(Kersten, Heidelberg Catechism, Vol.1. part 10)
God's Fatherhood
Lord's Day 9
Psalter No. 255 st. 1, 2
Read Psalm 103
Psalter No. 278 st. 1, 2, 4
Psalter No. 201 st. 1, 2
Psalter No. 38 st. 1, 2, 3
Is there, my beloved, one Psalm in which David, the royal singer
of Israel, sings the glory of the Lord on a higher note than in
Psalm 103? Full of the blessings God had bestowed on him in the
remission of his sins, in healing his diseases, and in the renewal
of his youth like the eagles, he glories in the grace of God. The
Lord was to him not only a Judge who acquitted him of guilt and
punishment, but also a Father, Who embraced him in love, "Like as a
father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear
Him."
God's people can complain, can cry over their sins, over the
hiding of God's face, over the oppression to which they are
subjected in this life. They can complain as a worldling cannot
complain, but they do not always complain. The service of the Lord
is not a grievous service. To the contrary, God's people testify
that they love God's law. Even in the complaint of God's people,
there is more joy than in all the excessive merriment the world
offers. How inexpressibly great must be the joy in God of those who
fear Him. In the night His song shall be with them.
The love of God tasted by David caused him to praise the Lord to
the highest, and he not only calls upon all God's children to join
him, but also urges the holy angels to bless God with him. The Lord
has been merciful to him, as a father to his children. How clearly
do we see in this Psalm that the believers in the Old Testament were
no strangers to the filial relationship in which they stood to God
in Christ, even though they lived in the dispensation of shadows and
the full unfolding of the adoption of which the Apostle speaks so
beautifully, yet awaited for the day of the new covenant.
Do not think this is a small matter. How few of God's dear
children consciously receive this adoption by faith, so that they
can make Paul's word their own, that God has sent the Spirit of His
Son into their hearts whereby they cry "Abba, Father." In the Psalm,
David is glorying in that grace. The love of the Father has filled
his soul; God has dealt with him not as a judge, but as a father.
God has shown that He knows our frame. Yea, in eternity God has
already known it. God's people are often disappointed in themselves,
because they are so full of expectations of self; but God is never
disappointed in them. And that not alone, He remembers that we are
dust. God knows that His people are dust. Their body is made of
dust, and to dust they shall return. Their soul is very corrupt by
nature, and having received grace they are still unable to conquer
even one sinful thought, how much less can they war against the
triple-headed enemy that attacks them day and night. If the Lord did
not remember that we are dust, no hope would remain for the church
of God. But in this He proves His fatherly love and mercy, that He
considers that those who fear Him can do nothing in their own
strength. Grace, only grace shall save them. By the drawing love of
the Father they are led to Christ, by the preserving faithfulness of
the Father they shall endure to the end.
The fact that God wants to be the Father of His people finds its
source in His sovereign good pleasures. Indeed, God did not newly
become a Father when He accepted His elect in Christ, but He was a
Father from eternity by the generation of His only-begotten Son, and
revealed it already in creation. Thus our Catechism also understands
the confession concerning God the Father and our creation, as we now
shall hear from the Ninth Lord's Day.
Lord's Day 9
Q. 26: What believest thou when thou sayest, "I believe in God the
Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth"?
A. That the eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (who of nothing
made heaven and earth, with all that is in them; who likewise
upholds and governs the same by his eternal counsel and
providence) is for the sake of Christ his Son, my God and my
Father, on whom I rely so entirely, that I have no doubt, but
He will provide me with all things necessary for soul and body
and further, that He will make whatever evils He sends upon me,
in this valley of tears turn out to my advantage; for he is
able to do it, being Almighty God, and willing, being a
faithful Father.
The Fatherhood of God is thus elucidated, that we speak of God
the Father
I by virtue of the eternal generation of the Son;
II by virtue of the glorious creation;
III by virtue of the wonderful regeneration.
I
Lord's Day 8 divided the Twelve Articles of faith in three
parts, according to the number of persons in the divine Trinity,
which the Catechism shall now discuss: Lord's Days 9 and 10 speak of
the Father and our creation; Lord's Days 11-19 speak of God the Son
and our redemption, and finally Lord's Days 20-22 speak of the Holy
Spirit and our sanctification. Thus the Twelve Articles are
explained in Lord's Days 9-22. Let us follow the instructor in his
explanation, first giving our attention to what is written about God
the Father and our creation.
