of 1 Corinthians this evening. And we'll consider several verses
in this wonderful first chapter of 1 Corinthians. And we'll try
to focus in especially on verse 18. Verse 18, where it says,
Preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness.
The word preaching is actually word. The word of the cross is
to them that are perishing foolishness. It's the identical word translated
as word in John chapter one in the beginning was the word The
word was with God and the word was God, and that's the same
word that's used here. I know in our King James Version,
it's translated preaching, but in the American Standard Version,
it is word. In the English Standard Version,
it is word. That is the correct interpretation
or translation, I should say. And if you happen to have an
amplified Bible that says message or story, and we could read it,
the message of the cross is to them that perish or to those
who are perishing, it is foolishness. But unto us who are being saved,
It is this message, this word from God. And that's what the
gospel is. It's a word from God to us. And just as certainly as the
Lord Jesus is the word from heaven, the word given by God to us,
so this gospel of his grace, that is God's word to us. He gave us this message, he gave
us this wonderful old, old story of Jesus and his love for sinners. So this is where we're going,
but I wanna go back and make a few comments about the beginning
of this epistle. And of course, there's a general
introduction and a salutation that the Apostle Paul gives in
the first few verses, and he deals very graciously with the
Corinthians, with the folks in that congregation. And then he's
going to get into some issues that need to be dealt with regarding
divisions within the church. There are no perfect local assemblies. Now, in Christ Jesus, we're justified. In Christ Jesus, we're perfect. In Him, we're righteous before
God. The righteousness of the Lord
Jesus has indeed been imputed to each of us, and so in that
sense, yes, we are a perfect church. We are a blood-washed
body of believers, and we're robed in the garments of God's
own salvation. But as to each of us individually,
as to our daily experience, we're still, we're just sinners saved
by grace. And we all have our issues, we
all have our faults, we all have our sinfulness. Each one of us,
we all struggle with the flesh, there's no doubt about that.
And that was true of the people in the church of Corinth. And
so he's going to deal with that, but first of all, he speaks to
them very graciously. You know, if you're going to
rebuke somebody, if you got something to say by way of a reproval,
The best way to go about that is, first of all, to set a positive
atmosphere, you might say, and that's what he does. The Spirit
of God does this, and then he's going to deal with this issue
of divisions within the assembly of the saints of God. But he
first of all says this, and look at verse four, he says, I thank
my God always on your behalf. And here's what he's thankful
for as he speaks here in chapter one in verse four. He says, specifically
for the grace of God, the grace of God, which is given you by
Jesus Christ. He said, I give God gratitude
for the grace that he's given you. Now that grace is a broad,
broad subject. And so included in this is electing
grace. Here's predestinating grace. Here's providential grace. Here's
redeeming grace. Here's justifying grace. Here's
washing grace in the blood of the Lord Jesus. Here's the grace
of God that keeps us, that preserves us. the grace of God that will
glorify us. It's a very broad, broad subject. And he says, I thank God on behalf
of you for the grace of God given you by Jesus Christ. And you'll notice that he always
mentions this because everything God gives us and all that he
gives us is good. And it all is by and through
Christ Jesus. Our Lord. He blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus before
he ever made the world. And all of those blessings are
given to us in Christ Jesus. And the grace that he's given
to us, it isn't just a grace that he gave to us bypassing
his son. It's grace through a mediator.
It's grace through a representative. It's grace through our beloved
everlasting surety. So he thanks God for the grace
that was given to them. And then he says this in verse
five, that in everything ye are enriched by him. You're enriched
by him. We have riches that the money
of this world can't buy. We're rich in grace. We're rich
in mercy. We're heirs of God. We're joint
heirs with Jesus Christ. And specifically here, he's speaking
about the grace and the mercy and the enrichment that God has
given in utterance in all knowledge. God had given to various individuals
within the church of Corinth the gift of utterance, the gift
of preaching the gospel, the gift of communicating the very
truth of God. And he thanked God for that.
