All Articles For Haak Carl J

This message was aired on the Reformed Witness Hour on March 1, 1999. What contributes to dead orthodoxy? What con­tributes to mere formal worship? What contributes to a lack of pastors? What contributes to an increase of complex conflict in family and church? What contrib­utes to many young people exiting a doctrinally sound denomination like ours? Of course, there are other components, but I strongly suggest that alcohol abuse is a far stronger factor than we have been willing to consider. Quickly to disagree and dismiss this diagno­sis is to ignore what Scripture frequently indicates to be a problem in...

Rev. Haak is pastor of Georgetown Protestant Reformed Church in Hudsonville, Michigan and radio pastor for the Reformed Witness Hour, on which this message was aired. “For from you sounded out the word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God-ward is spread abroad; so that we need not to speak any thing.” I Thessalonians 1:8 In this chapter of I Thessalonians the apostle Paul states that he knew that the believers in Thessalonica had been eternally chosen of God unto salvation. He says to them in verse 4, “Knowing, brethren beloved,...

Rev. Haak is pastor of Georgetown Protestant Reformed Church in Hudsonville, MI. This article is the text of one of the six speeches given at the PR Seminary-sponsored conference, in October of last year, commemorating the 450th anniversary of the writing of the Heidelberg Catechism. The other five were printed in the November 1, 2013 issue of the SB. “I love the Lord, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications. Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live.” Psalm 116 In Psalm 116, the psalmist David gives...

Rev. Haak is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Lynden, Washington. The book of Malachi is the last of the Old Testament prophecies written before the birth of Jesus Christ. Approximately 400 years of silence would follow the words of this prophecy, until the time when Gabriel would be sent to godly Zacharias and Elisabeth to announce the birth of the forerunner or our Lord (Mal. 3:1; Mal. 4:5, 6; Luke 1:1-20). The importance of this book of the Bible cannot be overstated. The times in which Malachi prophesied correspond exactly to our own; the sins current among God’s people and...

Rev. Haak is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Lynden, Washington.

Rev. Haak is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Lynden, Washington. In the first part of chapter 2, Malachi beautifully describes God’s covenant, the bond of friendship He makes with us in Christ. Malachi showed that this was an eternal covenant established by Jehovah out of pure grace. In the covenant God blesses His people with life and peace. And those in the covenant have the calling walk with God, turn from iniquity, oppose evil, and love God’s truth. Against this background the sin of the people of Malachi’s day stood out in all its naked ugliness. Their religious...

Rev. Haak is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Lynden, Washington. In these verses of Malachi’s prophecy the prophet speaks words of consolation and joy to true believers and words of severe judgment and warning to those who walk in wickedness. We have noted that the days in which Malachi prophesied were times of trouble for God’s people who had returned from the Babylonian captivity. It was a time of apostasy, cold indifference, and treachery. Even on the part of God’s true people there was despondency and secret despair. “Where is the God of judgment?” they ask in chapter...

We have seen repeatedly in our study of Malachi how the prophet’s day and our own are so much alike. The sins present among God’s people then are similar to those of today, especially the mere outward obser­vance of religion and the cold formal worship of the true God. We have also observed how Malachi deals with these sins, namely by always holding them up to the light (brightness) of God in order to show how heinous and treacherous it is when a people sin against the goodness and mercy of the Lord, depart from His ordinances, and render Him...

Rev. Haak is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Lynden, Washington. Chapter 4 of Malachi’s prophecy flows naturally from the thoughts of the last part of chapter 3. Chapter 3:17, 18 spoke of that day when God would at last make up His church in which the remnant of Malachi’s day would be included. We were also told that that day would be the day of vindication of God’s righteous judgments, when the difference between the righteous and wicked would be clearly shown. Now the prophet declares the certainty of that day (Behold, the day cometh!) and unfolds the...

Rev. Haak is pastor of Georgetown Protestant Reformed Church in Hudsonville, Michigan and radio pastor for the Reformed Witness Hour, on which this message was aired. What a day that had been—the day in which Jesus rose from the dead—a day of wonder and joy, and a day also of perplexity and doubt! There had never been a day like that before, nor will there ever be a day like it again—until the end, when Jesus appears yet once more, in the clouds of glory. Immortal life in the body stood upon this present earth of sin and death. For...