All Articles For Sounding Out the Word

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, 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...

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. It is at this time of year that the church remembers in a special way the awful sufferings and bitter death of our Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross. I consider with you a subject of the Scriptures that is both vast and deep, broad and expansive; a truth of the Scriptures that reaches from one end of the Bible even to the other end; a truth that is absolutely vital for your soul....

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. “A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary.” Jeremiah 17:12 These words are a very beautiful and powerful affirmation of faith made by Jeremiah in a day of deep darkness and personal anguish. There are very few who have suffered the sorrows and difficulties in the service of God that Jeremiah did. His words, which he faithfully delivered from God, were opposed and ridiculed every inch of the way...

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. God has given to us a precious and wonderful gift. It is called prayer. As children of God, also as young people, there is nothing more important than to develop a regular life of prayer. The most important thing in your life is not your studies, work, business, rushing here and there. But the most important thing is to live truly a life of prayer. Without prayer, we would soon be off the path...

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 is your hope for the future? I did not ask, What should be your hope? No, what is your hope? What is it that you have set your eye upon? What is it that your heart desires above everything else? And toward what are you preparing and directing your life today? Is it in terms of the good life, a good-paying job, the ability to afford all that you ever wanted? Is it in terms...

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. On whose side are you? There are only two camps, the Word of God declares. Who are either on the side of God…or darkness; Christ…or the world; holiness…or sin. There is no compromise possible between these two. Any attempt to have both is to declare oneself an enemy of God. This was the question that Moses asked the people of Israel. We read in Exodus 32:26, Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp,...

When will Jesus come again? After seeing in the Word of God that Jesus comes yet once more in the future, comes to destroy this present world and to gather unto Himself His church, to judge the wicked, and to bring about the newheavens and the new earth we might ask the question: When will He come? Can we know the time? Can we make predictions? Should we, as Christians, begin to set dates when Jesus is expected to come? Our Lord Himself gave a very clear answer to this question. He said in Mark 13:32, 33, “But of that...

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. The Word of God in I Peter 1:13 exhorts us: “Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” The Scriptures here use a figure of speech in which the Christian mind is compared to the dress of an easterner, to his long robe, which was very relaxing and comfortable in moments of ease,...