At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures!

(Charles Simeon)  LISTEN to Audio!  Download Audio

"Look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the pit from which you were dug!" Isaiah 51:1

All the people of God should look back upon the time when they were first dug out of the pit.

How little prospect was there then, that they should ever form a part of God's redeemed people! They were as blind, as stupid, as averse to God and a holy life, as any pagan idolaters in the universe! If they "did not run to the same excess of riot" as others—they were restrained only by the overruling providence of God, and not by any goodness or hatred of sin which they had.

Who that sees a person now following Jesus and holiness—would ever imagine that he was once a hateful and determined enemy of God, and had a nature as corrupt as the worst of men?

Nothing can be more consoling to us, than a retrospective view of God's dealings with us! In them we may behold, God's sovereign grace in choosing us to be His redeemed people!

Why did He particularly hew us out of the quarry, while such a huge mass of stone was left behind?

Why did He form us as the objects of His mercy, whom He prepared in advance for glory—while so many of the very same lump, were left as the objects of His wrath, prepared for destruction?

Let the saints remember what they once were, that they may see what great things the Lord has done for them in His wondrous mercy! Let them "walk softly all the days of their life" under a sense of their former guilt, and stand amazed at the sovereign grace of God, who has so distinguished them with His favor.

Every saint is a glorious monument of God's sovereign love, mercy, and grace!

"At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, He saved us—not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy!" Titus 3:3-5