Concerning this, two things are confessed, namely the work of
the Father, both in creation and in providence. The ninth Lord's Day
limits itself to what Scripture has revealed about God the Father
and our creation. It does not speak only of our creation, but of God
the Father and our creation. For in answer to the question, "What
believest thou when thou sayest 'I believe in God the Father,
Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth'?" the instructor refers first
of all to the eternal Fatherhood in God, then to the Fatherhood by
virtue of creation, and then to the Fatherhood restored in
regeneration. This is what we read in the answer: "That the eternal
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (Who of nothing made heaven and
earth, with all that is in them; Who likewise upholds and governs
the same by His eternal counsel and providence) is for the sake of
Christ His Son, my God and my Father."
God the Father hence is Father by virtue of eternal generation.
Of this Fatherhood of God we must speak, as, indeed, it is shown
in creation, but is not founded therein, nor did it begin then. The
Fatherhood of God is from eternity. God the Father is the eternal
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from eternity to eternity the
Father, the first person of the adorable Trinity, Who begot the Son.
How condescending is the revelation of God to sinful children of
men; He gives us an insight in the deep mystery of His Being, that
everyone who by faith may know something of it, shall worship and
honour Him. He, the Father, begot the Son with a never ending,
everlasting generation, which causes the one brought forth to remain
in the Being of God. For these are the two characteristics of the
generation of the Son: that generation has neither beginning nor
ending, and it brings forth no separately existing Being. God the
Son is of one essence with the Father and with the Holy Spirit.
Hence that divine generation is not a work of the Father which
happened and was finished in eternity, but is an everlasting act of
the Father, consisting in this, that He imparts the same divine
Essence to the Son eternally. This is not contradictory to what we
read in Psalm 2: "Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee",
for in God there is but one eternal, unchanging day, having neither
beginning nor ending. Because of this generation the Son is the
image of the invisible God. He is the brightness of His glory, and
the express image of His person. That generation is the personal
attribute of the Son. "When there were no depths, I was brought
forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water." (Prov.
8:24) All fatherhood among men is a faint reflection of this eternal
Fatherhood of God. The Fatherhood, also carried by God into
creation, is the work of the eternal Father of our Lord Jesus; to
turn these matters about is incorrect. But in what an awfully
majestic manner we then see that in the Essence of God there is a
perfect glory and exaltation and pouring out of Divine attributes;
that God did not need creation for the effluence of His perfections,
since even before creation He was not without some vital work. The
Son was rejoicing before Him; in Him the Father poured out His love
from eternity. Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the three Persons in the
one eternal Essence of God, tell us that this perfect Being had in
Himself all the glorification of His attributes. Oh, who would not
fear Him? For His own sake He is worthy to be glorified forever.
To the Son therefore belongs the same honour as to the Father.
As the Father has life in Himself, so has He given to the Son to
have life in Himself. (John 5:26) How terrible then the denial of
the Godhead of the Son by Arius and his followers. The story told by
Brahe in his comments on the Five Walcheren Articles might be
instructive. After many fruitless attempts to have the Emperor
forbid the meetings of Arians, the bishop met the Emperor and his
son who had been elevated to the imperial dignity. The bishop did
not pay any respect to the son, which, greatly angered the Emperor,
but the bishop said, "You see, Emperor, how it angers you when your
son is not honored, but consider then that the God of all the earth
detests those who blaspheme His only begotten Son, and hates them as
ingrates to their Savior and Advocate." These words made such an
impression upon the Emperor, that the meetings of the Arians were
curtailed. The Son is worthy to be honored as we honour the Father.
He is not the first creature, but the first born of all creatures,
very God, by the eternal generation of the Father, by which He
remains in the Essence of God.
However, it has pleased the Lord to reveal His glory in His
works, and that in such a way especially in man, the crown of God's
creation, God's fatherly love would shine forth. We will now
consider God's Fatherhood by virtue of the glorious creation.
II
The Catechism speaks of this with these words: "That the eternal
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (who of nothing made heaven and
earth, with all that is in them; who likewise upholds and governs
the same by His eternal counsel and providence)."
