Well, it's a joy to be here in
Seattle. I was here two years ago and
able to speak at this conference and other things that I do as
well. There is a ministry that's based here in Seattle, Truth
Remains, and I'm professor in residence with Truth Remains. It's a wonderful ministry and
would encourage you to learn more about it. I've been asked
to speak, wow, now I'm turned on. Turn me on, Lord. All right. I've been asked to speak on,
to the world, folly and a stumbling block, and the text that was
given to me is 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 23. So I want to invite you to take
your Bibles, and you're going to want to have your Bibles out
tonight, and to keep them open in front of you throughout this
message. I want to speak on to the world,
folly, and a stumbling block. And as I look at 1 Corinthians
chapter 1 and verse 23, the sentence actually begins in verse 22 and
it concludes in verse 24. So I want to read this entire
sentence and I want us to spend our time tonight looking into
this text of scripture. 1 Corinthians chapter 1, I want
to read verses 22 through 25. This is God's inspired, inerrant,
and infallible word. For indeed, Jews ask for signs,
and Greeks search for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. to Jews, a stumbling block, and
to Gentiles, foolishness. But to those who are the called,
both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom
of God, because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and
the weakness of God is stronger than men. Standing at the very center of
Christianity is the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Christianity
is Christ. Christianity is to believe in
Christ. It is to know Christ, to follow
Christ, to worship Christ, to obey Christ, to serve Christ. Jesus Christ is the sum and the
substance of Christianity. There is no Christianity outside
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Alpha and the Omega
of Christianity. He is the beginning and the end. First and foremost, Christianity
is not a cause to join or a code to follow. It is a Christ to
receive. And at the very center of Jesus
Christ and what he came to do is the sin-bearing substitutionary
death that he suffered and endured upon Calvary's cross. Everything
else that Jesus did is secondary. What is primary is the death
of Christ upon the cross. That is why we are to take the
Lord's Supper again and again and again and again to remember
his death upon the cross for our sins. It was upon the cross
that Jesus made atonement for our sin. It is only by the cross
that we have access into the very presence of God. It is by
the cross that Jesus has satisfied the righteous anger of God towards
sinners who believe in Christ. It is through the cross that
Jesus Christ has reconciled holy God to sinful man, and sinful
man to holy God. It is through the cross. It is
through the cross that Jesus has provided redemption for our
sins, that he entered the slave market of this world, and through
the gold and the silver of his blood, he purchased and bought
every believer through his death. The cross is central to Christianity. But to the world, the cross is
folly. It is foolishness. It is a stumbling
block. To the world, the cross is uncouth. It is unrefined. It is unsophisticated. In the thinking of the world,
the cross is barbaric. It was the form of capital punishment
in the first century. It is the most gruesome death
ever designed by man that prolongs the death of a person in public
humiliation. And they die of suffocation as
they can no longer pull up and take in air. And tragically,
the church at Corinth began to compromise the truth of the cross. 45 miles away up the road from
Corinth was the city of Athens. Athens was the home of the philosophers. Athens was the home of Socrates
and Aristotle and Plato. What came out of Athens was human
wisdom and human philosophy and a human way of looking at life.
And as that percolated and made its way into Corinth, The believers
in Corinth, at the church at Corinth, began to take in this
humanistic thinking and to adopt the thinking patterns of the
world. And for every drop of humanistic
philosophy that was brought into the church, it diluted and diminished
the message of the cross. So much so that the Apostle Paul
has to write these verses. in order to bring the church
back to the cross and to stop embracing the insanity of the
messages of the world with their mindless mantra and instead to
preach Christ and Him crucified. No matter how offensive it will
be to the world, it is when we preach the cross that the world
is to respond and say, that's foolishness. That means we have
properly presented the cross. And what is sad today is so many
feel-good churches are wanting to be popular and are wanting
to build up their numbers and are wanting to grow. And so they take the cross out
of their ministry and they substitute. with a candy-coated message that
barely even testifies to the bloody cross of our Lord and
Savior, Jesus Christ. Tonight, as we look at this text,
I pray God will blow a trumpet in every ear here tonight. I
pray that God will rally his soldiers and that God will rally
his believers here today, that we will always have the cross
at the very center of our confession of faith, and that the cross
of the Lord Jesus Christ will be that banner of truth that
we hold up high, and that we will testify and bear witness
of the sin-bearing, substitutionary, vicarious death of Jesus Christ
upon the cross. Now tonight, I want us to look
at verses 22 to 25. And I want to give you the outline. I want to give you the overview.
