good to us in all things. In his goodness, mercy, and faithfulness everything must serve God’s purpose and will to bless us. In fruitfulness, prosperity, and health, God is good. He gives us bounties to enjoy. By the blood of Jesus Christ, we have again the right to have, to enjoy, and to be thankful for the earthly bounties we receive.

No unrighteous man, no wicked person, has any right to anything of the bounties of God’s creation. He is a robber and a thief. All his eating and drinking do nothing but increase his guilt, and for his unthankfulness he is doubly guilty.

In Christ we have again the right to the fullness of the earth because Jehovah bought us from death and sin and made us his own children. He is good and merciful in everything. In sickness, in poverty, and in barren years, our God and Father is good, for these things must also serve our blessing and salvation. In all things Jehovah is good because he causes all things to serve the everlasting salvation of his people, whom he has willed to bless.

Be thankful unto him; bless his name. Profoundly simple calling, encapsulating the whole duty of the believer, the quintessence of the Christian life. Be thankful to him and praise him: in all your praise thank him, and in your thanksgiving bless his name.

Thanksgiving is not everyone’s business, the National Day of Thanksgiving notwithstanding, and not everyone who takes the word thankful on his lips gives thanks. All are duty bound to give thanksgiving, for the Lord is good and is good to all. Some will not. And for that they will be judged for their unthankfulness. God will give them over to their insatiable lusts.

Thanksgiving is the noble duty and spiritual activity of God’s dear sheep, the beloved people of his pasture. Thanksgiving is worship. Thanksgiving is the confession of him in truth as the God Jehovah. Nowhere is thanksgiving more marred and destroyed than where the truth of his name is denied. Thanksgiving is the confession of Jehovah and that we are entirely dependent upon him. He is independent and needs nothing from anyone. We are dependent and need everything from him. Thanksgiving is our praise, our singing, our prayers, and our whole thankful lives of obedience to him.

Be thankful unto him and bless his name, for Jehovah is good. We are thankful because we have prosperity? But what if we lack? What if instead of health, we have sickness; instead of riches, we have poverty? Instead of a fruitful year, we have a barren; instead of peace, there is war? Are we then without cause for thanksgiving?

No, Jehovah puts the cause of our thanksgiving well beyond the reach of the vicissitudes of this life, beyond all changes that may happen in the world, and beyond all the circumstances of our lives. He puts the cause of our thanksgiving outside ourselves, outside the world itself, and locates the cause of that thanksgiving in himself and his own being, in his goodness, steadfast covenant love, and faithfulness to his people. He places us firmly and securely in his own hands.

This is a reason for praise and thanksgiving. It is he that made us and not we ourselves; we are his people and the sheep of his pasture. He is good, his mercy is everlasting, and his truth endures to all generations. Is not that ground for thanksgiving? Shall we not give thanks unto him and bless his name for that?

Bless him in his gates and courts—the sanctuaries within the temple of God in the city of Jerusalem. This refers to the intimate confines of his gracious presence in the church, covenant, and kingdom of God. The gates and courts of God are where the church gathers for public worship. It is the most appropriate place. How different from the world’s beastly celebrations concerned only with food, drink, and football.

A lifelong, all-consuming activity for believers. Not for a day, a month, or a season. Nothing else is fitting for children of God than to give thanks and to bless Jehovah’s name. To praise God in the depths of regenerated hearts with joy, gladness, and singing because he has delivered our souls from death, forgiven us our sins, and sanctified us as his people. To praise him in all our lives. To praise him with song. To praise him in our whole lives in the vocations that he gives to us, whatever those stations may be. To praise him in his courts in the church. To praise him in the school, in the home, on the job site, and in everything we do. To praise him by drawing near to him in our prayers. To praise him in our whole thankful lives.

O Jehovah, we thank thee that we may thank thee. —NJL

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There are many passages of Scripture with speak to this subject. The apostle Paul praises the brethren, “That ye remember me in all things” (1 Cor. 11:2). The word “remember” in this text means “care for.” The apostle is grateful to the saints for their caring for him both in his physical and in his spiritual needs. The same apostle was deeply conscious of is need for the prayers of the believers, especially that he might have boldness to make known the mystery of the gospel “cf. Eph. 6:18). In 1 Corinthians 9:3-13 Paul affirms the truth that the church is duty bound to support its ministers, but he is careful not to be burdensome to the churches. The call-letter used by our churches reflects this. The congregation promises to pay a salary to the minister which is adequate to “free him from all worldly cares and avocations.” Scripture says in Galatians 6:6, “Let him that is taught in the world communicate unto him that teacheth in all good thing.”  The word “communicate” in this verse means “to enter into fellowship with, to join as an associate, to make another’s need his own so as to relieve them.”