The Father created. That work of the Father was not done without
the Son, nor without the Holy Spirit. Creation is the work of the
Triune God. Scripture does not only say that the Spirit moved upon
the face of the waters; "The Spirit of God has made me, and the
breath of the Almighty has given me life", says Elihu (Job 33:4)
John ascribes the work of creation to the Word, that is the Son,
saying that all things were made by Him and without Him was not
anything made that was made. But creation is the personal work of
the Father, as we have noticed in Lord's Day 8. The Father created
through the Son and the Holy Spirit.
He has created heaven and earth of nothing. Before He began to
create there was nothing besides Him. Creating is bringing forth
something out of nothing by an almighty act of the will. We can make
things, reshape a basic material, saw planks from a tree, and by
further dividing and joining make beautiful and pleasing things, but
man's work always remains making. God only can create, bring forth
something out of nothing. It is God's work and honour to have
brought forth the universe of nothing. "Through faith we understand
that the worlds were framed by the word of God so that things which
are made were not made of things which do appear." God calls those
things which be not as though they were.
It is creation not evolution. The evolutionary theory came up
out of sheer enmity against God and His Word and with the purpose of
degrading man, as though he were an animal, having no soul to lose.
Still believing in a creation is foolishness in the eyes of those
who cling to the evolution theory. They believe there was eternal
matter which developed into the many heavenly bodies that move about
in the sky, out of which, again without God, plants, especially on
our earth develop, and from plants came animals, from which animals
man then descended. Faith is not wanted, that is faith in God's
Word. But they do believe this foolish fanciful tale of one child of
man whose mind was darkened. Thus they honour the creature above the
Creator, and reject the living and everlasting Word of God, which
testifies so simply and understandably: "In the beginning God
created heaven and earth." He brought forth all things by the word
of His power. "He spake and it was done; He commanded, and it stood
fast." How creation attests to His admirable wisdom! Here, too, we
might cry out, "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and
knowledge of God!" For He has made them all with wisdom, according
to His sovereign pleasure. "Our God is in the heavens, He has done
whatsoever He has pleased." However man in his seeming boldness may
try to minimize it, the entire creation speaks of the greatness of
the Creator, "for of Him, and through Him and to Him are all things,
to Whom be glory for ever, Amen."
Heaven and earth God the Father created of nothing, with all
that is in them.
"The spacious heavens declare
The glory of our God"
The entire universe is the work of the living God, brought forth
by Him in time. At the creation God also gave time. In the beginning
God created, then it was the first day. Before creation there was no
time; all was eternity; a thousand years were as one day. Then God
placed the universe in time. In the division of time lies such a
blessing for all that live on earth. It is a spur for God's people
to yearn for eternity that lies before them; it is an encouragement
in their suffering and affliction, and a serious warning for us,
since the fall, of our declension. God did not give that beginning
in which He established heaven and earth for naught. One day that
time shall end and at that time heaven and earth shall also pass
away, so that a new heaven and a new earth shall come, upon which
righteousness shall dwell. Then "there shall be time no more." Then
heaven and earth shall return to that sweet agreement that there was
in creation. One day sin shall be swept away from both heaven and
earth and the creation shall fulfill the purposes of God.
God created in the beginning, but that primary creation had to
be completed in a secondary creation. That is the name given to the
creation in the six days, which were ordinary days, not periods of
time, although creation is one work, and cannot be divided. "The
earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of
the deep." God completed the creation in six days. First He gave
light which on the fourth day was collected in the sun, which as the
light-bearer spread light upon the earth, moon and stars. And God
said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven to divide the
day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and
for days, and years; and let them be for lights in the firmament of
the heaven to give light upon the earth. And it was so. And God then
made the two great lights, that great light to rule the day and the
lesser light to rule the night, and the stars also. God placed them
all in the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth and to
rule in the day and in the night, and to make a separation between
the light and the darkness." First He prepared the earth by
separating the waters above in the air, where those immeasurable
amounts of water float in clouds from the waters below, that
gathered in seas and rivers. Then God made animals and man, after
the earth had already brought forth plants and trees. Moreover, God
created all the plants from grass to fruit-bearing trees, all the
animals, from the great whales to all winged birds, rational and
irrational creatures, after his kind, and that word is true, even
today. Go away, then, with your evolutionary theory; that plants
develop from dust, and animals from plants, and man from animals.