I want to give you the template to lay over this text. In verse
22, I want you to note with me the clamoring of the world. The
clamoring of the world for signs and miracles and wonders and
for human wisdom. And then, second, I want you
to note the centrality of the cross. In verse 23, Paul says,
but we preach Christ crucified. Paul would not let the world
set the agenda for his pulpit. Paul would not let a seeker-sensitive
message creep in to his preaching, but we preach Christ crucified. And then third, I want you to
note at the end of verse 23, the conflicting with the world,
a stumbling block to Jews and to Gentiles' foolishness. And then fourth, in verse 24,
we will note the calling of the Spirit. So I want us to walk
through this passage tonight, which is critically important
for our understanding of what is first and foremost of greatest
importance to our Christian faith. I want you to note first, in
verse 22, I hope you have your Bibles out. I hope you have them
in front of you. I want you to note first in verse
22 the clamoring of the world. The culture is craving a certain
kind of message, a certain kind of agenda. And notice what it
is in verse 22. There's a religious crowd and
there's a philosophical crowd. The Jews represent the religious
crowd. The Greeks represent an ideological
and a philosophical crowd. So Paul begins, for indeed, and
when he says for indeed, he means you can count on this, this is
certainly true. It's almost like saying truly,
truly, I say unto you, for indeed. And he begins now with the Jews.
Jews ask for signs. And when he speaks of the Jews
here, he is referring to those Jews in the nation Israel in
the first century who were religious but lost. They were born of the
tribe of Israel, but they had no saving knowledge of God through
Jesus Christ. They were those who were blinded
by their religious traditions. They were those who were bound
by their false religion. And he says, Jews ask for signs. They ask for it. They initiate
it. They pursue it. They seek it. The Jews asked for signs. Signs were a supernatural display
of the kingdom of God is among us. But when they asked for signs,
In reality, what they are asking for here is for a miracle-working
Messiah. It had been prophesied that when
the Messiah would come, that he would usher in his kingdom
with a proliferation of supernatural miracles. And the reason these
Jews wanted a miracle-working Messiah was so that he would
break the yoke of Roman oppression. that he would, with a display
of power, bring in a national deliverance. That this Messiah
would be a political champion who would restore the sovereignty
of the nation of Israel and throw off the Roman superpower and
bring their nation back to what it was previously. They were
all about improving their quality of life. And they were all about
returning to those former days of past glory as a nation, but
they had no desire for a Savior who would save them from their
sins. And they had no desire for a
Lord who would rule over their lives. All they wanted was for
Rome to be removed from their nation so that their nation could
return to its strength and autonomy and independence and that they
could go back to living their lives as they once had. That's
what the Jews were seeking. Not a Savior and not a Lord,
but a political leader who by his signs and miracles would
usher in a new day. And then, Greeks. As we continue
to look at verse 22, he says, and Greeks search for wisdom. The Greeks here are obviously
non-Jews. And specifically here, they are
those Gentiles who are well-learned, who are cultured, who are well-educated. And Greeks search for wisdom. They are always searching and
looking for the latest ideology, for the latest new perspective,
for the newest way to see life. Wisdom here refers to man's wisdom. It refers to worldly wisdom.
It refers to humanistic philosophy. It refers to man's perspective
on man's problems and it offers man's solutions. That's exactly what the Greeks
wanted. They searched for a new way to
look at life all around them. But they had no desire for God's
wisdom. They had no desire for divine
perspective, eternal perspective. They had no desire for God's
insight into how they should live their lives. It's the clamoring
of the world. and that clamoring of the world
is still with us today. Nothing has changed. The religious
scene today in America still wants simply the nation to be
what it once was, for us to go back to our glory days. But for
us to repent of our sins, for us to call out upon God to save
us, for us to submit ourselves to the Lordship of Christ, nothing
could be further removed from the average American. No, what
they want, what we want, is just simply our nation back to what
it once was. The world wants a man-centered
message. It wants a self-help message. It wants a feel-good message.