            These passages and more indicate that the apostles were deeply conscious of their own needs. They needed the prayers, the concern, the care of the church. As the apostles ministered to the needs of the people of God, they themselves needed to be ministered unto by the people of God.

            This is true of ministers today.

            That is true is easily demonstrated. Consider the minister’s work. His chief task is preaching. Preaching involves much prayer and preparation. Young preachers will find themselves spending fifteen to twenty hours per week in preparing one sermon. This means the preacher will spend thirty to forty hours per week just preparing his sermons. This is no exaggeration! He must work from the original Hebrew and Greek, he must carefully determine the meaning of the text, he must construct a good outline so as to present the sermon to the congregation clearly and logically. Even the older, more experienced pastor will spend twenty to thirty hours per week preparing his sermons.

            In addition there is his other work. The minister in our churches typically teaches five to seven catechism classes each week for thirty weeks of the year. There is a great deal of preparation that goes into teaching these classes. Besides, the minister must visit the sick and shut-ins, comfort the sorrowing, conduct funerals, and officiate at weddings. He must do his share of the annual family visiting, leading Bible Study Societies, and chair the consistory/council meeting. And an increasingly time-consuming aspect of the minister’s work is counselling from the Word of God those members who have problems and trials of one sort or another.

            The already busy minister is called upon to perform certain tasks for the denomination. He is a delegate to the meetings of classis and may be delegated to synod as well. He must also give speeches and lectures from time to time for various public meetings.

            All this can make for a great deal of stress! But there are other stress factors peculiar to the life of the minister. Ministers move more frequently than most people. In not a few instances ministers find themselves serving congregations far from their families and friends. There are people who are ill at ease in the minister’s presence. A minister is on call twenty-four hours a day. And, he lives in a “glass house.” Sill more, the minister is always “spending himself and being spent;” as Scripture puts it, for others (11 Cor. 12:15).

            But far more than all of these factors, and far more than merely the work load, it is the minister’s keen awareness of his holy calling and awesome responsibility before God and His Christ to care for the flock of God that causes the stress. The Lord is pleased by the foolishness of the minister’s preaching to save them that believe. The minister must represent Christ and bring His Word to meet every need of those entrusted to his care. He must weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice. He must admonish the wayward, encourage the faint of heart, and strengthen the weak.

            Do not forget either that the minister is a man of like passions with any other member of the church. He has the same cares and concerns as any other Christian. He is a husband who must love, nourish and cherish his wife as Christ loves the church. As a father, and with his wife’s help, the minister must rear his children in the fear of the God. This involves discipline, education, and not a little time. And the minister’s wife and children have the same needs as their peers in the church-but with this significant difference: their pastor happens to be their husband and father. Just as any other Christian, the minister is a sinner saved by grace through faith in Christ. He has the same sinful nature with all of its weaknesses. He makes his pilgrimage through the same sinful world. He fights the same devil and must withstand the same temptations. 

            Finally, in all of his work and life as a minister of the gospel the pastor must be an example to the believers (1 Tim. 4:12-16).

            How then do we minister to our minister? First, pray for them daily. This, according to Scripture, is our calling. God’s people must remember their minister in their private and family devotions. The children hearing those prayers will develop a proper attitude toward the minister and his work. The people of God must assure their minister of their prayers on their behalf. This is a source of great encouragement to the ministers.

            The congregations must pay their ministers an adequate salary. According to Scripture he has a right to live of the gospel (1 Cor. 9). He must be free from worldly cares and avocations. Ministers must be free from anxiety concerning how they can meet their legitimate expenses. If they are not free from this, their work will be adversely affected! The elders must make certain that the ministers have adequate income to cover their needs. Ministers must not be made to worry about these matters.

             The people of God must learn to criticize their minister constructively. The believer as prophet, priest, and king in Christ must admonish the preacher if he preaches heresy or if he is remiss in his walk of life. But there is a wrong and a right way to do this. The admonishing must not be done in anger. Constructive criticism of the minister will not be done behind his back. The critic must not talk to others, he must go to the minister! Constructive criticism is given out of love of God with a view to seeking the welfare of both the minister and the church.

            Believers are called to “bear one another’s burdens.” The ministers need this care of God’s love too! The believer must not forget the ministers when they have special needs. When the minister or ones dear to him are sick or in sorrow, he must be visited by his parishioners. Believers must bring the Word of God to their ministers and pray for and with them in their times of trial!

