[Note: 1) The following is a but a very brief selection from VanderKemp. What we do see here are some very pertinent comments, hence their selection. 2) In his exposition of the Catechism, VenderKemp first provides a positive exposition the catechism, after which sets out sets out applications by way of exhortations, first to the unbeliever, second to the believer. The following are his exhortations to unbelievers.]
VanderKemp:
1) 2 But ye, who seek not yet the suffering Jesus. who pursue your happiness in your own works, to whom Jesus is not yet precious in his sufferings, who mind earthly things, and are thus enemies of the cross of Christ j who once seemed to have chosen his side. but have again loved the present world, and do thus crucify the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame; who withstand the people of Jesus, and therefore Jesus himself, see in these sufferings of Jesus what will betide you also: for if these things were done in the green tree, what shall be done in the dry?” Luke xxiii. 31. If the Son of God experienced so much woe, when he was guiltless, and had done all things well, how will ye, O vile wretches, endure, when he will attack you not as a man. but when he will stir up all his wrath, and ring you to his seat at, that he may accuse you of all your misdemeanors, your sedition again4t him, your blasphemy, reproaching and transgressing of his law; that he map condemn you as guilty, and send you away as accursed, when he will say to you, standing on his left hand, bb Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels,” Matt. xxv. 41. How will ye then be crucified? for “your worm shall not die, and your fire shall not be quenched,” Mark ix. 44. Either ye must suffer, or Jesus for you. Since now ye evidence by your behavior, that ye have never sought him in truth, ye have therefore no proof, that he suffered for you: therefore be anxious and concerned, look unto him, that ye may be saved, He stretches out his hands, pierced with the nails, to you, and invites you to come unto him. Johannes VanderKemp, The Christian, Entirely the Property of Christ, in the life and death, Exhibited in Fifty-three Sermons on the Heidelberg Catechism. (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Reformation Heritage Books, 1997), 1:322. [Sermons originally published in 1717.] [Some spelling modernized; underlining mine.]
2) 4. Perhaps ye may think, all this doth not concern us, for we know God: we could prove by passages from the word of God that he exists, and show what and who he is, and w endeavor to live according to our knowledge, by forsaking evil, and doing good. It is well; but does your knowledge warm your hearts, unite you to God and Christ? and are your works “done in God,” as the Lord Jesus says? John iii. 21. But how few are there, who know God thus? there are many who have not been taught so by God; they nave only a literal knowledge of the void, which leaves their souls alienated from God, and doth not influence and urge them to do all things in union with the Triune God. Their knowledge puffs them up, and “their. zeal for God is not according to knowledge, leading them to establish their own righteousness,” Rom. x. 2, 3.
Read the rest of this entry »