He says, you're enriched, you're a rich congregation. You have
men within the assembly who can set forth the doctrine of God's
grace. Men who can set forth the gospel
of redemption, the gospel of reconciliation, the gospel of
everlasting righteousness. You have men in the congregation
who are enriched in all utterance and in all knowledge. That is
all knowledge that is necessary to be known. And we are an enriched
congregation. For God has given to us a knowledge
of the gospel of how he saves sinners. He has enriched us. Do you have any idea of how few
congregations there are who preach the gospel of God's free and
sovereign grace? And we're blessed with this word
of God, the word of the gospel. The good news of salvation by
Christ Jesus He's given us knowledge. He's enriched us. He didn't leave
us in our ignorance. He didn't leave us in our religious
foolishness. He gave us knowledge and he says
this in verse six, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed
in you. He said, I'm fully persuaded
the gospel of Christ, the testimony of Christ is confirmed in you. You know the truth. After all,
this was a man who preached the gospel to them and he stayed
there. And though he felt like his life
was in danger, the Lord said to him, don't be afraid. You
just stay there. I got much people in this place.
And you just keep on preaching the gospel. And he did. And people
believed and they were added to the assembly, those that God
would save. And he says so much that in verse
seven, he says that you come behind in no gift. That is, he's
saying God gave various gifts of the Holy Spirit to people
in the congregation. And he says you're waiting for
the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. These were people who
believed Christ. They did have some problems.
They did have some issues. There's no question about that.
He's going to deal with that. But listen, we all have spots
and loopholes in our life, things that are wrong with us. But he
says, you don't come behind in any gift. and says, you're waiting
for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, what's he going
to do when he comes back? Verse eight, who shall confirm
you unto the end that you may be blameless in the day of our
Lord Jesus Christ. This is how much they've been
enriched. That the Lord Jesus is going
to present them blameless in the day when he comes back. Blameless,
can you imagine that? Those of us who drink iniquity
like water? We're full of all manner of sinfulness
and wickedness, and yet the Lord Jesus is going to present us
blameless when he comes back in glory, from glory. Blameless
in him. Well, who is this to be attributed
to? That they're an enriched congregation,
that they have grace. that they have people there who
can utter the truth of God. Well, verse nine, God is faithful. This is to be attributed to the
faithfulness of God. by whom you were called to the
fellowship of his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. The Lord, he
called you to have communion with Christ, fellowship with
Christ, fellowship with one another, fellowship around the gospel
of Christ. It's the faithful God who did
that. God who's faithful to his purpose.
God who's faithful to his promise. God who's faithful to his covenant. He's faithful. And then when
he gets down to verse number 10, he gets to the issue, he
gets to the problem. Now I beseech you brethren, by
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that y'all speak the same thing
and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly
joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. And
then in verse 11, he says, let me tell you what I ever heard.
For it hath been declared unto me of you. Somebody told me.
Somebody spilled the beans here. I now know what's going on. By
them which robbed the house of Chloe, that there are contentions
among you. That's what I hear. And that
didn't make him happy. And he says this in verse number
12, now this I say, that every one of you saith, he said, this
is what I'm hearing. I'm hearing that there are people
in the congregation who are saying, I'm a Paul. Well, that's converted
into his ministry. I'm a follower of Paul. I don't
even wanna listen to any other preacher. It's the only preacher
I'm gonna listen to, he's gonna be my pastor, that's Paul. Then
said somebody else says, and I have Apollos. There are those
of you who say, now I was saved under the ministry of Apollos.
He's my man, he's a man of God I'm going to listen to. And then
others said, and I have Cephas. And then there were others who
said, and I have Christ. That is, they were said, I'm
not gonna follow anybody but the Lord. I'm not even gonna
listen to any other preacher but Christ Jesus. And then you
get to verse 13. He has some, what I would call
rhetorical questions. These are questions that have
an obvious answer, but he does this to drive home a point. He says, is Christ divided? Hey, you're the body of Christ.
Well, is Christ divided? Here's a second rhetorical question.
Was Paul crucified for you? Did I die for you? Did I save you? Did I make you righteous? Did
I put your sins away? And then he says, here's another
rhetorical question, he says, or were you baptized in the name
of Paul? When you were put under the water,
were you baptized in my name or were you baptized in the name
of Apollos or were you baptized in the name of Cephas? And then he says this about the
spirit of God. I thank God I baptized none of
you except for Crispus and Gaius, lest any should say that I have
baptized in my own name. And he said, I baptize also the
household of Stephanus. Besides that, he said, I don't
know whether I baptize anybody else or not. I didn't keep count.
