rejoicing in the incarnation
of Christ. We'll sing this to the tune of
How Firm a Foundation, number 41. My God, my Creator, the heavens
did bow to ransom offenders and stood very low, the body prepared
by the Father of sins. And on the kind heron most joyful
he comes O wanderer of wonders, astonished I gaze In the manger the ancient of
days, And angels proclaiming the stranger forlorn, And telling
the shepherds that Jesus is born. For thousands of sinners the
Lord bowed his head. For thousands of sinners he groaned
and he bled. My spirit rejoices the work it
has done. My soul is redeemed, but salvation
is won. Jesus my Savior, thy truth I
embrace, thy name and thy nature, thy spirit embrace. and trace the pure footsteps
of Jesus, my Lord, and glory in Him who brought sinners aboard. My God is returned to glory on
high. When death makes a passage, then
to Him I'll fly to join in the song. Well, amen to that. How about we sing a hymn How can ye hope, deluded souls,
to see what none e'er saw? Salvation by the words obtained,
all a Sinai's fiery law. There ye may toil, and weep,
and fast, and vex your heart with pain. And when you've ended, find at
last that all your toil was vain. That law but makes your guilt
abound. Sad health and what is worse. All souls that are under that
are found. By God himself are cursed. This curse pertains to those
who break one precept, they're so small. And where's the man in thirty
that has not broken all? ? Fly then awake and sinners
fly ? ? Your case admits no stake ? ? The fountains open now for
sin ? ? Come wash your guilt away ? ? See how from Jesus'
wounded side ? The water flows and blood. If you but touch that
purple tide, you can have peace with God. Only by faith in Jesus' words,
the sinner finds relief. No other sacrifice for sin will
God accept but this. All right, how about hymn number
99? Number 99. Blessed Jesus, thee we sing. Thou of life, eternal spring. Thou art worthy, thou alone. Thou the rock and cornerstone. Thou the rock and cornerstone. ? Tis from thee salvation flows
? ? This the ransom sinner knows ? ? Thou, O Christ, art all his
plea ? ? When he sees his poverty ? ? When he sees his poverty
? None shall glory in thy sight, Of their labors e'er so bright. All who are taught by thee shall
know, Living faith from God must flow, Living faith from God must
flow. Grace shall be our lovely theme,
free redemption, glorious scheme. This will be the song above,
praise to Jesus, pleading love. Praise to Jesus, fleeting love. How about, straight back across
the page there, how about hand number 97? Hand number 97. If anyone has
any requests for him, we'll take those after this. Okay, number
97. ? Tis finished, the Messiah dies
? ? Cut off for sins but not his own ? ? Accomplished is the
sacrifice ? The great redeeming work is done Finished our vile
transgression is And purged the guilt of all our sin And everlasting
righteousness Is brought forth Tis finished all my guilt and
pain. I want no sacrifice beside. For me, for me the lamb was slain. And I'm forever justified. Sin, death, and hell are now
subdued. All grace is now to sinners given. And lo, I plead the atoning blood
for pardon, holiness, and pen. All right, does anybody have
an image you'd like to see? Well, 128 then. Let's finish
with that 128. 128. Christ bears the names of all His saints, Deep on his heart engraved, Attended
to the state and want, Of all his love has saved, Of all his
love has saved, Of all, of all his love has saved. In Him the holiness complete,
light and perfection shine. and wisdom, grace and glory be,
a Savior all-divine, a Savior all-divine, a Savior, a Savior
all-divine. for sinners is His own. The incense of His prayers and
tears perfumes the Holy Throne, perfumes the Holy Throne, perfumes,
perfumes the Holy Throne. In Him my weary soul has rest,
though I am weak and bound. I read my name upon His breast,
and see the Father smile. Turn with me, if you would, this
morning over to The first epistle to the Corinthians. First Corinthians, chapter one. First Corinthians, chapter one.
Let's bow and ask the Lord's blessings upon the message today. Our Heavenly Father, we thank
you this morning once again for this beautiful day that you've
given to us and this time of worship that you've allowed us
to be a part of, to bring us together for the purpose of proclaiming
your name. And Father, we pray that today
that might happen, that you might help us in our worship, Lord.
We need your aid, your spirit here among us, Father, to help
us in our worship. Father, I pray that you'll be
with me as I speak and minister the word of God, that you'll
bring the recollection, the things of God's word, that you'd speak
through me, Father, the truths that you would have these people
to hear, brother. I pray for the brethren that
are here, Lord, that you might minister to them, that you might
speak, give them understanding by the Spirit. Teach them, Father,
today. We need your help. We need your
teaching. I can't teach anybody, and I
know that without the Spirit that no man would know, no man
would learn, that we'd all just be floundering around in the
wisdom that this world gives in carnality. And so, Father,
I pray that you'd bring spiritual understanding today, spiritual
ability to discern. And Father, Lord, I just pray
for those that are here today. They be your sheep, Lord. I pray
that you'd call them to yourself. Lord, that you would convert
them by the gospel, that you would bring them. Lord, to yourself,
that they might present themselves for baptism, that we as a church
might teach and minister to them the things of God and that they
might be a servant of you. And Father, we pray for this
church. We do pray, Lord, that you might
bring others to worship and to serve with us, Lord. We pray
for all those that's here in town. We ask, Lord, that you
just might call them out of these false churches and that they
might find the truth wherever it's preached, whether it's here
or other, other true churches. Lord, we, we know that we're
not the only ones with truth. We know that there are others
that preach these things. And so we pray, Lord, that you'll
call your people out as you were doing. We ask, Lord, that you
be with Sister Louetta this morning. We pray for her and her healing.
She might continue to minister to her, Lord, and we just pray
for her family. We pray, Lord, for All the members
that we've had over the years, Lord, wherever they are at, we
pray for them as well. Lord, we just thank you so much
for Christ. We thank you for salvation. We
thank you, Lord, that we've been redeemed and that we've been
purchased with blood. We thank you, Father, for forgiveness
and reconciliation, for justification and sanctification. We thank
you, Father, that one of these days, as we've talked over the
last few weeks, that you'll soon return will bring in our glorification. Father, these things you've given
us all spiritual blessings that you've given to us. We don't
deserve it. Lord, we know we don't. We know
that we're sinners by nature. We know that we have transgressed
you, Lord, and we know that we are deserving of all your wrath. But praise God for Jesus Christ,
who has bore our sin. And today we can stand and praise
him and come before the throne of God with worship and praise
and with supplications, Lord, because of the blood and the
righteousness of Jesus Christ being laid to our account. So
Father, Lord, again, I pray that you would help us in our ministry
of this service today. Of course, in Jesus' name we
pray, amen. 1 Corinthians chapter one, if
you would, brethren, You know, we're living in a time,
living in a day, and it's been like this now for quite a while.