            Ministers need encouragement as well. When a believer is struck by sermon he ought to tell the minister and tell him why the sermon meant so much to him. The members of the congregation ought to befriend the minister. He needs wise, caring friends in whom he can safely confide. God’s people must understand too that the minister cannot do it all in the larger congregations. He cannot lead all the societies, so all of the counselling, visit all the families on the annual family visitation. The elders must assist in this work.

            In this connection, there is avert practical matter that needs mentioning, God’s people must give their minister time to study and prepare for preaching and teaching. They ought not disturb him during study hours except for emergencies. Phone calls must be limited to ones that are really necessary.

These are just some of the ways the people of God can minister to their ministers. Perhaps he reader can think of more!

            In sum, let it be emphasized that God’s people must minister to those whom Christ calls to minister to them.

            Pray for them, love them in the Lord. Be thankful for the faithful ministers Christ sends to care for His church. Support them also financially. Encourage the ministers and their wives and families.

            In those congregations were God’s servants minister faithfully and where God’s people faithfully minister to those faithful servants, God’s blessings abound to the advancing of His church. To the glory of His name.  

SB June 7, 1997

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Robert Murray M’Cheyne

“Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip” (Hebrews 2:1).

COULD WE LOOK into the secret history of believers, what woeful declensions might be pointed out. How many, who began the conflict well, have fallen under the blows of Apollyon. How many are there of whom God complains: “What iniquity have ye found in me that ye are gone far from me” (Jeremiah 2:5). How many of whom Jesus complains, “I have this against thee, that thou hast left thy first love” (Revelation 2:4). The spring of all these sad declensions is to be found in “letting slip the things which we have heard”.

1. Meditate on the times when Christians are in danger of letting the gospel slip.

(i) A time of worldly prosperity. An old divine says, “Quails often make a lean soul”. “He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their souls.” When a man is under conviction of sin, divine things often absorb every other anxiety. That text is ever before him, “What shall it profit a man to gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”. He becomes careless of his person, for he feels that he would be decking a body condemned to the burning. He becomes careless of his business, for the matter of his forgiveness is unsettled. He walks among the things of time, looking through them into the things of eternity. What a vain shadow is this world to an awakened soul. O! how that soul sickens at the vain companies of an unbelieving world; how he loathes their dances and wanton songs. But when that soul has found true rest in Christ, sometimes the world begins to smile again. He begin to launch out into business, or a more lucrative situation is offered to him. His attention is a little diverted from eternal things; he becomes more keen about the things of time. He begins to lose his fresh hold of Christ. He is letting slip the things which he heard. So it was with Lot. When he first came from Haran he left all for God. He followed Abraham, a simple shepherd lad with staff in hand. But when he got flocks, and herds, and tents, and when he saw the plain of Sodom well watered everywhere, he went and pitched his tent toward Sodom, Genesis 13. So it was with Demas. At one time he seemed to leave all for Christ. He became the companion of self-denying Paul. But soon his eye was caught with the glitter of gold. He lets slip the things which he heard. He bids farewell to the believer’s joys and trials: “Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world” (2 Timothy 4: 10). O my soul, “love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him”.

(ii) A time of persecution. “For every ten bodies which persecution has killed, it has slain a thousand souls.” We are told of the seed that sprung up so quickly in stony places, that “when the sun was up it withered away”, and Jesus explains this of those who, “when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by they are offended” (Matthew 13:21). Some people are brought to Christ with little or no persecution. They attain “to joy and peace in believing”, no man forbidding them. They begin to think that the offence of the cross has ceased, and that the solemn warnings of tribulation to the believer were intended for a bye-gone generation. Suddenly their sky is overcast. They begin to be hated, and buffeted, and opposed for their attachment to Christ. An awful prospect is before them. Either they must breast the tide of scorn and reproach that is now flowing in upon them, perhaps from their dearest friends, or else they must let slip the things which they have heard. Ah! how often, in such an hour, the soul shrinks back from an open confession of Christ before men, refuses to bear the cross, and falls into unholy compromise with an unbelieving world. Storms try the vessel, and persecution tries the believer. When Peter was in peace he could say, “Though all men forsake thee, yet will not I”. But when the hour of trial came, he said with oaths and curses, “I know not the man”

I. Meditate on the remedy. “We ought to give the more earnest heed,” etc.

(i) Increase thy diligence in the means of grace. If you have truly found the Lord Jesus, be often at the spot where you have met with Him. Every true disciple should often resort to Gethsemane, John 18:2. If you have found Him in the Word, be faithful and diligent in meeting Him there. If you begin to let your Bible slip, you are beginning to Jet Jesus slip. If you found Him in secret prayer, give the more earnest heed to meet Him often there. It is a sweet trysting-place with Jesus, “within the vail”. If you let slip the throne of grace, you let Him slip who sits thereon. Have you found Jesus in the sanctuary, then “love the habitation of his house, and the place where his honour dwelleth” (Psalm 26:8). Has He revealed Himself to you in the breaking of bread, then “continue stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine, and in fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayer” (Acts 2:42).