God created all things after their kind; a fruit tree reproduces
itself by means of seed, and the egg of any living creature develops
into that same creature. Have you ever gathered figs from thorns or
grapes from brambles? Foolish man who wants to be wiser than God;
blind son of Adam that does not see the greatness of your Creator,
even in His mightiest work. O, hear, "The eternal Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, Who of nothing made heaven and earth, still upholds
them by His eternal counsel and providence."
This can silence the Deist who says that God does not concern
Himself with the creature, but that the universe is as a clock which
having been wound up, runs without further help or guidance. How
much wisdom God gave the composers of the Catechism, so that with
but few words they could express their standpoint in opposition to
errors. God the Lord created the universe, but He also upholds it;
by His omnipotence He preserves its existence. To that work of
preservation Christ referred when He said, "My Father worketh
hitherto."
That work is the executing of God's eternal counsel of which He
spoke through Isaiah, "My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My
pleasure." How often Scripture speaks of that counsel to which even
the most wicked deeds of men are subject. Thus both Herod and Pilate
are gathered together against the holy Child Jesus, with the
Gentiles and the people of Israel to do (however terrible their
deeds were), all that God's "hand and counsel determined before to
be done." Ought not Christ to have suffered these things? Without
that suffering and that death no deliverance of the elect was
possible. And now the inimical Jews and the Gentiles together
execute God's eternal counsel. They are not forced to do it; they do
it willingly, in the great enmity of their heart. But also by those
free acts of men, God executes His will and decree and counsel. By
that counsel He sustains all things and guides them to a certain end
determined by Him. In the next Lord's Day we shall see what a
comfort lies herein for God's people, but here already we must cry
out, "O Lord, how great are Thy works! and Thy thoughts are very
deep." In creation God has revealed His Fatherhood in creatures
outside of Him, but we have torn ourselves away from His Fatherly
hands. Because of our fall, God has become our Judge. Now we see the
unutterable wonder of His good pleasure, which we are shown in the
third place,
III
that God will restore His Fatherhood by a wonderful regeneration.
How precious the practical, essential life of faith is evident
in this Lord's Day. With the confession of God the Father Almighty,
Creator of heaven and earth, the instructor not only gives us a
consideration of the work of creation, but he carries on to God's
Fatherhood of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to what it means to be a
spiritual child, for we read, "that the eternal Father is my God and
my Father."
The Creator of heaven and earth my God and my Father! Oh the
unspeakable blessedness God gives His people! Even the creation of
the universe was planned for the salvation of the church of God. God
created one man to bring forth all out of that one, so that in that
one person all are included in the covenant. When that one man fell
willfully, all fell in him; but then God's plan was revealed, in
imputing the sin and guilt of Adam upon his posterity, the
imputation of the guilt of the elect should fall upon the seed of
the woman. Creation was prepared for the salvation of God's people.
The Catechism lays hold upon that mystery by faith, acknowledging
God the Father as Creator, but also embracing the Father by
restoration. This flows forth from God's counsel and His eternal
good pleasure.
Adorned with God's image, Adam was called the Son of God. God
was his Father, since He had brought him forth.
The Most High God condescends so low to call him His son. What
an inexpressible glory for man to be a son of God. Truly man is the
crown of God's creation. Just keep your theories, unbelieving
scientists, who want to imagine that there are living creatures on
the moon, just to prove that the earth was not the center of God's
creation; just keep your theories. Man created in God's image, and
therefore even superior to the angels, is the most important of
God's creatures, and as a child of God, he shares in God's
immeasurable love, finding Paradise prepared for his habitation. Oh,
what a glorious state, that state of rectitude.
In the fall, as we have already noticed, he withdrew himself
from that fatherly love. Let those modern rejecters of God's free
grace say, "We are all brothers and sisters, children of one God and
Father", they are misleading themselves and others. In the fall we
destroyed our childhood, we ran away from God, and we run on and on
in our chosen way. The prodigal son could not stay with his father,
he journeyed to a far country, and wasted all his goods. That
prodigal son is our image. We, sons and daughters of Adam, bearing
the likeness of fallen man, cannot stay with God. His glory is a
consuming fire to us. In breaking the covenant we have gone far from
God, although He is omnipresent, but we withdrew our heart from Him,
our Creator. The natural relationship of Adam is none other than of
death and condemnation, and it is fitting that each one of us should
confess, "I am not worthy to be called Thy son."
The instructor bases the testimony "That the eternal Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ is my God and my Father" not upon creation,
but upon recreation. It is "for the sake of His Son Jesus Christ."