But we're living in a time when men are increasing in knowledge,
carnally speaking. Technology is expounding. Understanding
of certain things are expounding. We know more today than we knew
back when I was a kid. We understand things more than
we did back whenever I was a kid. We have greater technology today
than we did whenever I was a kid. And to some of that, it's good.
To some of that, it's kind of been a detriment. But it's been
an increase in knowledge. But I also believe that the Lord
in his people and specifically within the churches, and even
more fine-tuned to the preachers that God has called for these
churches, that he is increasing in knowledge, their understanding
of God's word. I believe that we're living in
such a day now, and I've talked about this with other brothers,
And it seems to be the same thing that God has placed upon their
hearts as well. But I believe that God is equipping
the churches and the preachers for a time when people are not
going to put up with sound doctrine. You know, the Bible warned about
that, that there will be people who will not put up with sound
doctrine, but they'll gather into themselves men to speak
what their itching ears want to hear. And we look at the modern
churches that are out there today and that's basically what we
see is just men out there pandering to the people to gain notoriety
and to gain numbers, to gain money, to gain position. And so we see a lot of puffed
upness because of people's ministries. And they think because they have
such great ministries, that they are really hitting it for the
Lord. And when we look at scripture, though, and we look at God's
men, the apostles and the preachers and the churches during that
time period, we see that men were very humbled. Men were very centered on and focused upon
preaching the word of God and not worrying about all these
other things that so many churches seem to be exercising today. And so as I was beginning to
say, I really truly think that the Lord is beginning to increase
in knowledge the understanding of God's word. The Bible has
always said that the New Testament church, the local church that
the Lord has gathered together, the scriptural churches that
is, that they are the pillar and the ground of truth. And
that will be until the day Jesus comes back. That's why he established
the New Testament church, is to be the pillar and the ground
of truth in which the gates of hell will never prevail. That
institution of the New Testament church, I'm not talking about
an elect body of people, I'm talking about the institution
of the gathered assembly as a congregation holding the truths, the doctrines,
the ordinances of Jesus Christ, preaching that, evangelizing
through the gospel of Jesus Christ, the true gospel of Jesus Christ,
and those that are made disciples by that gospel, being scripturally
baptized, brought in to membership of that local body of people,
and then being taught all things whatsoever Christ has commanded,
and then that pattern is to be reciprocated through every generation. And that is why the Lord gave
us the commission. And so I believe that that has
always been a part of the New Testament church. But in these
days that we're living in now, and as we'll be going forward
in time into the Lord's return, we'll see that men will wax worse
and worse. And we're going to see that the
preaching of the gospel is going to become fewer and far between.
And we're going to see that it's going to be harder for us to
be able to worship. I mean, even now, I mean, look
at the crazies out in California that's telling the churches that
they can't sing in church, you know They can't meet in church
or they can't sing in church and all this stuff. I mean, it's
just it's it's coming quicker You know, we we thought we'd
see this kind of eroding gradually over time, but it's just like
coming in like a flood But the Bible says when the enemy comes
in like a flood we have a shield and a buckler that stands for
us and No weapon formed against us shall prosper. And I know
for a lot of us, we look at what's going on and we can become discouraged. I know I do. I become discouraged
at what I see in our country. I become discouraged at what
I see on the news. And sometimes that gets to me
in my flesh. And I get angry and I get disappointed
and I get, you know, even depressed somewhat. But we have to remember,
brethren, that the church The Lord has promised to protect.
That doesn't mean we're not going to have persecution, but he has
promised to protect us from a falling away. He's promised to keep us
and not let us fall. He's promised that he will see
us to the end, to give us endurance, that he has promised to preserve
us until the end. And one of the ways that he does
that is through the preaching of God's Word. The preaching
of God's Word. That's why it's so important
for us to be under the preaching of God's Word. See, there's nothing
special about Mike Smith, but there is something special about
God's Word being preached by a man who is called by God to
deliver that message. It's very important that the
people of God study their Bibles and that they edify one another
with God's Word and that they fellowship in God's Word. See, we can have a lot of fellowship
around a lot of things. We can fellowship around hamburgers
and hot dogs and 4th of July fireworks and, you know, we can
have fellowship around that or around a football game or something
like that. But whenever we're talking about
spiritual, godly, Christian fellowship, we're talking about times whenever
we get together and encourage and edify one another in God's
Word. Speaking the things of God. Talking
about the things of God. And you can't know that if you
don't know God's Word. And you're not going to gain
anything from that if you're just trying to absorb that and
not study for yourself. And so there is this great need
for us to pray and ask God for a Word from Him, from His Word,
for Him to teach us and to keep us faithful. And we see today
that there are many that are wise in their own conceits, as
the Bible says. We'll see that in our passages
today, but that there are many who are wise in their own conceits. We find that there are many who
follow after the wisdom of man, and they're religious people.
They're people that truly are trying to do good and feel that
they're, you know, advancing the cause of the gospel, but
many of them come with the wisdom of men and the wisdom and traditions
of men and not after Christ. And they set that as the standard
for those who are listening to them, that their standard of
understanding in the wisdom of men and in the traditions of
men. And again, nobody claims that. I don't know too many preachers,
or any preachers, that stand up and say, you know, I'm preaching
in the wisdom of man, and in the traditions of man, and so
you need to follow after that. Nobody says that, okay? Nobody
says that. But yet that is going on, and
men are deceived in that. They think that by those things
that they are advancing the kingdom of God and that they are advancing
the gospel by those traditions and by that wisdom that like
seminaries give and theologians give and commentaries give and
things such as that. But brethren, listen, we need
to hear from God. We need to be taught of God.
