thoughts for today.

This expert is from a book of sermons by Ebenezer Erskine.

This is his third answer to the question:

What it is to obey the voice of the Angel of the Covenant?

It implies a belief and persuasion of what the Angel speaks to be the voice of God. It is said of the Thessalonians, that they "received the word, not as the word of men, but as it is indeed the word of God." The man he looks above and beyond the earthen vessel through which the word is conveyed, and hears God himself, whose voice is full of majesty and power. Sirs, as long as the devil can persuade you, that your ministers are only speaking their own thoughts and conceptions, he is easy how much or how frequently you hear the word, for he knows well, that until you hear the word preached as the voice of Christ, your hearing will do no service unto your souls, or no hurt unto his kingdom. You know that while Samuel did mistake the voice of the Lord, as if it had been the voice of Eli, he ran the wrong way; so while men come and hear the word preached, and fancy that it is only the voice or word of a man like themselves, they will run the wrong way; it will never have any impression upon heart or life, to turn them from sin unto GOd: but whenever the voice of Christ is taken up in the word of providence, they run directly to the Lord himself, saying, as Israel did , Jer 3 "Behold we come unto thee, for thou art the Lord our God. In vain is salvation expected from the hills. and from the multitude of mountains: in the Lord God alone is the salvation of his people"