(ii) Feed on Christ in the ordinances. Many love the ordinances who love not Christ. Many are occupied about the shell who never taste the kernel of the gospel. These are Sardians who “have a name to live while they are dead”. These are talkers about the gospel and its ministers; but “the talk of their lips tendeth to perjury”. If you have found Christ in ordinances, give earnest heed to love Him more and more. Penetrate through every vail to the living Saviour, and the living God. Do not rest in a form of prayer if you find not Christ. “Bodily service profiteth little”. O my soul, abhor the cloak of formality. It is an abomination to God and man. “It is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.” But O how sweet are ordinances when we can say, He brought me into his banqueting house, and his banner over me was love. (iii) Watch against occasions of letting slip. If you knew the deceitfulness, the desperate and unsearchable wickedness of your own heart, and if you knew the adversary who accuses you day and night, you would be sober and vigilant. Watch your own heart, its infirmities and tendencies; “Keep thy heart above all keeping, for out of it are the issues of life” (Proverbs 4:23). Watch the roaring lion; be not ignorant of his devices, 1 Peter 5:8. Watch the world, for you are in an enemy’s country, “The whole world lieth in wickedness” (1 John 5:19). Above all, keep your eye on Jesus. You cannot hold Him if He does not hold you. “Cast all your care upon him, for he careth for you” (1 Peter 5)

Many of those who look no farther than the temporal happiness of individuals and the welfare of the State are not insensible of the importance and value of domestic relationships, realizing that the family is but the unit of the nation. No matter how excellent the constitution and laws of a country may be, or what its material resources, they are insufficient and effectual, unless sure foundation for social order and public virtue be laid in the healthy regulation and wise disciple of its families. The nation is but the aggregate of individuals comprising it; and unless there be good fathers and mothers, good sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, there will be no good citizens. It is because our home life has so sadly deteriorated that social decay is now far advanced, nor can it be arrested until parents once again properly discharge their responsibility. We have no hesitation in saving that the future welfare of Britain (and the USA too) is more seriously menaced by the relaxation of family government and the breakdown of home life than by any government incompetence or foreign hostility. 

Home! How much that one word used to convey! It is still one of the most precious in the English language unto some of us. Much more so when to all its natural attractions are added the hallowed associations which gather around a Christian home. Is it not our favourite concept of heaven embodied in that blessed expression, “my Father’s House” (John 14.2). Because the Christian is God in every relation of life. No matter what station he occupies, or wherever home should be the sphere of his most manifest devotedness unto Him. All its arrangements should bear the stamp of his heavenly calling. All its affairs should be so ordered that everyone entering it should feel, “God is here!” The supreme aim of family life should be household piety, everything else being subordinated thereto.

It is in the home our real characters are most manifested and best known. Out in the world, a certain measure of restraint is placed upon both our corruptions and our graces; but in the home, we are freer to act naturally, and it is there that our worst and best sides alike are exhibited the plainest. As a close observer and one of wide experience said, “I can never form a correct judgment of a man from seeing or hearing him in a religious meeting. He may seem a very spiritual person there, and say very beautiful things, but let me go home with him, and there I learn the actual state of the case.” He may indeed pray like a saint in the church, but unless his home be governed according to the Word of God, and his own conduct be regulated by the Spirit of Christ, he fails to witness for him in that most important and influential sphere.

The reality and extend of “a work of grace” in the soul are most clearly revealed amid the petty trials of home life. In the Scriptures, we find some of its most eminent characters subjected to that severe test. For example, the Lord gave as the reason for the intimate confidences He was about to make unto Abraham, “For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD” (Gen. 18:19): thus his home life was pleasing to God as was his public. Nor are the Scriptures less explicit in showing us the disastrous consequences which attend a believer’s unfaithfulness in this relation. A notable case in point is the fearful ruin of Eli’s family: “I will judge his house for ever for the iniquity which he knoweth; because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not” (1 Sa. 3:13). The state of a preacher’s home is like made the test of his character: he is disqualified from the sacred office, unless he be “one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity,” adding, “(For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?)” (1 Tim. 3:4-5). 