And I applaud men and preachers who put down the teachings of
men and aren't afraid to stand for God's Word, even if it goes
against the grain of what many traditionalists teach and believe. If it is supported by God's Word,
if it's found in God's Word, if it's cohesive with all of
God's Word, whether we understand it or not, whether we may even
agree with it or not, if it does coincide with the scriptures. If it's based by scripture in
its context, in its congruency throughout scripture, then we
shouldn't throw that off. We should look into that because
all of us are looking in a glass darkly, right? All of us are
still learning. All of us have not achieved full
knowledge. And so while we may think that
we have it figured all out, We come across somebody, and I come
across this all the time, brothers on the internet or writings of
men of old, and as I'm reading through that, I see something
that I've not ever thought of, and I'm like, you know, I thought
I had all that figured out, but man, these guys are reaching
to a deeper depth on this subject than I've ever even scratched
the surface on. And so always bearing in mind
that we can always be corrected or taught more than what we've
been taught. Taught different than we've been
taught. And so, you know, I'm not saying
to follow every wind of doctrine that's out there, but I'm saying
take God's Word and let God's Word be the determining factor
in what we believe. And so I think in these days
that God is beginning to teach and reveal to the preachers that
He's called and to the churches and the people in them the truth
and they're beginning to see that that's what matters. It doesn't matter what traditions
or theological systems we have, but what does God's word say?
That's what we need, that's what we want, because that's what
we need. Paul addressed this in the letter
to the Corinthians. If you remember, the Corinthian
church was a very problematic church. Paul had came and established
the gospel there. He established the pattern that
Christ had given to the New Testament church to follow, but yet these
Christians in Corinth at this church began to deviate from
these things. And so Paul had to send them
a letter of correction. Matter of fact, he even had to
send Timothy to them to straighten them out on some things. And
one of the things that they began to follow after, and because
there was a Greek church, because they were of the Greek persuasion. And if you remember the Greeks,
one of the things that they was very high on is wisdom. They are very high on intelligence
and philosophy and being wise. That was their push, and they
had all these Greek philosophers that they would listen to, and
they had all these Greek gods that they looked to. And so,
idolatry was very prevalent in the Greek states. And so, the
Christians coming into this new thing, remember, the Greeks,
the Gentiles, were excluded from the things of God. Israel had
those things. But the Greeks, the Gentiles,
they didn't have the teachings of the law. They didn't have
the teachings of Messiah, the four shadows, the types. They
didn't have any of those things. And the Jews kept that secluded
from people. They didn't open that up to all
the Gentiles that were out there. Matter of fact, they kept them
secret from the Gentiles. And God had told them to keep
that and to not mess with the Gentiles, although God had a
plan eventually to bring the Gentiles in. So remember, these
people are going from a system of belief into the truth. And that system of belief that
they grew up with and was ingrained in, in their schools and in their
universities and in their philosophers, and everything, that philosophy
tend to bleed over into their doctrines. And as they begin
to conduct the congregation and the things of the church, they
begin to let those things influence them. And brethren, there is
nothing different today. Many of us here have come from
a background of Arminian persuasion. We've come from churches that
have done things not so much according to the New Testament
pattern. And those things are ingrained in us from our childhood. And so it bleeds over sometimes
in the way that we try to think about things or do things. But
we need clarity from God's word. We need the wisdom that God gives
and not the wisdom that man gives. And Paul, whenever he begins
his letter to the church at Corinth, That's the first place he goes.
Now, there was other things, right? There was adultery that
was going on, fornication going on in the church. There was a
misuse of the gifts. There was divisions. There was
the misuse of the ordinances. I mean, there was all kinds of
things that was going on in this church. But the first thing that
Paul goes to is to condemn the following after the wisdom of
the world. And today we have edifices built,
complexes built to the teaching of men on how to be preachers. We have seminaries that men go
to so that they can learn the Bible. And they go and are taught
of other men how to preach the word of God. what to think about
the Word of God, how to work out the Word of God in their
congregations. And I'm not knocking anybody
that's went to these things. I'm sure that there's some helpful
things that you can probably pick up in that. But the Bible's
way of teaching is never, ever, ever that way. The Bible's way
of teaching is men called of God preaching the Word of God
and the Spirit of God teaching the heart of the elect. That's
how we're taught. And the wisdom that comes in
that, listen, there are many men who are unlearned men who
have never been to seminary. Some of them probably never even
been to college. that has depths of knowledge of God's Word as
the Spirit has taught them, that can run circles around these
seminary professors that have spent all their lives in the
books. Because the wisdom of God is
not something that another man can teach you. It's only what
God can teach you. And this is what Paul is trying
to convey to these Christians in Corinth. Look with me, if
you would, at verse 18. It says, for the preaching of
the cross is to them that perish foolishness. So just upright
know this to the reprobate who is not the elect of God. The
preaching of the cross is going to be foolishness. They're not
going to understand it. They're always going to ridicule
it. They're always going to hate it. They're always gonna be against
it. They're never gonna accept it,
receive it, believe it, practice it, teach it, convey it. They're
not gonna love it because it's foolishness to them, okay? It's foolishness to them. But look what it says. For the preaching of the cross
is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved,
it is the power of God. See, to us that are saved, the
preaching of the cross, the gospel of Jesus Christ, the word of
God is the power of God. Where is the power for our churches? Where is the power for our daily
lives? Where is the power for our teaching,
for our instruction? Where is our power for our families
if we are the children of God? Where is the power at? Well,
the power isn't in seminaries and it isn't in programs and
it isn't in missionary societies or Sunday schools or things like
that. No, the power comes from the
preaching of the cross. The power comes from those who
are saved preaching, teaching, being immersed in the message
of Christ alone. His work alone. Imputed righteousness. The work of the cross. All these
phrases that we use, but basically when it comes down to it, the
gospel. The gospel is the power of God. Look at verse 19. For it is written, I will destroy
the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing the understanding
of the prudent. That's a quote from Isaiah chapter
29. Let me turn to that real quickly. Isaiah chapter 29. And verse 14, it says, Therefore,
behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people,
even a marvelous work and a wonder. For the wisdom of their wise
men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be
hid. Woe to them that seek deep to
hide their counsel from the Lord, and their works are in the dark,
and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us. Surely your
turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter's
clay, for shall the work say of him that made it, he made
me not, or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, he
had no understanding. Is it not yet a very little while,
and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful
field shall be esteemed as a forest. Paul, whenever he quoted that,
is quoting and saying, listen, the truth of God is going to
endure and the truth will always stand. The truth will always
defend itself. You don't have to worry about
what Gil says. You don't have to worry about
what Spurgeon says or this man says or what that seminary has
taught or what this confession of faith says. Well, what does
the New Hampshire confession of faith say? Well, what does
the Philadelphia say? Well, back in 1689, this is what they said.