It wants a success-oriented message. It wants an ego-massaging message. And tragically, all too many
churches adopt this worldly message in order to connect with the
world, to attract the world, to reach the world. And so they
adopt the world's thinking, they adopt the world's vocabulary,
they adopt the world's rhetoric in order to draw in the world. There are no shortages of such
churches today that have bought into this bankrupt philosophy
of ministry that we need to become like the world in order to reach
the world. So how do you think Paul will
respond to this? How will Paul respond to the craving of the
culture in Corinth? Will he give the people what
they want? After all, Paul can perform signs. He is an apostle. And Paul can give them human
wisdom. He sat at the feet of Gamaliel. He was one of the most
brilliant minds of the first century. Will Paul meet the culture
on the turf of the culture and give the culture what it wants
in an attempt to reel in the culture. I want you to note verse
23, the centrality of the cross. Notice how verse 23 begins. Paul says, but we preach Christ
crucified. Paul will not give them signs.
Paul will not give them a worldly message. Paul will not give them
worldly wisdom in order to try to lure them in and then hit
them with the cross. Paul says, no, but, and when
we see this word, but, it means it stands in strong contrast
with the previous verse in verse 22, but we, And Paul is saying,
we all speak with one voice, those on my ministry team, but
we preach Christ crucified. Several important words there.
First is the word preach. We don't perform signs. We preach
Christ crucified. We don't pontificate human wisdom. When you come to this church,
it will not be we're an echo chamber for what's being said
out in the world. No, we preach Christ crucified. Crucifixion was the most shameful
death known upon the earth. It was a horrible death. It was
a death that brought stigma to the person. No Roman citizen
could even be crucified upon a cross. It was so loathsome.
It was so looked down upon. Only the worst criminals could
be crucified. Only those who were terrorists.
Jesus probably died on the cross that was prepared for Barabbas,
who was the most notorious criminal of his day. Paul says, the world wants this,
but we preach this. we preach Christ and Him crucified."
When Paul says, we preach Christ crucified, he's not saying that's
the only message that he ever delivered. Paul preached the
full counsel of God, did he not? Paul preached the entirety of
the body of divinity that is found in the Word of God. Everything
from bibliology all the way down to eschatology and everything
in between. He preached theology proper,
Christology, pneumatology, anthropology, angelology, hermitology, soteriology,
ecclesiology, all the way down to eschatology. Paul preached
the full counsel of God. He preached the truth, the whole
truth, and nothing but the truth. But for Paul to say, we preach
Christ crucified, he is saying that all of the lines of his
theology intersect at the highest apex in the person and work of
Christ. that every area of his theology,
in one way or another, is setting forth the person and work of
Christ. And that Paul was continually
preaching this glorious death of Jesus Christ upon the cross
to both believers and to unbelievers. Now what did Paul teach about
the cross? Let me give you several words.
Number one, the eternality of the cross. that the cross is
God's eternal purpose and plan from before time began, that
Jesus is the Lamb of God slain from before the foundation of
the world, that He was foreknown by the Father before time began
and marked out on this path to come into this world and to die
for our sins. He preached the severity of the
cross, that at the cross God's judgment fell upon His Son as
His Son bore our sins, suffering upon that tree. He preached the
sufficiency of the cross, that he is able to save, through his
death, even the chief of sinners, that where sin is abound, grace
does much more abound. He preached the finality of the
cross, that by one sacrifice, Jesus is able to sanctify and
to save forever those who draw near to him. He preached the
exclusivity of the cross, that there is only one way of salvation,
that there is one God and one mediator between God and man,
the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all, the
testimony born at the proper time. He preached there is salvation
in no other name. For there is no other name under
heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. There is not
one drop of saving grace outside of the substitutionary death
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He has a monopoly on the grace
of God that would come to sinners. Jesus said, I am the way and
the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but
through me. Yes, Paul preached Christ and
him crucified. As you're in 1 Corinthians chapter
1, look at verse 30 at the bottom of the page. Paul writes, but
by his doing, you are in Christ Jesus. who became to us wisdom
from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.
Wisdom from God is a synonymous term for Christ and Him crucified. The greatest display of the wisdom
of God is seen in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Only God
in His infinite genius could have designed the cross. If we
had met for 10,000 years times 10,000 years and tried to come
up with a plan of salvation, we could have never designed
what God has designed in the saving gospel of Jesus Christ.