“What have they seen in thine house?” (2 Ki. 20:15). Have you observed my reader, how much in Scriptures is in the interrogatory form? How frequently the Lord used that method of teaching, both with His disciples, and His enemies! It is most definite and searching form of instruction. A considerable part of God’s Word is made up of questions; and it is our wisdom not only to thoughtfully and prayerfully ponder them, but to regard the same as being addressed to us individually-and thereby bare our hearts to their penetrating power. This we should do with the “Where art thou?” of Genesis 3:9, right through the Scriptures to the 2wherefore didst thou marvel” of Revelation 17:7. The one now before us was uttered by way of rebuke unto Hezekiah’s vanity, who-in a spirit of pride and ostentation-had shown the massagers from Babylon the treasures of his palace.

“What have they seen in thine house?” Let each of us take that inquiry home to himself and herself. What do visitors, especially those who spend a night under your roof, behold in thy home? Do they see a household which is well ordered, everything regulated according to God’s Word; or do they behold a scene of confusion and turmoil? Do the furnishings of your home bespeak a heart which is dead to the world? Is there a noticeable absence of that carnal luxury and fleshly display which mark those whose affections are set upon things below? On the other hand, is there that cleanliness and tidiness everywhere which honours the Lord? Nothing is more incongruous for one who professes to be a stranger and pilgrim (1 Pe. 2:11) here than to behold him or her endeavouring to outshine their neighbours in that which ministers to “the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” (1 Jo. 2:16). Equally so do neglect and dirt indicate that something is wrong with the heart, and mar a Christian’s testimony.

“What have they seen in thine house?” Do they behold a husband “under petticoat government,” or one who takes his proper place at the head of the home? The household must have a leader; and God has committed rule to the husband, and holds him responsible for its management. It is no valid excuse for him to say that he is the breadwinner, and therefore, he leaves the wife to run the house. Not that he is to be a tyrant, but firm, asserting his authority, ruling in holy love. Yet unless the wife fully do-operates, much of his effort will be unavailing. Not only does God require her to be subject unto her husband’s will (Eph. 5:22, 24), but to loyally support and further him-unless his requirements manifestly clash with the Bible. He is necessarily absent from the home most of the day, and therefore, it largely devolves upon her to “train up” their children “in the way [they] should go” (Pro. 22:6).

“What have they seen in thine house?” Little or nothing to distinguish it from the worldlings?-or everything in it aiming at the glory of God? The husband and wife conducting themselves as “being heirs together of the grace of life” (1Pe. 3:7)? The children brought up “in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” (Eph. 6:4) and “in subjection with all gravity” (1 Tim. 3:4)-or utterly spoiled unruly, and a trial to those who have to endure their presence? Do visitors behold an example of parental piety, of salutary discipline maintained, evidences on every side that their hearts set upon something higher than the baubles of earth? Do they see the family altar? Do they behold the Sabbath day-duly honoured-all unnecessary cooking avoided? If they do not, they will rightly suspect the genuineness of your Christian profession! If those things be absent, be not surprised if your children abandon religion as they grow older.  Having no confidence in what they were reared. God search every one of us with this important question. (Studies in the Scriptures by A.W. Pink Sep. 1948 Vol. xxvii No. 9)    

Abraham Kuyper

(1) The Interdependence of Holy Baptism and the Holy Supper

Preface

In the past few years, a couple of people approached the editor of the Beacon Lights with the idea of reprinting Abraham Kuyper’s book The Implications of Public Confession. The staff quickly agreed to reprint the book and search was made to determine what copyrights still existed on the book. Through the help of a few friends, it was determined that the copyrights on the book had expired, which meant that the Federation of Protestant Reformed Young People’s Societies was free to reprint the book. As far as can be determined, the sixth edition in 1934 was the last printing of the book. The Federation of Protestant Reformed Young People’s Societies is therefore happy to provide this excellent work for reading and study by our churches and by our young people.

The main reason for reprinting this excellent work is to provide our young people who will make or who have made public confession of faith with reading and study material on the implications of making public confession in our churches. By reading and studying this book, our young people will be made more aware of the responsibilities that become theirs upon confession of their faith. By the encouraging words of Abraham Kuyper, those who make confession of faith will appreciate even more the Reformed faith to which they have confessed agreement.

As Abraham Kuyper says, “Now she [your church] is willing to admit you to the holy supper, to let you take your place at the Lord’s table with the other members, provided that you are willing to confess that their confessions is yours.” Also, “Bring that confession to the congregation of believers, and begin to fight one identical warfare with them. They too have nothing of which to boast in themselves…God is all the praise and honor.”

