At one time we too were foolish,
disobedient, deceived, and enslaved by all kinds of passions and
pleasures. By Charles Simeon. Look to the
rock from which you were hewn, and to the pit from which you
were dug. Isaiah chapter 51 verse 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 3-5