That the second member of the Godhead would be born of a virgin,
be born under the law, would meet all the requirements of
the law on our behalf, would go to the cross, be lifted up
to die, would bear our sins in His body, and He would suffer
and die on our behalf, and that our sins would be laid upon Him,
and His righteousness would be laid upon us when we believe
in Jesus Christ. Only God in His wisdom could
have designed Calvary's cross. And flowing out of the wisdom
of God in verse 30 are these three benefits, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. Each of these three represent
a different historical background. Righteousness draws from the
law court. Sanctification draws from the
religious temple. And redemption draws from the
slave market. And each of these represent some
of the accomplishments of Christ in his death upon the cross.
Righteousness is justification, that when we believe upon Jesus
Christ, the righteousness of God in Christ becomes immediately
ours, as God the Father imputes the righteousness of Christ to
us. Sanctification speaks of the cleansing and the purifying
that takes place in our sin Guilty, stained soul. We are made clean
before God. And redemption speaks of the
fact that Christ upon the cross, he paid the price for the wages
of our sin and he bought us out of the slave market of sin, such
that we now are the very possession of Jesus Christ. He has bought
us at Calvary's cross. This is the centrality of the
cross, and this is what Paul preached, and this is what Paul
reinforced to the Corinthians. Paul would not be moved. He would
not be swayed to adopt what the Jews wanted or what the Greeks
wanted. I was speaking with John MacArthur
a while back, and he said, Steve, there are so many churches that
go door to door and do a survey. and find out what a lost person
wants in a church, and then takes the result of that survey and
tries to build a church to give lost people what they want in
a church. He said, here's what you do.
You go door to door, you survey lost people, find out what they
want in a church, and give them the total opposite. because the carnal mind does
not want the cross. Those who are religious but lost
do not want the cross. Those who are pagan and heathen
do not want the cross. They want anything but the cross.
Paul would not alter his message or his approach, one iota. Martin
Lloyd-Jones, the great expositor of the 20th century at Westminster
Chapel in London, was a doctor before, a physician before he
entered into the ministry. He was great at diagnosing a
patient's problems. And Martin Lloyd-Jones said,
I never let the patient write the prescription. And neither must the Church allow
the world to set our agenda, chart our course, and craft our
message. Paul is not just dogmatic about
this. Paul is bulldogmatic about this. Jews want signs. Greeks want
wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified. Every church must be a sounding
board for the glory of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now
notice third, the conflicting with the world in verse 23. To Jews, a stumbling block. To
Greeks, to Gentiles, foolishness. Now just think about this. If
Paul's goal was to pack out the church, he would have given them signs
and wisdom. But Paul's goal was not to fill
the building, it was to fill the pulpit. And Paul brought
that which he knew would be a stumbling block, that which would be foolishness
in the eyes of the world. A stumbling block, it's a Greek
word skandalon that means a scandal. A stumbling block is that which
causes one to trip and to fall and to go head first to one's
own destruction. And when Paul preached Christ
crucified to the Jews, he knew that would be too much for them
to swallow. that one of their own, one who was merely a carpenter,
who lived 30 years in obscurity, who for three tiny years of ministry
was followed by a band of nobodies, fishermen, tax collectors, and
at the end of his life he was condemned by Rome, and he was
sentenced to death, and he died the most shameful death that
anyone could ever die, and you are saying to me that my eternal
destiny depends upon my relationship to this crucified Christ, that
I must believe in him to inherit eternal life? That is a stumbling
block. That is a major, massive stumbling
block. But Paul preached Christ crucified. And then to the Gentiles, foolishness. They wanted a complex philosophy
that tickled their intellect and and gave them stimulating
insight into the real issues of life. Who am I? Where have
I come from? Where am I going? What's life
all about? How can I find happiness? What
is death? What is on the other side of
death? Who is God? How does one know God? And you're
telling me that the answers to all of this is to believe the
simple gospel message that all I do is believe in this dead
Jew? Foolishness. This word for foolish
is a Greek word, moros, that means moron in the English language. It's moronic. It's madness. It's insanity. What you're expecting me to believe.