Well, back in 1646, this is what they said. Well, this is what
they said in 1644. Okay? It doesn't matter what
they say. Because the wisdom of men will
always erode. The wisdom of men will always
fade away. The wisdom of men cannot be defended. It can be blindly followed. It can be blindly taught. It can be deceiving, but it cannot
be defended. Truth will always defend itself. God's Word is always congruent
with itself. It never will compromise itself. It will not contradict something
that is said in another place of Scripture. It will have the
same theme. It will have the same thought.
It will defend itself. It will define itself. God's
Word will always be the truth, no matter what. You can't change
truth. You can't make truth a lie. Truth
is truth. And so what he's saying here
is I will destroy the wisdom of the wise. How does he do that?
Well, for one, the wisdom of the wise looks at the things
that we say and they say, well, that's foolish. The wisdom of
the wise looks and says, well, that can't be true because the
churches always believe this. Now, it's wonderful to be able
to look back in history and see truth being held by the churches.
That's wonderful. But brethren, listen, their confessions
of faith, their things are not the gospel. It's not the word
of God. The word of God is the only word
of God. That's where we go. And if the
word of God says something different than what those seven churches
in England said, if the word of God says something different
than all those churches that gathered for that Philadelphia
confession say, If the Word of God says something different
than the Baptist faith and message, guess what? We need to put those
things down and pick up God's Word and says, thus saith the
Lord. For it is written, I will destroy
the wisdom of the wise and I will bring to nothing the understanding
of the prudent. Now, we're talking here, whenever
we talk about wise and prudent, God here is not complimenting
them. He is using this in a derogatory
way. These are men who think they
are wise and think they are prudent because of their learning, because
of their carnal learning, because of their outward learning of
traditions and the sayings of men and the things that has not
been taught of God, but has been taught in the flesh. And so these
men think that they are wise and that they are prudent. But
whenever it comes down to it, when you lay God's word to them.
And here's the thing, though, we need to know God's word. Otherwise
we will be deceived. We will be fooled. We will be
tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine. But whenever the
truth is taught, the Spirit will bear witness with our spirit
that this is truth, unless we are like these men who are wise
and proven to think what we know. You remember what I always said
to Brother Royce taught me. He said, the biggest hindrance
to our learning is what we already know. That's the biggest hindrance
to our learning is thinking we already know something and can't
be taught of God because we refuse to listen to what the Word of
God says because it goes against our traditional thinking. It
goes against our traditional understanding of things. But
what does He say? Where is the wise? Where is the
scribe? Where is the disputer of this
world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? Well,
yes, He has. The Word of God has made the
understanding of this world foolish. He says, for after that in the
wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. So see, you can never learn God
by gaining wisdom that the world teaches. It doesn't matter how
good it is or how religious it is. You will never Begin to know God. You will never
find the depths of knowledge of God by the wisdom of the world. Some people say, well, this man
has a great mind. He's able to understand. He's
got a Ph.D. in this and a Ph.D. in this and
a T.H.D. in this and a M.D.I.V. in this. And, you know, he knows Greek
and he knows Hebrew and he even knows Aramaic. And matter of
fact, he even Memorize the Septuagint in the Greek and he's you know,
whatever. Okay That's not going to help
you understand any better Now granted it's great to have that
stuff, but it's not going to cause you to know more Because
the wisdom of the wise men cannot know God by that God is only
taught and learned by revelation of God For after that, in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God." The world by wisdom
knew not God. I want you to get that in your
head, brethren, that you cannot by learning, carnal learning,
you cannot by outward learning know God. The only way you can
know God is to be taught of God. And how does God do that? Well,
He does that one internally by the work of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit teaches us the things of God. But He does it
primarily through the preaching of God's Word. Look at the last
part of that verse. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that what? Belief, right? by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe." Now, side note, there's
a lot of Armenians that will take this and say, well, there
you go, that you don't, until you believe, you're not saved.
Okay, and so we have to go out and preach, and if you preach,
then someone will believe, and once they believe, then they
become saved. Well, we know that that doesn't
align with the rest of scripture, right? We know that the Bible
teaches opposite of that according to the scripture, that because
you are sons of God, God has sent his spirit into you, whereby
you cry, Abba, Father. Okay, so we see that we reach
out and begin to, Look to God, trust in God, believe in God
because you are ordained to believe Acts 13, 48, right? So what is
it that is being said? How is the people saved, the
ones who believe saved? And look what it says there.
By the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. So
the preaching is saving them that already believe. Someone's
already a believer. And this preaching is saving
them. So this is not talking about eternal salvation, right?
It's not talking about eternal salvation. What is it saving
them from? What is the preaching saving
the believers from? Well, what we've just seen in
verse 20 and 21. From the wisdom of the wise. From the understanding of the
proven. It's saving us from the carnal wisdom of the world. The
preaching of the cross, the preaching of God's Word, the preaching
of Scripture saves those who believe from
false thinking. That's why it's important for
churches, whenever you are looking for a preacher, look for a preacher
who preaches God's Word first and foremost. It doesn't matter
what kind of program this man has. It doesn't matter what kind
of idea for evangelism this man has. It doesn't matter how many
houses he goes and visits in a week's time. It doesn't matter
what kind of suit he wears or not wear. It doesn't matter if
he has an education or not an education. It doesn't matter
if he's black-headed or blonde-headed. It doesn't matter if he speaks
in Greek or Hebrew or not. The fact is that the first thing
that you want in a preacher is one who preaches faithfully the
Word of God. He preaches God's Word, not philosophies. He preaches and expounds the
words of God and not the traditions of men and philosophies and good-feeling
anecdotes that makes you feel like you're a better person.
because the preaching of the cross will always abase the man
and glorify God. You want to know how a true believer
in Jesus Christ will always desire to be abased of themselves and
promote Christ Jesus. Those who always want to be taught
good things to make them feel better, guess what? They've probably
not been born again. Because the child of grace knows,
as Paul knew, O wretched man that I am, that in my flesh dwelleth
no good thing. We know that there is nothing
good about us, and so to try to pump us up and to make us
something more than we are is never, ever, ever going to edify
us and prepare us for the work of the ministry. The work of
the ministry of the Church of Jesus Christ is to know the Word
of God and to be equipped with the Word of God so that whenever
we're out in the street, whenever we're out in the workplace, whenever
we're in our homes, whenever we're at the deathbed of a loved
one or a friend, whenever we're in the confines of an argument
that something is going on in the family or within friends,
that we have God's Word because God's Word is the only thing
for the child of grace. because everything else is the
wise and prudence of this world. And it never will do anything
because it's true foolishness. So God's Word is what's important.