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THE INTERDEPENCE OF HOLY BAPTISM AND THE HOLY SUPPER

“Live; yea, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live.” Ezekiel 16:6

Baptism is not complete without its complement, the holy supper. When an infant is born into the world, the nurse who is in attendance washes it, because it is born unclean. It needs bathing, but that is not all it needs. It also needs food. Hence, it is most likely that the same maid who washed it will also bear the infant to its mother’s breast. And an atmosphere of peace and contentment pervades the nursery room only after the child is feeding at its mother’s bosom. In fact, we would not hesitate to censure the attitude of a nurse who supposed she had absolved herself of responsibility by bathing the child, and cared not at all whether or not it was given an opportunity to be nursed. Such conduct on her part, we feel, would be sufficient reason to dismiss her.

This figure illustrates the significant relationship that obtains between the sacrament of baptism and that of the holy supper. We may not suppose that baptism alone is sufficient; we may not desire the sacrament of purification and neglect that of nourishment. To desire baptism and to ignore the holy supper is to rob each of its significance.

It becomes us to remember that we were once like the child the Holy Spirit depicts to us in Ezekiel 16, the child of whom we read in verses 4–6: “As for thy nativity, in the day thou wast born thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water to supple thee; thou wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at all. None eye pitied thee, to do any of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee; but thou wast cast out in the open field, to the loathing of thy person, in the day that thou wast born. And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live; yea, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live.”

This passage tells us that we were conceived in sin and born in iniquity, that because we were born of unclean parents, we also were unclean. It tells us that before our baptism we need spiritual cleansing within, that we needed to be purged by the blood of Christ. Baptism was the external symbol of that purification of the soul by the holy Lamb of God. It is what the holy apostle confirmed by the words: “Once ye were unclean, but now ye are sanctified, now ye are justified, now ye are washed.”

Our church also confesses that such is the significance of baptism. In article 35 of the Belgic Confession we read: “Now those who are regenerated have in them a twofold life: the one corporal and temporal, which they have from the first birth and is common to all men; the other spiritual and heavenly, which is given them in their second birth…and this life is not common, but is peculiar to God’s elect.” Article 34 states: “Therefore he has commanded all those who are his to be baptized with pure water in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, thereby signifying to us that as water washeth away the filth of the body when poured upon it…so doth the blood of Christ, by the power of the Holy Ghost, internally sprinkle the soul, cleanse it from its sins, and regenerate us from children of wrath unto children of God.”

But baptism is not a be-all and end-all. It is true that a newly-born babe must first of all be bathed. But it must also be given food. So too the sacrament of purification needs the sacrament of nourishment as its fulfillment. Note that the Confession continues in article 35 as follows: “We believe and confess that our Savior Jesus Christ did ordain and institute the sacrament of the holy supper to nourish and support those whom he hath already regenerated, and incorporated into his family, which is his church.” Further in article 35: “God hath given us, for the support of the bodily and earthly life, earthly and common bread, which is subservient thereto…But for the support of the spiritual and heavenly life which believers have, he hath sent a living bread, which descended from heaven, namely, Jesus Christ, who nourishes and strengthens the spiritual life of believers when they eat him.”

Baptism therefore is merely a preliminary sacrament. It represents only the opening of the door by which we pass to the holy supper and to the mystical communion with our Lord. This truth subtracts nothing from the importance and the indispensability of baptism. Whoever is not baptized is an outsider. By desiring to be baptized he asks for admittance; by means of the sacrament of baptism he knocks at the door. By it he enters, that is, he becomes segregated from those who stand without, in order to enjoy the fellowship of those who are within. And that fellowship and communion becomes complete when, together with the assembled guests, he partakes of the holy supper.

But he who has been baptized, who has knocked at and been admitted to the banquet hall, who thereupon restrains himself from sitting at the table with the others, resembles a stranger who upon his own instigation is invited to enjoy association with a festive company, and who forthwith insults his host by standing, distant and aloof, at the door. The intruder who without an invitation and without appropriate dress forces his way into the company must be thrown out. He is an intruder. But the baptized person is not that. By desiring baptism he appropriately asks for admittance. By his baptism the door is opened, his formal clothes are extended to him, and by it he is invited to share the activities as an approved guest. Naturally he severely injures social propriety if he remains distant and aloof after these favors have been bestowed upon him. His conduct differs from that of the intruder, but it is not less culpable. Even so, it is a terrible sin to ignore the holy supper after one has been baptized.