Listen, as you witness to others in the world who need Christ,
and we extend the love of God with grace and compassion, that
the response of the unbeliever should be, that's maddening that
you believe that. Finally, I want you to note in
verse 24 the calling of the Spirit, because here is the issue. How would anyone believe? If
it's a stumbling block to Jews, and if it's foolishness to the
Gentiles, how does anyone believe? Before I answer that question,
look at chapter 2, verse 14. Chapter 2, verse 14 in 1 Corinthians. But a natural man does not accept
the things of the Spirit of God. For they are foolishness to him,
and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually
appraised." What this is saying is that every
unconverted person is spiritually blind, spiritually deaf, and
cannot understand the gospel. We are describing a sunset to
a blind man. We are describing a symphony
to a deaf person. So how does anyone believe? How
will the preaching of the cross ever gain entrance into the hardened
hearts of men and women? And in verse 24, we have the
answer. It's the call of the Spirit. But to those who are
the called, when he says the called, we must understand there
are two calls in the Bible. One, there is the general call
that goes out to everyone who hears the gospel. It's the voice
of the preacher. It's the voice of a parent with
their children. It's the voice of a housewife
with a next door neighbor as we share the gospel and we call
them to commit their life to Christ. That is a general call. But when you and I call someone
else to come to Christ, we can only bring the message to the
ear, but we can go no further. There must be the second call.
That is the special saving call. It is also known as the effectual
call. The effectual call means it is
always effective. It is never ineffective. It always
secures the results for which it is intended. And the called
refer to the elect of God. To those who are chosen by the
Father before time began, given to the Son to die for their sins
upon the cross, and within time God the Holy Spirit will call
them out of the world into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. And that really has been the
dominant theme of this first chapter. In fact, look just for
a moment at verse 26. For consider your calling brethren,
that there were not many wise according to flesh, not many
mighty, not many noble. In other words, those who are
the leftovers of the world are those whom God has called and
chosen for himself. Oh, there will be some who are
wise, some who are mighty, but not many. James says God has
chosen the poor to be rich in faith. And in verse 27, we see
that standing behind the call of God is the sovereign election
of God. Verse 27, but God has chosen
the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. And God has
chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things that
are strong. Verse 28, and the base things
of the world and the despise God has chosen. That is why he
says in verse 30, by His doing you are in Christ Jesus. It is
the sovereign, effectual call of God that goes out to His chosen
ones as we preach Christ crucified, as we bear witness of the Lord
Jesus Christ in a lost and dying world. They consider the gospel
to be folly. It is a stumbling block to them.
But God, by His irresistible grace, nevertheless, is building
His church. And the gates of Hades cannot
prevail against it. And it is the responsibility
of we believers to proclaim the death of Christ to the world
as far and wide as we can, to go into the highways and into
the byways, and to proclaim the glorious death of Jesus Christ
for sinners, and to know there will be resistance, and to know
there will be rejection, and that there will be those who
will say it is foolishness and it is folly. But in the midst
of all of this, The sovereign purposes of God are being carried
forward and God will summon and God will subpoena those who are
chosen and will bring them and draw them into a saving relationship
with Jesus Christ. Therefore, we do not need to
diminish the cross. We do not need to compromise
the cross. We do not need to adopt the foolishness
of the world's message. It is our responsibility to shout
it from the housetops that Jesus Christ has died for sinners and
that his sin-bearing death upon the cross is a perfect sacrifice
for sin for all who will repent and will come to faith in Jesus
Christ. And as we issue the general call,
God the Holy Spirit works in partnership with us and He issues
the spiritual call and they are brought to faith in Jesus Christ. Look if you would at verse 2,
chapter 1, verse 2. to the church of God, which is
at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus. Watch this now. Saints by calling. with all who in every place call
on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." You see the word call
mentioned twice there. Saints by calling, that call
is the sovereign effectual call of God that always secures God's
intended result. And when God issues His sovereign
call, Note what it goes on to say, that in every place there
are those who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. The
order here is very important. First God calls, then as a result
man calls upon the name of the Lord. And actually, at the beginning
of verse 2, when he says, to the church of God, the word church,
ecclesia, means the called out ones. That's what the church
is. They are those who have been called out by the Holy Spirit
of God as the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ has been presented. So come back to verse 24 and
we will bring this to conclusion. But to those who are the called,
both Jews and Gentiles, and by the way, that tells us there's
only one way of salvation. There's not one way for the Jew
and another way for the Greek. No, there is only one way for
both Jews and Greeks, and it is faith in Christ crucified. It's the result of being called.