The Son was anointed by the Father before the foundation of the
world to be the Head of the Covenant of Grace, as Adam was the head
of the covenant of works. In Christ, the church of God was chosen to
be saved from the curse and from perdition and to receive the
adoption by regenerating grace.
In Adam we are by nature children of wrath, children of Satan,
to whom it is said, "The lusts of your father ye will do. He was a
murderer from the beginning." For such, and that is the
incomprehensible wonder of God's sovereign grace, the adoption is
prepared. "Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by
Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His
will."
Therefore the ministry of the Gospel is so broad, that Adam's
sons and daughters are adopted as children of God, that no sinner is
too wicked, and no one is too depraved to obtain this eternal
blessing in this life.
Yet none come there in their own power, or by their own will.
No, of ourselves we have no such desire, we always go farther and
farther away from God and never turn to Him in truth. The adoption
is a work of God, glorified in the hearts of His own by
regeneration. Only by regeneration do we become children of God;
everyone that is born again is born of God and is made to be His
possession, His child, and can never be lost; God's work is and
abides in Him. Does not the newborn babe, lying there unconscious of
everything, belong to the family? Does it not share in all the
rights of the other children, as old as they may be? Is it not
counted as a citizen of the country and an inhabitant of the city?
Just so everyone who is born of God, is a child of God, a
citizen of the heavenly Zion, and when he dies, however small
spiritually, and timid, and doubting he is for himself, he shall
enter eternal glory, for he is an heir of God, and joint-heir with
Christ. Do you think Ruth, the Moabitess, would have been lost if
she had died on Canaan's border with her sincere choice being, "Thy
people shall be my people and thy God my God?" Would you think that
a people who, although being no stronger in faith than Ester was
when she said, "If I perish, I perish", yet could rest on grace,
would perish? Impossible! Then it would not be true that He who had
begun the good work will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.
Here the beginning determines the end. If the beginning is of God
(and it is in all those that are reborn), the end shall be eternal
peace. They who strike such hard blows on the concerned souls,
grieve them and limit the Holy Spirit in His work of grace by
calling, "This is nothing and that is nothing; it must come to this
point and that point; you must learn this thus and so, and if you
are not justified in the court of your conscience you are lost."
They should be ashamed of their spiritual pride and ignorance. Does
the foundation of our salvation lie in those high steps of spiritual
life? Or does the foundation lie in Christ? Does He not seek the
sinner in his state of death? Is it not He Who makes alive, Who
guides him with His counsel and afterwards receives him in His
glory?
So it is: we are adopted as children of God in regeneration,
when we are transferred from death to life.
That adoption as children does not take place without faith and
is rooted in the union with Christ. "As many as received Him, to
them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that
believe on His name; which were born, not of blood, nor of the will
of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."
That faith planted in the soul longs for growth in Christ. It is
the experience of the reborn souls that they cannot rest in the
blessing once given. They need light to see the blessing received.
Sometimes they ask themselves, "Why am I thus?" Is it a work of God
within? They complain bitterly about their sins; they are sorry for
the life they have led. Often they bend their knees with fear, with
fear because they cannot live without prayer, their heart cries out
to God, to the living God; but to them He is more a judge than a
Father. Their guilt, O their terrible guilt, calls for eternal
perdition and how shall they meet God?
Yes, they believe that God is reconciled in Christ for all God's
children, and that fills them with holy jealousy toward that people,
but, usually they cannot believe that they belong to that people.
They feel so wicked. It does not lie in external things since their
eyes were opened, they cannot live in the world, they have left the
service of sin, and they will not, they cannot go back, even if they
must eat dry bread and finally perish. God knows their soul wishes
to cleave to the Lord all their days.
The evil is within; their heart is so wicked, so hard. Then they
lose hope again and are very far from accepting the statement that
they are a child of God. They lack the consciousness of faith of the
work of God glorified in them. Although they are eternally blessed,
they complain much about their wretched state, and although they
would not want to miss what they experience for all the world, they
cannot count themselves among the children of God. They have no life
in the world, and have no place among God's people; they are without
a name. That is not because they lack faith, as that was given them
in regeneration, but they lack the conscious embracing of God in
Christ, by faith.
