I've personally been struck by the number of earnest Christians who have believed that the only reason the Father loves them is because Christ died for them.

And they've never grasped that behind the death of the Lord Jesus for us stands the Father who loves us. Have you grasped that truth? For God so loved the world, John tells us,

that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

We're loved by God, therefore he sent Jesus, not the other way around.

This is the Thursday edition of Renewing Your Mind. I'm your host, Nathan W. Bingham.

As we've spent this week in John's account of Jesus with his disciples,

and what are really intimate moments before Jesus will depart and lay down his life,

Sinclair Ferguson has helped us glean many gospel and pastoral truths for the Christian life.

So I do encourage you to finish this series by requesting lifetime digital access

and a copy of Dr. Ferguson's Christmas devotional love came down at Christmas

when you give a donation of any amount at renewing your mind.org. Today is the final day for this offer,

so be sure to request this resource bundle before midnight tonight. For the final time in this

farewell discourse, here's Dr. Ferguson with a message titled

The Meaning of Christmas at Easter. One of the things that homiletics teachers in theological

summaries, that's the men who teach preaching, apparently often say to their students is,

you need to make sure that everybody understands exactly what you're saying. And in fact,

the great writers of the 17th century who composed the Westminster Confession and the Westminster

Catechisms also emphasized that people

who preach should preach so that the phrase they used so that the meanest may understand.

They didn't mean the Scotsman in the congregation should understand.

They meant the people who had least understanding.

And I love a word of Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the 19th century preacher,

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