He who undertakes to wade through the holy streams of baptism may have no other purpose in mind in doing so than to enjoy a festive fellowship with the Lord of the house upon the other shore. He knows that that Lord awaits his guests.

He who is born merely of water and of spirit is given but a distant glimpse of the kingdom. He may never be satisfied with that, but must be up and away, nor rest until he is seated at the marriage feast of the Lamb.

Any Jew who becomes converted to his Messiah immediately appreciates the fact that an intimate relationship exists between these two sacraments. Observe him, if you will. He is converted Jew. The Jews’ baptism was neglected when they were children. Now that they have repented and turned to God at a mature age, they choose to postpone the time of their baptism to a moment that will make it convenient for them to partake of the holy supper immediately afterwards.

The same custom prevailed in the earliest Christian churches. Those who were converted from Judaism and paganism were baptized one day, and were present at the holy supper the next. At that time no one ever thought of baptism apart from the holy supper. By asking for baptism these Christians simply were asking, “Permit me to partake of the holy supper.”

We do not cross the Red Sea in order to fix camp permanently upon the farther shore; we must be on our way through the wilderness; our destination is the holy land. Having crossed the Jordan, we do not stop at its banks, but press on to Jerusalem. We may not be content with having forded the waters of baptism, but we must pursue our way until we see extended to us the rare wines that are pressed from the grapes of Eshcol.

It is the custom of infant baptism that has tended to fix lines of demarcation between these two sacraments. But such lines of distinction are inappropriate there. Naturally an infant is not qualified to partake of the Lord’s supper. A child is morally too irresponsible to appropriate the blessings of his baptism to himself by a public confession. It is because of the circumstance that the perfectly appropriate and necessary custom of infant baptism is a sacrament independent from that of the holy supper.

An infant is impressionable and is therefore fit to receive baptism. But it is not yet qualified to receive the sacrament of nourishment. We must remember that the sacrament of the holy supper requires that only he may partake of it who has made his confession and his deeds a matter of personally appreciated responsibility. Hence it is inevitable that some years must elapse between these two sacraments in the life of every individual—as many years as are required to make his confession and his approach to the Lord’s table a morally responsible action. The intervening time may not be longer than that, and it may not be shorter. The number of years required for each individual to be qualified for his personal confession was determined by God at the time of that person’s creation. The intervening years therefore represent a fixed interim. Those who abide by it walk in the ways of God, and those who do not, depart from them. Those who curtail or add to that interim are guilty of sin.

The number of those intervening years is not the same for all. Some are qualified for the public confession at sixteen, others are twenty-three years of age, but all reach a morally responsible age sometime during this interval of seven years. Hence, it is the duty of each to respect these boundaries.

Irrespective, however, of whether the holy supper be divided from baptism by sixteen years or by twenty-three, the close relationship between the two remains the same. Throughout those years baptism sounds the plea: Seek the Lord’s holy supper.

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The sixteenth century Reformation proclaimed three fundamental principles: justification by faith alone, Scripture alone, and the priesthood of all believers. In opposition to Rome’s hierarchy the Reformers insisted that the only authority for the faith and life of God’s people is Holy Scripture. They further insisted that every believer as prophet, priest, and king in Christ could read and understand the Word of God. Rome had effectively taken the Bible out of the hands of the people. Rome’s hierarchy, the clergy and especially the pope, stood between the believer and his Bible. The church (clerical hierarchy) interpreted the Bible for the people (laity). 

Today a new hierarchy has arisen in the churches, viz. that of the professional theologians, the archaeologists and geologists, the scientists, the learned scholars. These are telling us that we cannot understand the Bible anymore. They are telling us that the Bible does not say what we have always thought it says. Furthermore, because of this they are telling us we need them to tell us what the Bible really means and how it applies to our lives today. They represent a new hierarchy between the believer and his Bible. 

According to this new hierarchy the Bible contains man’s witness to God or to Jesus. What we have in the Bible is the record of the various writers’ religious experiences or encounters with God. The Pentateuch is the record of Moses’ encounter with God. Isaiah witnesses to God as he and his contemporaries experienced God. The Evangelists wrote about Jesus as they saw and heard Him. The same is true of the apostles and other writers of the New Testament. The early church gradually adopted these writings as sacred Scripture. 