I didn't keep a record book of it. And he said, here's the reason. He gets down to verse 17. For
Christ sent me not to baptize. That's not my ministry. That's
not my focus. but to preach the gospel. Now
listen, this yields a death blow to this idea of salvation by
baptism. Because here's a man who is,
he's very concerned of the conversions of people, the salvation of sinners. I told you that this morning.
He went everywhere preaching the gospel. He labored more abundantly
than all the rest of the apostles. Here's a man who was persecuted,
beaten, put in jail. He went everywhere preaching
Jesus Christ and him crucified. That was the focal point of his
ministry. That was his ministry. And he
said, that's what God gave me to do. That's my duty. That's
my ministry. He didn't send me to baptize.
That's not to say he didn't baptize. It's not to say that baptism
isn't a right thing. It's a good thing. We follow
the Lord in believers baptism. If you believe the gospel of
God's grace, if you believe Christ Jesus, if you have no other foundation
for your salvation but Christ and him crucified, you look to
the blood of the Holy One for all of your acceptance with God,
and you believe salvation's altogether by grace, you need to go in the
waters of baptism and confess your faith in Christ Jesus. That
is following our Lord. That's being obedient to the
Savior. But, It's not the way of salvation. Going into the waters of salvation
doesn't wash your sins away. And he states very, very, very
clearly here, my ministry given to me by Christ Jesus is not
to baptize. It's not to baptize. It's to
preach the gospel. His mission and his ministry
was not one of baptizing people. His mission and his ministry
was to set forth Jesus Christ and him crucified. And then he
adds this, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ
should be made of none effect. This man, when he went forth
preaching, he didn't go forth as a professional speaker. You know, we have, there are
men who are very gifted in speaking. You'll recognize their voices
if you watch television. You'll recognize their voices
immediately in a commercial, in an ad, because they have such
a good speaking voice. And he said, oh, I know that
voice. And it's like, since we know that voice, that kind of
lends the idea or gives the idea that the product he's pushing
is legitimate because he's such a good speaker. But you know,
this man, the Apostle Paul, he wasn't an orator. He wasn't a
professional gospel preacher. He wasn't a man who after people
heard him preach, they said, my, what a powerful voice he
had. Boy, what a command he has of
the Hebrew and the Greek. No, because he didn't preach
that way. Was he an educated man? Oh, yes. He was an educated man. He was
taught at the feet of Gamaliel, one of the leading teachers of
his day. He had the biblical credentials that most people
would have looked up to in that day. But his own word is, I didn't
come to you preaching with wisdom of words. Notice what he says
in the second chapter. Ron read these to us this morning.
Look at chapter two, verse one. He says, and I brethren, when
I came to you, came not with excellency of speech, I didn't come that way using
superior language, trying to impress you or of wisdom, full
of intelligence, wowing you with my command of the language and
with my ability to speak in a way that captures your attention.
He said, I didn't come that way declaring the testimony of God. He said, for I determined not
to know anything among you save or except Jesus Christ and him
crucified. And I was with you in weakness
and in fear and in much, much trembling. And you know, when
you read about the apostle Paul and all of his missionary journeys
and all the churches that he founded everywhere that he went,
you would think that this man, he'd go forth in strength and
power and great ability, but his own confession is, I was
with you in weakness, in fear, and much trembling. You see,
it's not the messenger, it's the message. That's what we've
got to learn. We get so caught up with messengers. Now, it's good to be thankful
for the messenger, but you cannot blindly follow any messenger. You got to take whatever any
man says from behind the pulpit, from the word of God, and take
it to the scriptures and see if these things are so. This
is a man who had great credentials. He had education. He had the
wisdom of the religious world. because that's what he received
before his conversion. But now he has the wisdom of
God and he speaks in a understandable way. And he's not trying to wow
anybody. I'm not trying to wow you. I'm
not a wow kind of preacher anyway. I know there are preachers who
are Auditors, I'm preachers of the gospel who are just tremendous
preachers, tremendous speakers. And I understand that. And you
know, God gives, He gives various gifts to different men. I'm just
a country preacher. Alan, you're just a country preacher,
aren't you? We don't claim to be anything
above what we are. We're just men who know how God
saves sinners. We know about the grace of God.
We know about the covenant of God. We know about our union
with Christ Jesus. We know about full redemption.