You need to have God's instruction. That's why it just surprises
me how so many Christians want to go to counselors, to psychologists,
go to men who are trained in the world and think on things
in worldly ways and use worldly means to try to get people to
come into line. and tell them how to think according
to Dr. so-and-so. We need God's Word. We need God's Word. We're not
to stand in the council of the ungodly. We're to stand in the
council of God's Word. And so we need preachers who
will preach this. Why? Because by the foolishness
of preaching. Now, preaching isn't foolish.
Recognize that Paul has kind of got a sarcastic tone here.
Paul's got a hyperbole in his voice. He's talking to them in
such a way as, you guys are nuts. You guys think you're all big
and wise, but the Word of God is just destroying the truth
of God's Word. You don't even know your Word.
If you would know your Word, you wouldn't be saying that.
And you're looking foolish to those who know God's Word to
stand up there and to be blurting out all this unbiblical stuff.
To be doing all this unbiblical stuff. The other churches are
looking at you and saying, they've missed it. Why? Because they've not been hearing
God's Word. The pastor at Corinth has not
been preaching Because by the foolishness of gospel preaching,
by the foolishness of God's Word being preached, those who believe
are being saved from wrong thinking. That's why whenever you find
a church that has a pastor that's faithful, you find a membership,
for the most part, that understands God's Word and is faithful. They
know truth from error. They know that, hey, that's not
true. We shouldn't be doing that. That's
false. This is what we ought to be thinking.
We need preachers that are like that. Verse 22. So, the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe is not talking about
eternal salvation, but it's talking about temporal keeping and understanding
of the things of God to save us from error, to save us from
wrong thinking. Okay? Verse 22, for the Jews
require a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom. You remember
the Jews were always asking Jesus for a sign, wanting Jesus to
show them a sign. Jesus said there will be no sign
given except that of the sign of Jonah. It says, but we preach Christ
crucified. See, we don't preach signs. Man,
I tell you what, especially with all this stuff that's going on,
all these prophecy preachers, I've seen it all over the internet
now and all over Facebook, all these videos that guys have ran
out with all these prophecies and dreams. Oh, I've had these
dreams. And here's what, you know, there's one right now,
some Pentecostal preacher that had this dream of God pointing
to a calendar, you know, and saying, oh, this is gonna happen,
this is gonna happen, you know, and all this stuff that's happening
and everything. Now, brethren, the Bible says
that there's gonna be men that gonna dream dreams. And I'm not
saying that God doesn't use dreams. But listen, there's a lot of
foolishness that goes on under the guise of prophecy, all right?
And so don't be deceived by that. If it doesn't line up with God's
word, Don't worry about it. God's word, the Bible has given
us everything that we need to know about prophecy right here.
We don't have to have a newspaper and we don't have to have a preacher
that's a prophet telling us something that's not already here because
God has already revealed. He said that in times past, he
spoke by the prophets, but now he has spoken by his son. And the Bible says, it goes on
a little further, it says, we have a sure word of prophecy
right here. If you want a sure word of prophecy,
this is it. Get in and study this. Don't
study the newspaper, don't study Jack Van Impey or John Hagee
or, you know, anybody like that. Get in and study God's word.
The Jews require a sign, the Greeks seek after wisdom, but
we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews It's a stumbling block. Jews don't want to hear it. Why?
Because the preaching of Christ alone for salvation is foreign
to their works' righteousness. To the Gentiles, it's foolishness. Why? Because they are self-made
men. The Greeks, they believe that,
you know, it's by my wisdom, by my learning, by my education. You see, that's the two kinds
of people you find in churches. who are not under God's word
and do not submit to the righteousness of Christ. You find the one who
thinks it's in their works, or you find the one who thinks it's
in their knowledge. Brethren, the child of grace
is gonna experience both. He's gonna have works because
God has foreordained them to be. but he's also going to have
knowledge because the Holy Spirit is teaching him. But it's not
all knowledge and it's not all works. You're not saved and kept
by righteousness and you're not saved and kept by knowledge. Unto them which are called, both
Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. So what's Paul saying here? He's
saying we don't preach the philosophies of the world. We don't preach
the understanding of the world. We preach what Christ has given
us to preach. And whenever you preach that,
know this, to the religious, it's going to be a stumbling
block. Listen, the preaching of sovereign grace is a stumbling
block to the religious Christianity. You preach that out in all these
Armenian churches, and guess what? That's foolishness. I mean,
I've been told that. You're crazy. You mean to tell
me that God doesn't love everybody? You mean to tell me that Christ
didn't die for everybody? Who ever heard of that? I've
never heard of that. That just can't be. My God wouldn't do that. And
I've even heard, I will not serve that kind of God. See, why? Because it's foolishness to them.
That's not the God that they've created in their own mind by
the wisdom of the world and the misinterpretation of God's Word.
Because they don't have faithful preachers preaching. Because
they've not been taught by the Spirit of God. But it says, but
unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, what do we do? We don't preach something over
here to these guys. See, that's the way, a lot of
these street evangelists and guys like that, they'll tell
you, oh yeah, we believe in the sovereignty of God and election,
but we don't preach that out on the streets because that's
not profitable. That's not profitable to be preaching that out in the
streets to the person who is not converted yet. That's for
the more mature Christian later down the line. First, we want
to just preach about God's love and God's gospel and all that
kind of stuff. Listen, you can't have the gospel
without that. You can't have the gospel without
that. That's part of the gospel. Not
to mention the Bible says that all scripture is given by inspiration
of God and is profitable, right? So even election, predestination,
recrubation is all profitable. See, the reason that men don't
think that that's profitable and that you shouldn't use that
in your evangelism and preach it to the unconverted, you know
why they say that? Because they think by their preaching,
they're bringing men in. So, well, I can't do that because
man won't believe that. So, thus, I need to preach something
that they will believe, and then once they make that choice or
decision, then they'll come in, and then I can preach them the
fuller things of God. Well, see, that's Arminian teaching,
isn't it? And the Calvinists are teaching
that kind of junk. There are Calvinists out there
that are saying, don't preach that to the unconverted. Just
preach the simple gospel. That's all you've got to preach.
