1. James 1:19 (ESV)
  2. Application

Salvation by hearing

James 1:19 (ESV)

19 Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger;

Well, it is not my idea that God chose the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. I do not know why God did that. Why didn't he choose the foolishness of reading? Why didn't he choose the foolishness of a list of ten books that everybody should read in order that they might be saved? I do not know why God did not do that. But one thing is absolutely clear in the Bible: God has chosen the foolishness of preaching. You see it all the way through the Old Testament with the prophets. You see it in Christ himself, you see it in his apostles, and you see it in the specific statements of his Word.

For faith comes by hearing and hearing by the preaching of the Word of God. And while all of the wisdom of man brought no salvation, the foolishness of preaching is the instrumentality by which God has saved men down through the generations. One thing is sure, if God is going to bring a great revival and Reformation again in our day, in spite of the fact that we have all the modern means of the world, God is still going to use the means of preaching; you can absolutely depend upon it. Because in the whole history of the world he has always used that means to revive his church.1

G. I. Williamson