Topic(s): Jesus

Steve Winger from Lubbock, Texas, was taking a challenging class in logic. The teacher was known for exacting exams. The final exam was looming, and the professor mercifully told the class that each student would be permitted to bring in a single 8.5 x 11 inch sheet with as much information as they could put on that one sheet for help during the test.

On exam day, each student came to class clutching his precious piece of paper with as much information as possible. Some students had crammed lines and lines of font so tiny onto that single sheet that you had to wonder how they could read it. But Steve walked in with a single blank sheet and a friend who was a senior student and who had an “A” in logic. Steve bent down and placed that single, blank sheet of paper on the floor next to his desk. His expert friend stood on the paper.

The professor noticed the extra body in the room and asked what he was doing. Steve piped up, “You said we could bring in what ever we could fit on a single piece of paper for help on this test. Well, this is my help and he can fit on the paper!” He had followed the instructions to the letter and was the only student in that class to score an “A” since he had his expert friend standing beside him.

Jesus is our friend, standing beside us and supporting us.

—eSermons.com

“Ye are my friends . . .” —John 15:14
 

The Second Gospel Sermon

Topic(s): Gospel

Genesis 12:3 is the second recorded Gospel sermon.

It is the second piece in God’s spiritual puzzle of redemption. It looks backward to man’s problem in Genesis 3:6 and forward to God’s remedy in Calvary. It looks backward to man’s separation from God in Genesis 3:6 and forward to man’s reconciliation to God in Christ and the cross. It looks backward to man’s despair in Genesis 3:6 and forward to man’s hope in the blood of God’s Son. It looks backward to the beginning of sin in Genesis 3:6 and forward to the closing of Christ’s work for sin in John 19:30. God preached the Gospel to Abraham in Genesis 12:3 just as surely as Peter preached the Gospel on Pentecost in Acts 2. The only difference is that Genesis 12:3 looks forward to an event to be accomplished, and Acts 2 looks backward on the accomplishment of the event. Genesis 12:3 is the gospel in promise, and Acts 2 is the gospel in fact. —KneeMail, Frank Chesser, Montgomery, Alabama (Mike Benson, editor)

“And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.” —Galatians 3:8-9