Talk of These Words [New Year Service]

As 2021 begins, the sermon looks back on a year in which the epidemic left everyone hemmed in. It was God who sent the calamity and God who lifted it, and so this season must be endured in repentance.

Faith comes by hearing. In Old Testament times God’s people could not hold the Scriptures in their hands, so they listened again and again, learned the words by heart and engraved them within; and through a father’s voice passing the word on to his children, the household was made firm in God. Today the Bible lies within arm’s reach, yet if faith does not grow, it is because the word has been heard but never written on the tablet of the heart.

Having passed through a time when the congregation could not freely come to church, Christians need to consider afresh how urgently they must hear the word and commit it to memory. Those who live out a faith that prays all day long, like those who once recited the word under their breath from morning till night, can hold fast to their faith and protect their families, however the world may turn.