And it is to them, Paul writes, Christ is the power of God. Power to break the penalty of
sin. Power to break the pollution
of sin. Power to triumph in any person's
life who will believe upon Jesus Christ. And then he says, and
the wisdom of God. There is no greater display of
the wisdom of God than in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, it is folly to the world. Yes, it is a stumbling block
to the world. That is because of the total
depravity of the world. But do we compromise the message?
Do we change the message? Do we have to adopt the world's
message to prop up what little cross there might be? Do we need
to cloak it in the ways of the world in order to attract the
world? Paul says no. We preach Christ
crucified. And every one of us here tonight,
this must be our very heartbeat. This must be our very passion.
This must be our very priority, that we are those who bear witness
of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Two thousand years ago,
the second person of the Godhead, Jesus Christ, entered into this
world through the womb of a virgin. entered into the human race,
became just like us, yet without sin, because he was born without
a sin nature, lived for over 30 years in perfect obedience
to the will of God and to the word of God, never erring, never
sinning. He was the sinless, holy one
of God who went to the cross who went to Calvary. There he
laid out upon the ground as they placed him on that cross being.
They drove the nails into his hands. They connected it with
the upright piece and they hoisted him up, separated from heaven
and earth, his feet not touching the ground. Neither can he touch
heaven as though he is suspended in mid-air, cut off from heaven,
cut off from the earth, cursed under the law, a crown of thorns
upon his head. They jeer him, they taunt him,
they mock him. At high noon, the sun is darkened,
it becomes as pitch dark, And all the sins of all the people
who would ever believe upon Jesus Christ were transferred to the
Son of God. And Him who knew no sin, God
made to be sin for us. And in that last three hours
upon the cross, He bore our sins. He died in our place. He became
our scapegoat. He became the Lamb of God who
would take away the sin of the world. And there at three o'clock
in the afternoon, he would cry out, it is finished. Not I am finished, but it is
finished. The atonement has been made.
The price has been paid. And then he cried out, Father,
into your hands I commit my spirit. They took him down from the cross.
They buried him in a borrowed tomb. And on the third day, with
all of the authority that was his as the Son of God and the
Son of Man, he raised himself from the dead, and he came walking
out of that tomb, a risen, living, victorious Savior. He is ascended
back to the right hand of God the Father, and whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. So I want to ask you, have you
believed upon Jesus Christ? Have you come to the end of yourself? Have you realized that you cannot
save yourself? That there is only one who can
save you. It is the one who hung upon that
cross bearing the sins of his people. Have you come to repent
of your sins? Have you come to commit your
life and entrust all that you are to the Lord Jesus Christ. Have you surrendered your life
to Christ? Have you taken up a cross? And
have you become a follower of Jesus Christ? Tonight, if you
have never believed upon Jesus Christ, I call you on behalf
of God to repent, to believe in Jesus Christ, and you shall
receive eternal life There is now therefore no condemnation
for them who are in Christ Jesus. Come, let us reason together,
says the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be white as snow. Though they are red like crimson,
they shall be white as wool. Therefore, having been justified
by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Come to Christ tonight in your
heart, believe in Jesus Christ, and you shall receive the redemption
and the righteousness and the sanctification that comes only
from Jesus Christ. And for us who have believed,
Let us testify to Seattle, to Washington, to Oregon, to Canada. Let us testify far and wide that
there is a mighty Savior who is Jesus Christ, who hung naked
upon a cross, bearing the sin of sinners, and whosoever shall
call upon his name shall be saved. Let us pray. Father in heaven,
we thank you for the glorious cross of Jesus Christ. Father,
I pray that you would give us new boldness here tonight to
believe in the truth of the gospel of Christ. Lord, may we not compromise
this glorious message. May it always be central and
primary. May it never be diluted. May
it never be put to the perimeter. And for any here tonight who
have never believed in Christ, Lord, I pray that tonight would
be the night that they would turn their life over to Christ
and truly believe in Him. We pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen.