Someone may ask, “How can I know that God elected me to salvation?” The answer is simple: faith in Christ. God’s elect all have the same faith in Christ. (Titus 1:1, Eph. 4:5) Faith is the evidence of every spiritual blessing, which cannot be seen by the human eye. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Heb. 11:1) Faith is the evidence of justification. (Gal. 3:11) Faith is the evidence that we have been made righteous in Christ. (Phil. 3:9) I say with the apostles, “Lord, increase our faith.” (Luke 17:5)
Believers are crucified to the world and the world is crucified to believers. (Gal. 6:14) Believers have been given a new citizenship in the kingdom of Christ. (Col. 1:13) Then shouldn’t we be less emotionally invested in the politics of the world and more fervent about our heavenly home? We would be more content if we were.
A people hungering after righteousness and a preacher anxious to feed their souls will act in sweet harmony with each other when their common subject is Jesus Christ the Lord.
Scott Richardson
The Hearer I Appreciate
One who has prayed for the preacher and for the blessing of the Lord on the congregation which is meeting today.
One who is punctually in his pew with his family beside him.
One who has his Bible open and who devoutly follows the Scriptures read as hearing God speaking to him.
One who takes a hymnbook and joins in the praise of the Lord as earnestly as does the leader of the singing.
One who in his heart joins in the prayer time.
One who remembers that we are in the presence of God and bears himself with reverence of manner and conversation.
One who looks for Christ and grace in the sermon and not for rhetoric, elocution, and clever statements.
One who listens, takes the message to himself, and has a comment afterward regarding the subject.
One who has a look and a word of Christian greeting for those near him in the church after the service.
John Hall(1829-1898)
(And might your pastor add that this will be the hearer who is most blessed by the Word preached.)
The Father’s Only Son
“And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering…” (Genesis 22:2).
How shocking! Many find it appalling that God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his only son. Perhaps even Abraham at first; but he believed and rested in God’s promise. He accounted that God was able to raise Isaac from the dead (Heb 11:19). This command was intended to shock and alarm. By this God would demonstrate in a figure the unspeakable gift of His grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. God the Father gave His only begotten Son to suffer untold agony and death to redeem and save ungodly, unworthy, hate-filled rebels. Nothing is more shocking than God’s infinite, free grace. Nothing is more astounding and wondrous than the Father’s gift of love.
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