Then teach them election later. So what they're saying is, is
that child of grace, the elect of God has been given spiritual
ears and the new birth with the spirit inside them that will
begin to teach them. Can't hear that truth. It's going
to be offensive to them. No, it's only offensive to those
who are perishing. But it says here, but to those
who are believers, It brings salvation to them.
It brings them salvation from wrong thinking. Isn't that what
conversion is? Isn't that what repentance is?
Repentance is a turning from wrong thinking and turning to
right thinking. And men think that they can circumvent
the Gospel, circumvent God's Word by preaching foolishness. It says because the foolishness
Well, he says, unto them which are called both Jews and Greeks,
Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. So our message
is the same no matter who we preach to, right? Whether it's
to the Jews who are the religious men who are seeking after salvation
through religious efforts and self-righteousness, or whether
it's to the brainiacs over here who think they have it all figured
out with all their knowledge. with all their book learning,
with all their systematic theologies. The ones who think they are wise
in their own conceits, we preach the same message to both of them.
The consistency of God's Word, not man's traditions. It says,
because the foolishness of God is wiser than man. Now, is God's
Word foolish? No, it's not. What's he saying?
Again, Paul is being sarcastic. He's being hyperbolic. He's being facetious here. He's saying, if God had foolishness,
which God doesn't have foolishness, but if God had foolishness, the
very least of God's wisdom is wiser than the wisest of man's
wisdom. That's what Paul was trying to
get across to these Corinthians. He said, listen, you can attain
to as much worldly wisdom as you can, and it won't even scratch
the undersurface of God's lowest thoughts and wisdom. Verse 26, for you see your calling,
brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh not many
mighty, not many noble are called." That just seems to be the opposite
in churches today, right? The prerequisite to be a pastor
in many churches today is what? Well, you've got to have an education,
we want a man who's been to seminary, and preferably, we would like
a man who has graduated seminary, and even more preferably, we
would like that man to have not only graduated seminary, but
we would like for him to have accrued a doctorate from that
seminary. But if not, we'll entertain someone
who got a semi-seminary degree, not a doctorate, but whatever
the other is, a THD or a MDV, See, I don't even know what they
mean. That's how much it means to me, I don't care. But anyway,
it's just the opposite in churches today. See, the churches of the
world, the churches of men, look at things totally opposite than
how God does. It says, because the foolishness
of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger
than men, for you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise
men after the flesh, not many mighty men, and not many noble.
See, they want a man who is educated. They want a man who can stand
in the pulpit and preach God's word with strongness and authority
and be a great orator, who is noble, wise. You know, I'm thinking
back, you know, through my Arminian days and men like Adrian Rogers,
you know, a respected man by a lot of rights of men. And he was authoritative in his
preaching. He was great in his oratory.
Number one, he had a great voice. He had one of those radio voices
that just sounded good. But boy, he knew how to outline
a sermon. Boy, he could get all those outlines
to start with the same letter. Or he could get them to all rhyme. He could make a great outline.
He was very noble in the way that he delivered his message, but yet he held untruths in his
preaching. He preached a false gospel. Matter of fact, he denied and
affirmed his dislike and hatred towards the true gospel. But what does it say here? The
ones who are called of God to preach the foolishness of God,
the quote unquote foolishness of God, usually are the ones
who are not mighty, who are not wise after the flesh,
not many who are noble after the flesh. But God hath chosen
the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. I think
back about the apostles. You remember them? Whenever they
were preaching and the people were saying, where have they
learned all that? Aren't those just fishermen?
They're out there turning the whole world upside down and these
are just fishermen. Whenever they looked at Jesus,
whenever He was teaching, and they said, isn't that just the
carpenter's son? from Galilee, Nazareth? Does anything good come out of
that place? How does He know all this stuff? See, that's what's
confounding. See, the wisdom of God confounds
the whys of the world. They don't understand it. They
won't accept it. Listen, I can tell you right
now, me going in and preaching at some big giant church out
there, I'll just use Southern Baptist That's what I were, and
so I can cut at my own history, okay? My own tradition. You know,
I can go to some big, giant Southern Baptist church, and if it were
between me and Dr. So-and-so, they're probably gonna
have Dr. So-and-so speak. They're probably gonna look and
say, well, that's just a hick redneck who didn't even go to
college. Why would we want this guy to
preach to us This guy here, he's went to, you know, 19 years of
seminary and on his 20th year, he took every subject that there
was to man and became a master of them all. So we probably ought
to have him because I'm sure he's got more wisdom than that
guy over there who's just a redneck x-ray guy. But see, God have chosen the
foolish things in the world to confound the wise. And God has
chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things
that are mighty. I've seen all over this country and in other
countries too, but mainly in this country, I've seen men that
God has called that has a better grasp and knowledge and love
and delivery of God's word than some of the wisest, studious
men. These professors in college,
listen, they can run them through the ringer in God's word. Those
men don't even know God's word. in a lot of those places. They've
memorized some things. They've studied systems. They've
studied the works of men. They've studied histories, but
they don't know God's word. And so they look to their own
education whenever they're teaching instead of God's word. He says,
and the base things of the world, the things which are despised
have God chosen. God hath chosen the foolish things
of the world to confound the wise. God hath chosen the weak
things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.
And the base things of the world and things which are despised
hath God chosen yea and things which are not to bring to, different
word not, things that are. That word N-O-U-G-H-T there means
to cease. It calls them to cease. To bring
to silence. Listen, I've seen many a man
equipped with God's Word silence the theologian because he cannot
with consistency and congruency hold his position where it works
with all of God's Word. Now why does God do it this way?