We know about this great salvation by grace, and we're trying to
tell people about it as best we can, communicate the truth.
Not trying to be fancy. We're not trying to impress anybody.
I like the story of I may have shared it with you before, but
Spurgeon was going, Mr. Spurgeon was going to preach
for his grandfather. His grandfather was a Presbyterian
preacher. It always kind of bothered his
grandparents that Charles Spurgeon was a Baptist preacher. They
wanted him to be a Presbyterian preacher. But anyway, Charles
had preached at the Metropolitan Tabernacle on the Lord's Day
morning, and he traveled by, traveled by train to preach for
his grandfather, who pastored a Presbyterian church many miles
away from London. And Charles was late. And so
his grandfather got up and opened the scriptures after they'd had
the music and the scripture reading, much as we do. Of course, they
didn't use musical instruments back then, because the Spurgeons
didn't believe in musical instruments. They sang a cappella. But anyway,
after they had finished the music, then Grandfather Spurgeon got
up and opened the Bible, and he just began to preach from
the text that he chose himself. And here comes his grandson,
Charles, in late. And as he came through the door,
his grandfather saw him. And of course, he insisted that
Charles take the same passage he had begun and continue to
preach on it, which he did. The story goes that way. But
as he saw his grandson coming in, he said, here comes my grandson,
Charles, who preached to thousands of people at the Metropolitan
Tabernacle. Grandfather Spurgeon had a small
flock. But grandfather said, here comes
my grandson, Charles, he can preach the gospel better than
I can, but he can't preach a better gospel. And you see, if we're not careful,
we get caught up with gifts and talents and we say, well, this
man preaches better than this one, this one preaches. If we're
preaching the true gospel, it's the same gospel, no matter the
gifts. no matter the abilities of the
speaker. And you don't need to know me. You don't need to know who I
am. I'm nobody. I'm nobody. You don't need to
know me. You don't need to know my name. You called my name in
prayer this morning? Don't do that anymore. No offense.
You don't need to know my name. Who's the preacher? Why is that
important? I'll tell you what's more important.
What'd he say? That's what's important. What'd he say? Let the name of the man be forgotten. There's only one name that's
above every name, and that's the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's the only one you need to know. You don't need to know
me. You don't need to know Ron. You
don't need to know Alan. We're just vessels. We're just
vessels of clay. We have this treasure in earthen
vessels. I'm just an earthen vessel. That's
all I am. I'm just a signpost giving direction. And that's all the apostle Paul
was. He wasn't drawing attention to himself. In fact, on one occasion
he wrote and he said, He said, permit me to brag a little bit.
But he apologized for saying it. You remember that passage
of scripture? He said, I hate to even mention this, my credentials,
but he said, every once in a while, I gotta remind you, I am an apostle. But he hated to do that. Here's who you need to know.
You need to know my master. That's who you need to know.
It's like when Abraham sent his servant out, Abimelech, looking
for a bride for Isaac. That servant, he went out and
he said, listen, you don't need to know me. I'm nobody. But oh,
let me tell you about my master. I'll tell you about the glories
of my master, the riches of my master. He's the one you need
to know. And that's the way it was with
the apostle Paul. He didn't flaunt himself. Preachers have got to have their
names everywhere. I'm thankful for the fact that
you don't have the preacher's name out on the sign here. That's a good thing. Of course,
you could have it, like I saw one time, it was hung up on a
piece of cardboard. I guess they wouldn't expect
him to stay long. Like a piece of poster board,
that's what it was. We have one cause, it's the cause
of God in truth. We have one master, that's the
Lord Jesus Christ. And so the apostle says, hey,
I'm nobody. And he says, and go back if you
would now to chapter one again. He says in verse 17, for Christ
sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom
of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. You try to doll it up and dress
it up with your vocabulary and your cleverness. You know, I
see these signs, these religious signs that churches have got.
They just try to be more and more clever, don't they? See
who can come up with the slickest religious phrase? Well, the more you try to dress up
the gospel of Christ, the further you get away from the gospel.
It's just like our worship. The more we try to dress it up,
The more rituals we put in it, let's just add a few idolatrous
things like crosses and Jesus on a crucifix and pictures of
Jesus and things like, the more stuff like that you add, the
further away from true worship you get. Robes and things of that nature,
burning candles. Oh, but it makes people feel
so good. I'm sure it does. Makes them feel religious. Get
some of these little boys. Have them come down the aisle,
you know, and have them in robes, and each of them have a cross
out, and people say, oh, isn't he cute? That's my grandson there.
That's my boy there. No. You know we're close to the
gospel. We just need to get back to the
naked, bare word of God in the preaching of the cross of Christ.
The word of the cross, that's what we need. Just leave all
that other stuff out. You see, there is in the gospel
itself a glorious attraction. It'll do the attracting. It'll
do the drawing. All you gotta do is preach the
gospel. That's all you gotta do. Somebody said, just turn it loose. And it'll do the job. So he says, the preaching of
the cross is to them who are perishing foolishness. But unto
us which are saved, it's the power of God. This is what God
uses. And God might use this for you
tonight. He might use it for you. And if he does, don't say I saved
under Jim's ministry. You just saved under the ministry
of the gospel. That's all. Because it's what he says in
verse 19, for it's written, It's written in Isaiah 29. God said,
I will destroy the wisdom of the wise. I bring to nothing
the understanding of the prudent. And he says, where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is
the disputer of this world? Where are they? Are they in the
body of Christ? Are they in the church of the
Lord Jesus? He says, hath not God made foolish the wisdom of
this world? It says this in verse 21, for
after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not
God. It pleased God by the solutions
of preaching to save them the belief. You know, when our Lord
Jesus came, 4,000 years of history had passed by. 4,000 years. And the world by wisdom
knew not God. They didn't know God. 4,000 years. You think we're climbing up the
evolutionary ladder? We're not getting any better.
Man's not growing in wisdom. He's not getting any smarter
concerning the things of God. After 4,000 years, men were still
stooped in ignorance and superstition and didn't know God. And one of the purposes of God
in not sending the Lord Jesus for 4,000 years, I believe one
of the purposes was to just show men, let's see what you gonna
come up with. And the answer is all kinds of
foolishness. Gonna worship trees and rocks
and animals. You name it. And after 4,000 years of foolishness,
God sent his son. And it says in verse 21, it pleased
God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. The
foolishness of that which is proclaimed. You know what it
is we proclaim? Substitution and satisfaction. That's what we proclaim. And
to the world, that's foolishness. Because the world, here's what
the world understands. And you know this, because you
used to understand this. It's the way we're all programmed
due to the fall. Do good, God will bless you.
Do bad, watch out. That's just the way we're programmed.
If you do good, God will welcome you. Be good to others and live
by the golden rule. Well, you ought to live by the
golden rule, but that don't impress God. Only thing that impresses
God is his son. Only thing that impresses God
is righteousness. That's all that impresses God.
Perfection, that's what impresses God. Be as good as God, then
you'll go to glory. And you better figure out a way
how you can be as good as God. And if you can't figure it out,
I'll just be glad to tell you, Christ Jesus and him crucified,
there's the righteousness of God revealed at the cross of
Calvary. Then he gets to verse 22, he
says, for the Jews require a sign. That's what the Jews said, show
us a sign and we'll believe you. The Greeks seek after wisdom.
But he says, we preach Christ crucified, the Jews stumble over
it, and to the Greeks it's just foolishness. But, unto them which are called, out
of both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom
of God. There's a call, a general call
that goes forth to everybody, an effectual call that goes forth
only to God's people. Oh, John Bungan, have you ever
read Pilgrim's Progress? If you haven't, you ought to.
The kids in here need to read Pilgrim's Progress. They have
kind of an elementary edition for the children, and that's
very good for them to read. You might even, some school teachers,
you might even consider reading through that with them and using
it as kind of a textbook, because it's full of scripture, of course.
But John Bunyan was an excellent writer, and he likened this call
of God, the general call and the effectual call, He said,
it's like the call of a hen to her chicks. He says, she goes
around the barnyard all day long, just cluck, cluck, cluck, and
the little chicks kind of look up to mom, and then they go about
pecking the seed or the corn or whatever little chicks do. He said, then the hawk begins
to fly overhead, and she gives an effectual call. She spreads
forth her wings, And here comes the little chicks and they gather
under her wings and she closes them underneath her and they're
safe. He said, that's the specific,
the effectual call of the gospel. He said, the general call is
the cluck, cluck, cluck when you hear the preacher preach.
