"And they called Rebekah and said unto her, Will you go with this man? And she said, I will go."-Gen. 24:58.
See, my soul, with what readiness Rebekah determined to accompany the servant of Abraham to Isaac. And will you not arise and go forth at the invitation of the servants of Jesus, who sends them to call you to his arms? Has he not, by the sweet constraining influences of his Holy Spirit, as well as by the outward ministry of his blessed word, made you willing in the day of his power? Did not the servant of Abraham give proof of his master's affection in putting the bracelets upon Rebekah's hands, and the earrings, and the gold? But what was this to the love-tokens which Jesus himself has given you, when he set you as a seal upon his heart, and as a seal upon his arm? When all the waters of divine wrath were poured upon him for your sins, which like a deluge had overspread your whole nature, it could not quench his love, nor drown it.
If it should be demanded then, from your own mouth this day, "Will you go with this man?" this God-man, this Glory-man, this Jesus, will you not instantly cry out, "I will go?" Yes! you altogether lovely Lord, you greatest and fairest among ten thousand, I will go with you. It would be better for me to leave my own people and my father's house. For my father's house is a house of bondage. I was born in sin, and shaped in iniquity. I am by nature a child of wrath, even as others, and dead in trespasses and sins. It is you, blessed Jesus, who have delivered me from the wrath to come. It is you who have quickened me by your Holy Spirit to a new and spiritual life. It is you who have sent your servants to call me to yourself, and have betrothed me to yourself for ever. Is there is any that yet who would ask me, "Will you go with this man?" My whole soul would answer the question as the apostle did, "to whom else shall I go?" Witness for me, you servants of my Lord; you angels, and ministers of light. I have no one in heaven, neither in earth, but him. Yes, dearest Redeemer! I will go with you, follow you, live with you, depend upon you, and die with you. Not even death itself shall part you and me. Oh let those precious words of yours, concerning your church be sweetly felt in my soul. "I will say, it is my people" and my whole soul will make her responses to the gracious sound, and say, "the Lord is my God."
Robert Hawker
Why are the hearts of unconverted people prone to swell with opposition against the saving truths of God’s Word? Because those truths run directly counter to the natural prejudices and the corrupt reasonings of self-righteous pride. It stings a Pharisee, who looks for salvation from his own doings, to be told that all who get to heaven must be brought thither, not by works of righteousness which they have done, but by the free, unmingled grace of God in Christ. It quite affronts the free-willer to be informed that it is God Himself Who, by the power of His Spirit, must work in us both to will and to do those things that are pleasing in His sight. Hence it is that the Gospel of Christ meets with hatred and repulse. And hence that remarkable saying, “Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division: For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three” (Luke 12:51-52). The truth is they who receive the Gospel must ever expect to be nibbled at by those who do not receive it. And the apostle’s observation holds as good at this present day, as it did when he first committed it to paper. “But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now” (Galatians 4:29).
--- Augustus Toplady
All true worship flows out of a sense of being justified before God in the Lord Jesus Christ and saved entirely from all our sins by His free and sovereign grace. We worship and praise and thank God for what He has done for us. God is worthy of worship simply because of who He is but we cannot and will not ever worship Him until He does something for us and in us. When He comes to us and gives life and faith, revealing to us His grace and mercy in Christ, then we fall down before Him and worship Him. Worship arises toward God from a new heart which loves and trusts Christ in light of His saving, successful work on our behalf. We love Him because He first loved us. We seek Him because He first sought us. We praise Christ as the One who has redeemed us to God by His own blood.
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