Why does God do it this way? And brother, I want to talk some
more about this. We won't go through more of the first four
chapters of Corinthians here in the next few weeks, but we're
just about done here. And my question in closing this
morning is why does God do it that way? Why doesn't God use
carnal wisdom? You know, a lot of times in churches
we think just because somebody is a great public school teacher
that they'll be a great teacher in the church, right? And I've
seen people put in positions of teaching in the church because
they were teachers in college or teachers in a public school
somewhere. And then, you know what? They
turned out to be some of the worst Bible teachers that you've ever
seen. Why? Because they tried to implore
men through carnal wisdom, through man's wisdom. So why did God
do it this way? Why did God call fishermen? You
realize that was the first men he called was fishermen? Go back
to the Gospels and look. He got baptized. He came up out
of the water and he started to walk. And who was the first ones
he called to himself? A couple of fishermen, fishermen,
some brothers who were out there fishing. called some other fishermen.
Then he began to call, ooh, the tax collectors. Now the tax collectors
were educated men, so to speak. Not necessarily, they are in
our days, so to speak, educated, but they didn't necessarily have
to be educated back then. All they were is just a tool
of Rome to gather taxes. But they were hated among the
people. So he took the unlearned and the hated among the people
and caused a man to be his apostle. Why did he do that? Look at verse
29. That no flesh is glory in his
presence. If I stand up here and preach
a message that touches your heart, that edifies you, that instructs
you or teaches you in some way, that gives you a little more
knowledge of God's word or helps you down the road. You know what
it was? It was God that did that. It
wasn't Mike Smith. And there is no way that I can
walk around saying, oh, I taught this, you know, I did this in
such a good way that boy, hey, they learned because I taught
them that. Oh, they didn't know that until I taught. Now we kid
about that, especially among preachers. We kid about stuff
like that. But truly we know in our heart,
we know. If anything comes, of value out of this, whether it's
here or over this Facebook or over sermon audio, it's because
God did that. There's not going to be a standing
up and saying, well, look how many I brought in. You know,
there used to be a song many years ago that we taught that
we used to hear and sing and everything. And it was talking
about that. You know, whenever we get to
heaven and God's gonna say, look at all the faces of all the people.
You didn't even know you had such an influence by the gospel
you preach or by the life that you live. But look at all these
people that are here because of you. Brethren, that's from
the pits of hell right there. Whenever we stand before God,
there's only gonna be one person who's gonna get the glory for
why anybody is there, and that's Jesus. No preacher's gonna stand
up and say, look how many I led to Christ. But yet the Baptist
all over the world, and not just the Baptist, everybody else,
but I'm gonna say Baptist because that's what I know, Baptist all
over the world giving each other awards for how many baptisms
they got. Isn't that the craziest thing?
That's blasphemy to me. That's blasphemy to me. Let's
give man credit for what God has done. That's the psalm of
the Arminian. But God says, no, I'm gonna do
it my way, and I'm gonna do it so much in my way that I'm gonna
confound the wise, I'm gonna take the things that absolutely
look like it cannot happen, and I'm gonna make it happen. Matter
of fact, Jesus even said, because remember the religious leaders
were telling him, you know, whenever they were all giving him praise
and stuff and Jesus, the religious leaders said, Hey, you need to
tell them to be quiet and quit saying those things. And Jesus
said, listen, if they shut up, even the rocks will cry out. Listen, God is going to be praised
for who he is and what he has done. even if he has to have
the rocks cry out into it. But listen, he's not gonna have
man stand up and say, I had a hand in it. Verse 29, that no flesh
should glory in his presence. Not one person is gonna be given
an award because they got anybody to heaven. Not anybody's gonna
get a reward because they baptized 500 people in a year. Now, one person is going to get
an award because they built a congregation of 15,000. Now, one person is
going to be given a ribbon or a medal or a certificate saying that Christ's kingdom
was advanced and made better because you did something here. Now, there's only going to be
one person that's going to stand up and receive glory, and that's Jesus.
Verse 30, but of him are ye in Christ Jesus. So Paul is saying
here, listen, you want to, you want to think that you know something,
you want to think that you're some big shot. You want to think
that you have it all figured out. And because of you, the
kingdom of God has advanced. Listen, it's because of him that
you're in Christ Jesus. and who of God is made unto us
wisdom and righteousness, sanctification and redemption. He said the only
reason that you are what you are or can do what you can do
if it be of God is because of Jesus Christ. So you're not going
to stand there and be applauded to. You're not going to be standing
there getting rewards and accolades. You're going to be humbled before
the throne of God and every knee is going to bow and every tongue
is going to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. And we're going
to stand up and we're going to say that the Word of God was
true. And everything in God's Word
was true. And all the wisdom of man will
fail at that point. It fails at this point, even
now today. Verse 31, that according as it
is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. Why do we glory in the creeds
and confessions of men? and commentators, seminaries. I tell you, I went to a Bible
conference a year or two ago, and it was at a fairly large
church. I won't dare mention the name. There's brothers there that I
love dearly, and they weren't involved in this conversation. But there were some, especially
ones that I didn't even know. I'd never met them before. But
we were sitting in this gymnasium, and we were eating lunch and
these people began to come and sit around me and they were,
like I said, they were men that I'd never met before. And they'd
never, you know, heard of me or knew of me or anything like
that, which I didn't expect them to. But they came and we started
talking. Well, you know, where are you
from? Well, I'm from Joplin. Where are you from? I'm from
so-and-so. Oh, yeah. I said, well, what do you do
there? I said, well, I'm a pastor at Sovereign Grace Baptist Church. Oh, you're
a pastor. Okay. And then they start talking. I said, well,
what seminary did you go to? That was the first question.
As soon as they found out I was a preacher, what seminary did
you go to? I said, well, I didn't go to any seminary. Oh, yeah?