And what did he preach on? Well, he just clucked away. That's
all he did. Oh, but then there was the effectual
call. The hawk is overhead. There's
danger. Wrath of God. Judgment. And then we come by effectual
grace underneath the wings of God Almighty. And there we find
safety for our souls. There we find salvation. I tell
you, our business Our business is preaching the word of the
cross. Let me give you a story. Every once in a while, a story's
good. Kind of like a window in the house lets a little light
in. I don't use too many stories, but I like this one. You ever
heard of Adoniram Judson? He was a missionary to Burma,
India. Many years ago, after he finished
his schooling, He was offered a position, actually offered
a pastorate in Boston. And his family was very happy
because they were in Boston. He would stay there, they thought,
but he said, no, God wants me to be a missionary to India. And so he made two trips to India,
and both times he got nowhere and came back. And then he went
to India again, to Burma. And there he stayed and he preached
the gospel. And they finally put him in jail. And then he was released and
he preached. He preached for seven years.
And one person professed faith in Christ Jesus at last. And
he baptized that one person. And then he and his wife and
this new convert had the Lord's Supper together. Well, he continued
preaching and then his wife died. His wife died shortly after that
first convert. And not long after his wife died,
his only daughter died. He buried them both in Burma,
India. And he just wore out preaching
the gospel, and then he came back to Boston. He decided to
go back and see his family. He missed them. And he wasn't
61 years of age, but they said he looked about 80. And so he went back to Boston,
and the whole time he was wondering, I wonder if anybody will put
me up in their house. I wonder if anybody will take
care of me. And of course there were several
people who were ready to open up their doors to him. And there
was this one preacher who had set up an itinerary for him to
preach. And he was to preach and did
preach in one of the largest churches in Boston. I don't know
what church it was. But he did preach. And he was
introduced. Tremendous, tremendous gathering
was at the Park Street Church in Boston. That was the name
of it. I wrote it down here. And he was introduced. He was
thin, he was frail. He wasn't 61 years of age. And
it is said that he, when he stood up and he looked this massive
congregation, But his eyes welled up with tears and he began to
speak about the glories of Christ Jesus and how God saved sinners
by his free and sovereign grace. Afterwards, this young preacher
who had set up his itinerary, he was the head of the committee,
he told the preacher, he said, let me walk with you to a restaurant,
we'll get something to eat. And so they walked along and
the old missionary noticed that the young preacher was really
quiet, didn't have much to say. He looked at him and said, son,
what's the problem? He said, sir, he said, I'm disappointed
in you. He said, you are? He said, yes,
sir. He said, I thought you'd tell us about your missionary
efforts. I thought you'd tell us how you buried your wife and
your daughter on foreign soil, how you suffered disease and
fever, how you labored seven years, during which time, I forgot
to tell you, the mission board said, why don't you come home?
This is a useless effort. And he stayed. I thought you'd
tell about all of these things, but you didn't. He said, I'm
just disappointed. This is Beyonce with you. The
old missionary looked at the young preacher, he said this,
I wrote it down. He said, there's only one message
worth preaching and I preach it wherever I go. The grace of
God to pour sinners through Jesus Christ and him crucified. Well, to finish the story, he
remarried. and she had to agree to go to
Burma with him. And they set sail for Burma and
he got a fever on the ship and died and was buried at sea. He had the right message. That's
what I'm saying. Got the right message, the word
of the cross. And there have been men like
Judson who labored a long time before they saw anybody have
any interest in the gospel. That'd be kind of discouraging,
just you and your wife. But you know, if we believe,
if we really believe that God has a people out here somewhere,
And we believe it. The word of God's not going to
return to him void. We'll just keep on going. Keep
going. Somebody said, well, this is
an aged congregation. I hope God brings some young
people in. Well, that's his business too. But I'm thankful for those who
are aged in the faith. I'm thankful for those who I've
been faithful by the grace of God for many years. I'm grateful. Thank God for you. And these
younger ones in the congregation, the children in the congregation,
listen, we pray for y'all. We pray for y'all. We pray God
will teach you the gospel, and we wanna be good examples to
you, folks who love the truth. And that's why our Sunday School
teachers, they give diligence to teach you the things of the
Lord. Well, I hope God will bless that. A few scattered thoughts.