1 God, in the gospel of his Son,
Makes his eternal counsels known;
Where love in all its glory shines,
And truth is drawn in fairest lines.
2 Here sinners of a humble frame
May taste his grace, and learn his Name;
May read, in characters of blood,
The wisdom, pow’r, and grace of God.
3 Here faith reveals to mortal eyes
A brighter world beyond the skies;
Here shines the light which guides our way
From earth to realms of endless day.
4 Oh grant us grace, Almighty Lord,
To read and mark thy holy Word;
Its truths with meekness to receive,
And by its holy precepts live.
(https://hymnary.org/text/god_in_the_gospel_of_his_son)
We open our Bibles and read its words. Sometimes, we take this for granted.
It is almost a miracle that so many in our nation can read.
It is also a miracle that we can understand what it says.
I meet many people who simply cannot understand the Bible and soon quit trying.
The Bible is veiled to them—they need someone to show them the way!
That someone could be you.
2 Corinthians 4:3 says:
3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. (2Co 4:3 ESV)
We live in a world that does not know the word of God. In fact, many times, we use the term “the world” to describe those that live day to day without God. It is the world that cannot see the scriptures as it is.
Sometimes that is hard for us to understand. The Bible seems so simple. The gospel story of Jesus on the cross is so easy to understand.
We are all sinners.
We are all in need of a Savior, because without it we are doomed to hell.
All we must do is to turn our hearts toward Him.
How hard can it be to understand?
I can understand rejecting this offer—but it is hard to accept those who completely do not understand.
The Bible says:
18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. (1Co 1:18 ESV)
They cannot know without the Holy Spirit—so pray for them that they may be open to the gospel! Pray that they will pick up the Bible and see Jesus!
It is in the gospel where we want people to know
1 “God, in the gospel of his Son,
Makes his eternal counsels known;
Where love in all its glory shines,
And truth is drawn in fairest lines.”
We want our neighbors to know this love! This love that is explained in the scriptures.
As we open our Bibles every day, we see love in all its glory shine before us! This is important for us to understand that through the scriptures, we see the gospel—the good news that Jesus came to save us from our sin—through his death! That is love!
Are needing to understand love this morning? Are you needing to understand that God loves you no matter what you may be going through? Look to the gospel—where we see the love of God displayed before you!
The song says:
2 “Here sinners of a humble frame
May taste his grace, and learn his Name;
May read, in characters of blood,
The wisdom, pow’r, and grace of God.”
If you need further evidence of God’s love know that his death was from grace.
Grace—undeserved favor. We don’t deserve it—but he gave his life anyway.
Sometimes we think we are entitled to many things—but what we are entitled to is death and hell.
Grace shows us that through god’s unmerited favor—we can have life through God’s only son. We didn’t deserve it—but god gave his son anyway—to be the payment for our sin. To be our substitute for that which we would have had to pay on our own.
Let us not take for granted our scriptures.
We ask the question whether or not the Bible is Relevant. How can it be that we have forgotten the good news of the Bible to ask this question?
We need to place it in our hearts to see that it is relevant.
Let us look at the last words of this hymn and pray it when we read our Bibles.
4 “Oh grant us grace, Almighty Lord,
To read and mark thy holy Word;
Its truths with meekness to receive,
And by its holy precepts live.”
Let us today, take our love for the scripture and apply that to our daily lives. Let us live by its precepts, receive its truths. Help us to have grace as we read God’s word.
It is a message of Love and a message of Grace.
You can live your lives on those two messages, no matter what you are going through.
God loves you. He sent his Son for you—to die in your place. And he sent his Son by his grace—freely given for you.
That is your encouragement today.
A-Men.
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Photo by Kaushik Panchal on Unsplash
Hymn: God, in the gospel of his Son” by Benjamin Beddome (1787)