Faith then breaks through and Christ reveals Himself. Oh, in
Him, yea in Him is everything that can reconcile a lost sinner with
God. He is the way to the Father. "No man comets unto the Father but
by Me." A lively desire now comes into the soul for this Mediator,
to be freed from sin and guilt forever. What a restless seeking,
what hungering and thirsting! "Oh, that Christ were my portion",
says such a one. Unbelief, however, does not cease to oppose the
appropriation of faith, and as long as the soul doubts its being a
partaker of Christ, Satan knows very well the soul also lacks
freedom, internal liberty of heart to cry out "Abba, Father." That
liberty does not even lie in our justification; that liberty lies in
the witness of the Spirit of God with our spirit, that we are
children of God. It is this: "And I will be a Father unto you, and
ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." "I
ascend," said the risen Savior, "unto My Father, and your Father;
and to my God and your God." Then faith responds, "Amen, and Amen."
"For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but
ye have received the spirit of adoption," whereby we cry, "Abba,
Father." Adopted as children for Christ's sake. Never shall the Lord
forsake His people, not even in the greatest adversities. Of that we
shall sing with
Psalter No. 201; st. 1, 2
Application
But now the Catechism also shows the fruit of this spiritual
sonship. This fruit is a sincere confidence: "On whom I rely so
entirely, that I have no doubt but He will provide me with all
things necessary for soul and body; and further, that He will make
whatever evils He sends upon me, in this valley of tears, turn out
to my advantage; for He is able to do it, being Almighty God, and
willing, being a faithful Father."
What language of faith the child of God speaks here! Oh, no,
that is not always the exercise of faith. Jacob did not speak thus
when he complained, "All these things are against me." Elijah did
not glory thus under the juniper tree. David was not so confident
when he uttered his sad complaints, "I shall now perish one day by
the hand of Saul." In the exercise of faith, God's people are
dependent upon the ministration of the Holy Spirit and if that
Spirit withholds his influence, they halt again and again, if not
about their state, then because of the oppression in this life, and
they see not God's fatherly love. Sin darkens the eye of faith, and
prevents coming boldly to the throne of grace. Yet in the depth of
their heart lies the sincere, humble, childlike trust in the Lord.
In the surrender of their soul, God's people sank into the loving
heart of God and became His for time and eternity. He shall provide
them with all things necessary for body and soul, whatever may
happen, although the rivers dry out, and there was no more grass for
the king's horses. For the God of Elijah still lives. "Trust in Him
at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before Him; God is a
refuge for us. Selah." Not only in prosperity, but also in adversity
God is a helper, "a very present help in trouble."
"And that He will make whatever evils He sends upon me, in this
valley of tears turn out to my advantage." There is no want neither
of power nor of love. He can do it, being almighty God, and is
willing to do it, being a faithful Father. All things work together
for good to them that are called according to His purpose.
Trusting in this we may sing with the Psalmist:
"Though troubles surge, yet through the day
The Lord His gracious help will give.
And in the night my heart shall pray
And sing to Him in Whom I live."
Poor child of Adam, who has no Redeemer to lean upon; poor
worldling, whose delight is in the service of sin. Shall Satan pay
you as the Lord in grace pays His people? Shall the world help you
as God helps His people? Can your happiness here be compared to the
happiness that the poorest child of God enjoys? At death shall
anything but eternal grief, remorse and hellish pain be your
portion? Oh, that God might uncover your true misery to you and that
Israel's God may be your aid in this life.
Lock with holy jealousy upon the people that you now so often
despise, reprove and mock. You are still living in the acceptable
day of grace. May it be for your eternal profit.
May it be given to you, people of the Lord, to grow in the
courts of the Lord and to walk far from sin in a humble, quiet walk
as children of God before the Lord. May your soul experience
continually, that the Lord shows mercy to them that fear Him, as a
father pities his children. May the Lord be your refuge in all
afflictions and sorrows, and in all your cares and troubles may you
trust in Him, Who provides for your body and soul. Oh, that your
heart was more full of that spiritual and eternal good that has
become your portion in regeneration. In the world you shall have
tribulation. Reproach and derision is often your portion. "If God be
for us, who can be against us? He that spared not His own Son, but
delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely
give us all things." Your Father, Who is in heaven, knows what you
need, and He shall soon cause you to enter the Father's house which
has many mansions, and into which Christ has gone to prepare a place
for you. Amen.
(continued in part 11...)
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file: /pub/resources/text/ipb-e/epl-02: krhc1-10.txt
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