“As you listen to the Word of God, ask yourself, how does God want me to be different on account of this sermon? Ask what God wants you to know what you did not know before. Ask what truths you are learning that he wants you to believe. And ask how He wants you to put those truths into practice. In every sermon you hear–even those on the most basic gospel-themes–God offers you truths to believe and put into practice. Pray for grace to work at listening” (Joel R. Beeke, The Family at Church: Listening to Sermons and Attending Prayer Meetings, 20-21).

“As you listen to the Word of God, ask yourself, how does God want me to be different on account of this sermon? Ask what God wants you to know what you did not know before. Ask what truths you are learning that He wants you to believe. And ask how He wants you to put those truths into practice. In every sermon you hear–even those on the most basic gospel themes–God offers you truths to believe and put into practice. Pray for grace to work at listening” (Joel R. Beeke, The Family at Church: Listening to Sermons and Attending Prayer Meetings, 20-21).

“Young men, young men, I wish you did but know the comfort of a conscience not burdened with a long list of youthful sins. These are the wounds that pierce the deepest. These are the arrows that drink up a man’s spirit. This is the iron that enters into the soul. Be merciful to yourselves. Seek the Lord early, and so you will be spared many a bitter tear” (J.C. Ryle, Thoughts for Young Men, 17).

“Teach your children that every sermon counts for eternity. Salvation comes through faith, and faith comes through hearing God’s Word (Rom. 10:13-16). So every sermon is a matter of life and death (Deut. 32:47; 2 Cor. 2:15-16). The preached gospel will either lift us up to heaven or cast us down to hell. It will advance our salvation or aggravate our condemnation” (Joel R. Beeke, The Family at Church: Listening to Sermons and Attending Prayer Meetings, 11-12).

“As twenty-first-century evangelical Protestants, we must combine our defense of biblical inerrancy with a positive demonstration of the transforming power of God’s Word” (Joel R. Beeke, The Family at Church: Listening to Sermons and Attending Prayer Meetings, 5).

Isaiah 59:21, As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the LORD; My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed, saith the LORD, from henceforth and for ever.

Generational blessings, that.

Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter VII, Section IV–This covenant of grace is frequently set  forth in Scripture by the name of a testament, in reference to the death of Jesus Christ the testator, and to the everlasting inheritance, with all things belonging to it, therein bequeathed.

A. A. Hodge expounds:

Christ as mediatorial King, administers to his people the benefits of his covenant; and by his providence, his Word, and his Spirit, he causes them to become severally recipients of these blessings, according to his will. These benefits he offers to all men in the gospel. He promises to grant them on the condition they are received. In the case of his own people, he works faith in them, and as their Surety engages for them and makes good all that is suspended upon or conveyed through their agency. In the whole sphere of our experience every Christian duty is a Christian grace; for we can fulfill the conditions of repentance and faith only as it is given to us by our Surety. All Christian graces also involve Christian duties. So that Christ at once purchases salvation for us, and applies salvation to us; commands us to do, and works in us to obey; offers us grace and eternal life on conditions, and gives us the conditions and the grace and the eternal life. What he gives us he expects us to exercise. What he demands of us he at once gives us. Viewed on God’s side, faith and repentance are gifts of the Son. Viewed on our side, they are duties and gracious experiences, the first symptoms of salvation begun–instruments wherewith further grace may be attained. Viewed in connection with the covenant of grace, they are elements of the promise of the Father to the Son, conditioned upon his mediatorial work. Viewed in relation to salvation, they are indices of its commencement and conditions sine qua non [something that is essential, something that is indispensable] of its completion (A. A. Hodge, The Confession of Faith, 127-128).

The wisdom of Stubb: “Because a laugh’s the wisest, easiest answer to all that’s queer; and come what will, one comfort’s always left–that unfailing comfort is, it’s all predestinated. . . . Well, Stubb, wise Stubb–that’s my title–well, Stubb, what of it, Stubb? Here’s a carcase. I know not all that may be coming, but be it what it will, I’ll go to it laughing” (Herman Melville, Moby Dick, 168).

In 1 Samuel 5 and 6 the Ark of the Covenant is taken into captivity by the Philistines for seven months. The Ark is bad-news for the Philistines: it brings judgment on the idol-worshipers and judgment on their idols.

The idol-worshipers took the Ark captive, but they don’t know what to do with it. The wicked don’t know what to do when they are in the presence of a Holy God. Colloquially speaking, the Philistines were freaking out.

And the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners, saying, What shall we do to the ark of the LORD? tell us wherewith we shall send it to his place (1 Samuel 6:2).

 So they brainstorm to send the Ark away.

The takeaway message:

• Don’t listen like a Philistine–they heard God’s voice–they saw God’s judgment on their idols–but they refused to listen and draw near to the Holy God. Instead of truly listening, and being changed by God’s word of judgment, they opted to keep their idols and send the Ark (God) away.
• Don’t listen like a Philistine–draw near to God in humility and repentance–chuck your idols, pursue the Holy God that spoke a word of judgment. 

Kudos to Pastor Nate Harlan at Trinity Evangelical Church, Larwill, IN. Content for this post inspired by personal notes from his sermon series from 2009.