Well, what seminary do you plan to go to? I haven't planned on
going to a seminary. Oh, well, how big is your congregation? I was like, well, we're as big
as the Lord has wanted us to be. Ah, and so he hands me this
business card. And on this business card, it
shows that he is some sort of an administrator at some Bible
school. And he says, well, here, if you're
interested in coming to school, give us a call and we can get
you into Bible school. I said, okay. I said, well, I
said, I live a long way from this. And he said, well, we can
do correspondence. But he said, you need to get
some education. I said, well, how come? He said, well, you
know, churches aren't going to call a guy that hasn't been taught
and educated. You know, and I thought about
holding my tongue and just kind of shaking my head. But, you
know, I thought I just felt moved to the Lord just to say, you
know, there's not many wise, not many prudent. There's not
many that God calls that are noble. God calls the base things. And I told him, I said, you know,
I've encountered a preacher not too long ago that had absolutely
no aid. Matter of fact, he didn't even
graduate out of high school. And I said, he had more knowledge
of the Bible than I've ever heard anybody. And I said, nobody's
gonna glory in his presence. I don't think I need Bible school.
I just need the Holy Spirit to teach me. So I pray that the
Holy Spirit teaches me. He said, well, yeah, y'all know
we need the Holy Spirit. Don't get me wrong, brother.
That's that's where we learn is by the Holy Spirit. But yeah,
we need to be educated so that we can be able to pastor our
churches and stuff. And see, that was it. The wisdom
of the world had invaded this man's thinking so much that he
thought that a man cannot be called by God and empowered by
the spirit. And through the word of God and
the work of the Holy Spirit in that man being and the gift that
the Holy Spirit gives. be able to preach and pastor
a church without the help of man. But yet here we are all over this world being of
low esteem that nobody's ever heard of and probably never will
hear of. Listen, we have a lot of people that download my sermons
on Sermon Audio, but listen, insignificant, insignificant
compared to a lot of preachers that are out there that are getting
You know, 10,000, 15,000, 25,000 downloads a month. Here we are getting
about 100. So, insignificant. And listen, there are men out
there that's even getting less than me that nobody even hears
about. Nobody even knows about. That
is faithful in God's Word and has an understanding that only
God has given them. And that is being faithful in
their churches. Maybe even two or three like
we have here. being faithful to those churches.
And in the esteem of men, they're nothing. In the wisdom of man,
they don't know enough and they're foolish. And if they disagree
with them, wise men, then they begin to throw their doctrines
in front of their faces and say, well, you obviously are wrong.
Look at this. But yet whenever a man who has
learned of God in the Word of God defends the truth of God
with the words of God, and that man is looked down upon because
he hasn't been educated, because he hasn't been properly inaugurated
to that position by the accolades of man. Brethren, there's going
to be a great revealing of who the faithful men of God have
been And I'm not patting myself on the back or saying that I'm
one of them. Because listen, I know that in my heart, there's
a lot of times I seek glory. And I think if any preacher that's
out there or anybody that's out there can honestly say at some
point in your life, you kind of wanted a little bit of for
being faithful. We've all been like that. I'm
not going to lie. There's been times that I've
went and preached at places whenever I've got done. Nobody shook my
hand. I went away kind of. They told
me my sermon was good. We all fall prey to that kind
of junk. But listen, I know one thing. If anybody did go away
learning anything, it wasn't because Mike Smith was smart.
It's because God taught him. But we'll stop right there, brethren.
I want to go into chapter 2 and 3 and 4 because there's some
good things for us to learn here about how we are to preach and
to teach and how the church of God is to look to the things
of God and not to the things of man. And how detrimental it
is, Paul began the correction. All the things of that Corinthian
church went south with them because of this. Looking at the wisdom
of men instead of God's teaching. They abandoned God's teaching
and started listening to men, and that's when things went awry.
And so that's why I wanted to preach this to our church is
because if things are going to go awry, it's going to be because
we've abandoned the teaching of God's Word and started teaching
the wisdom of man. And so that whether I'm here
or if anybody else here, if I ever die and this church continues
on, that you will be equipped to know that we need a pastor
that preaches God's Word, not the wisdom of men. Why? Because preaching the wisdom
of men will lead you down the wrong road into all kinds of
paths, just like it did the Corinthian church. So we need to be faithful. Does anybody have any comments
or any things you'd like to add to that? I know it was kind of
disjointed this morning, I pray that the Lord has blessed that
word to your heart. Anybody got any questions or
anything to add? All right, well, let's bow and have a word of
prayer. Jesus, we come now and we thank you for that wisdom
that cannot be had by men in their own understanding. We thank
you, Father, that you alone are going to receive glory and that
you abase men at every angle, at every point. whether it's
their life, we have no life except by Your hand. If it's spiritual life, we have
no spiritual life without Your quickening Spirit. If it's biblical
understanding, we have no revelation except by the Spirit of God. If we have any good works, it's
only because You have foreordained them and that You are working
in us to will and to do Your good pleasure. Our justification,
our sanctification, our glorification are all because of You. Our wisdom
is Your wisdom. Our righteousness is Your righteousness.
Our obedience is Your obedience. Our faithfulness is Your faithfulness.
Everything that we have, everything that we owe to You in salvation,
whether it be past, whether it be present, or whether it be
in the future, is because of You. And because of that, No
flesh shall glory in your presence. So Father, help us to be humbled,
to not seek after accolades, to not seek after fame, to not
seek after the applause of men, but we might seek after the glory
of God alone in Christ Jesus. Father, help our church to be
a beacon of the gospel of Jesus Christ, to preach the gospel
that is foolish to those who are perishing, but Father, to
those that you have brought to life, that you've given ears
to hear, eyes to see, and a heart to understand, and a mind to
understand, that to them who believe, To them that believe
it's salvation. Salvation from wrong thinking.
Salvation from error. From false gospels, false churches. So Father, Lord, we pray that
you keep us faithful here. I pray as a preacher you keep
me faithful to God's Word. To these people, Lord, that you
keep them faithful to your Word. Lord, I pray that churches around
this country and around this world that are true churches,
that are true gospel preaching churches. Lord, we pray for them,
that they too, despite the persecution, despite the hardships, despite
the ridicule, despite the unpopularity that we might receive because
of our stand in truth, Father, that you might keep us faithful,
that we might be faithful witnesses, that we might be light in dark
world, Father, that we might be those who stand against the
things of this world and declare Christ alone. Father, we need
your help to do that and pray that you'll be with us. And I
pray that you'll bless the message today to the hearer, that they
might be encouraged and edified, that they might grow in grace
and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Be with us this week,
Father, as we leave, that you might use us minister through
us to those who are in need. Father, may you be glorified
in all that we do, for it's in Christ's name that we pray. Amen.