The Bible, therefore, is time bound according to these experts. It was written in its own time in history, and its writers were limited by the times in which they lived. They were influenced by the primitive vision of the ancient world of Bible times. They conceived, for example, of a three-storied universe: heaven above, the earth beneath, and hell under the earth. They thought that the sun revolved around a flat earth. The biblical writers had many other mistaken notions as well, such as, for example, the following: the world was created by God in six twenty-four hour days, there was a universal flood, an ax head floated, Jonah was in the belly of a great fish, a dry path was made through the Red Sea, water out of a rock went bouncing along after Israel in the desert. These men wrote in their times and for their times, but now in our scientific and sophisticated age we know better. Either these things just did not occur or there is a natural explanation for them. 

These men also say that the Bible is culturally conditioned. Each writer wrote in the context of his own culture, and this affected his witness to God. When, for example, Paul wrote about marriage and divorce, or about the headship of the husband, or about women keeping silence in the churches and not usurping the authority of the man in the church, Paul was under the influence of his rabbinical training and the cultural mores of his day. Likewise were the other biblical writers limited by the cultural influences of their day.

All this radically alters how we are to understand the Bible. The Bible, according to these scholars, contains myths and teaching models. Genesis 1, 2 tells us that God created the universe, but not how and when. Genesis 3 teaches that the human race fell into sin and death, but no more than that. The Bible contains misconceptions arising out of primitive conceptions of reality. And there are just plain errors in the Bible. One of these is the Bible’s account of creation. Science has proved a very old universe. The earth simply cannot be about six thousand years old as Scripture teaches. Adam and Eve were not real people living in a real garden called Eden or Paradise. Further, what Paul said about women applied in his day when women ran around with veils and were living in a male dominated society. But all this does not apply in our enlightened times. 

Many factors are involved in interpreting the Bible. Two questions need to be answered in Bible interpretation: What did the writer mean by this passage relative to his own time and culture, and what does it mean for us today? The answers to those two questions often are quite different. In Paul’s day women had to keep silence in the churches, while today they may occupy church office. In Paul’s day homosexuality and lesbianism were considered a manifestation of the reprobate mind; while today such people may occupy not only the pew but also the pulpit. 

Thus it is, we are being told, that we need to know ancient history, culture, language, mythology, philosophy, archeology, and the sciences, if we are to be equipped to understand the Bible. Of course, we need to know these disciplines if we are to expound the Bible correctly. But the theologians mean something quite different. They mean that if there is a conflict between one’s scientific discoveries and the Bible, one must reconsider the traditional interpretation of the Bible and be willing to change. Science determines the meaning of the Bible. 

The conclusion is that God’s people really cannot understand the Bible. We are not equipped to read it correctly. We need the theologians, linguists, and scientists to tell us what the Bible is really saying. 

And so it is that a new hierarchy has arisen in the churches, that of the theologians and scholars. These must tell us the meaning of Scripture. Without them we cannot understand what we read in the Bible. Just as effectively as Rome, these have placed themselves between God’s people and the Bible. They have effectively taken the Bible out of the hands of the people of God. 

This is very serious indeed! The church has always confessed, and the Reformation reasserted, these precious truths that the Bible is inspired and therefore infallible. The Reformation also asserted that the Bible is perspicuous, or clear. Because the Bible is inspired and infallible it is the only rule for our faith and life. And in the Bible God speaks to us in language which we can understand. The question or issue we face is not whether we can or do understand .what the Bible is saying, but whether we believe what the Bible is saying? This is, no doubt, at least one of the reasons Jesus told us we had to become as little children in order to enter the kingdom of God. This writer teaches a catechism class of six-year-old children. These little ones have no difficulty understanding that Jesus was born of the virgin, that He healed the sick and raised the dead, that He suffered and died on the cross and was raised from the dead and now sits at God’s right hand in glory and is coming again at the end of the ages. The Scriptures are able to make us wise unto salvation through faith in Christ Jesus (II Timothy 3:15).

Our calling is plain! We must let no one, no synods, no theologians, no experts take our Bibles away from us. Still more, we must insist that the Word of God be faithfully preached. And faithfully means properly. The church does not need Sunday School stories from the pulpit, or dissertations on political or social issues. The believer needs to hear the voice of the Good Shepherd (John 10) by means of preaching. Without faithful preaching we cannot call upon the name of the Lord in faith and be saved (cf. Romans 10:13-15) Faithful preaching is preaching that expounds the Word of God. The sermons we hear must contain nothing more or less than what Scripture itself says. And we need to search the Scriptures daily, prayerfully to meditate on the Word of God. 

By these means we may be assured that the Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ witnesses with our spirits that we are the children of God (Rom. 8:16). 

Following the example of Martin Luther let each of us, with Bible in hand, say to the new hierarchy, “Here I stand, I can do naught else, God help me.”

by Prof. Robert Decker, (now emeritus).

Taken from the SB October 15, 1993