In the second epistle of Paul
to the Corinthians in chapter 4 Paul turns his attention to
the glory of the gospel to the light of the gospel that shines
in the darkness to the power of the gospel to deliver from
darkness and to the reality of the gospel that through the death
of Jesus Christ and through the sinner being crucified with Christ
comes everlasting and eternal life. Paul contrasts what can
be seen with the natural eye in this world which is but a
mirage. with that which cannot be seen
with the natural eye, but which is everlasting, and which is
that which is truly real. He says in verse 18, While we
look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which
are not seen. For the things which are seen
are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. What a contrast there is here
in Paul's words! with that which is portrayed
unto us in the world around us, with that which men will tell
us, with that which the media will tell us. All the influence
we have every day of our lives in this world is that that which
is important is that which can be seen, that which you experience
here and now, that which you can touch, handle and feel in
this world. All that really matters is how
much you have of this world and what you do in this world and
where you go in this world. And they tell us this in spite
of the fact that our sojourn in this world, our time in this
world is so brief. We're born and before we know
it we're fully grown and before we know it we're old and before
we know it we're departed. We die. Life is but for a moment. And all the prospects that this
world seems to offer are gone in a flash. They're temporal. They're a passing vanity. And anyone that seeks to grasp
hold of this world with the idea that that is their happiness
secured is a fool. As soon as you've attained to
something, it's gone. That which is real, that which
matters, is that which you cannot see with the natural eye. Is
that which is eternal and everlasting. Where you stand before a holy
God. We look not at the things which
are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things
which are seen are temporal. But the things which are not
seen are eternal. They're eternal. Then how do
we experience, how do we know the things which are not seen
with the natural eye? How are we ever going to be a
partaker of that which natural man cannot see, cannot understand,
that which is hid from him? One way. through the revelation
of God, through the gospel of Jesus Christ. What you and I
need is to hear the gospel, not just with the outward ear, but
inwardly, by the power of the Holy Ghost, through the revelation
of God within. Your great need is to hear and
believe the gospel through which your sins will be washed away,
through which you would be delivered from this temporal world and
brought into that which is everlasting, through which you will know Jesus
Christ. Without the Gospel, you're left
in the darkness of a fleeting, passing world to enter into an
everlasting darkness of judgment from which there is no escape.
But should God make His Gospel known unto you, then you will
be delivered from the darkness and brought into the light of
eternal salvation. Paul speaks of this in the beginning
of the chapter. He says as a preacher, as an
apostle, therefore seeing we have this ministry, this gospel,
this call of God to preach this message of life from death, of
righteousness of salvation through the blood of Christ therefore
seeing we have this ministry as we have received mercy we
faint not but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty
not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully
but by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every
man's conscience in the sight of God. But if our gospel be
hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this
world have blinded the minds of them which believe not. lest the light of the glorious
gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto
them. For we preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus'
sake. For God who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness have shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. If our gospel be hid, it is hid
to them that are lost. in whom the God of this world
have blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light
of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should
shine unto them. The glorious gospel of Christ. What a description of this message,
this gospel. The glorious Gospel of Christ. And what a statement regarding
the preaching of this gospel Paul has given here in these
opening verses. God who commanded the light to
shine out of darkness have shined in our hearts to give the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Why do we preach this message? Why do we preach this message
in a dark and an evil world that doesn't want to know? Why do
we bother wasting our time as it were, as men would say, standing
up and preaching such a message when the world around us doesn't
care, doesn't like it, doesn't want to hear and would willingly
put us to death if it could? Why did Paul go to the trouble
of preaching this message when he knew that he could die for
uttering these words? When he knew that Christ himself
died and others who went preaching this gospel were put to death,
were persecuted. Why did he dare to preach such
a message? because God shone the light out
of the darkness and shined in his heart and gave unto him the
knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
He knew the difference between night and day, between life and
death, between the darkness and the light. He knew the difference
between being blind to the truth and dead in his sins. and seeing
his Saviour crucified for him, risen again with him, brought
to life by the Gospel. He knew the power of the Gospel,
he knew what it did for him, he knew how Christ had died for
him and delivered him. He knew the reality of the application
of that gospel. He knew the sprinkling of the
blood in his heart. He knew the peace he was given
with Almighty God. He knew the freedom and liberty
that he was set into by that gospel. He knew how the bondage
of the law which was upon him before and the bondage of condemnation
and guilt had been taken away, the chains had been set free.
He'd been delivered, he'd been saved. And therefore, he goes
forth with this message to preach unto the captives, to preach
unto dead sinners, the glorious gospel of Christ. And we too
sent of God with this gospel come in the same manner. Why
do we declare these things? Because we were dead like you
are sinner. We were blind like you may be. We were in darkness like you
may sit. and God delivered us. We don't
come with some theoretic idea or some persuasion of man, some
cunningly crafted fables. We don't come with some idea
of how to live or some construction of religion that men have devised. We don't preach a way of life. We don't preach a religion. We preach deliverance from death,
deliverance from sin, deliverance from condemnation. We preach
the light which shines in the darkness. We preach life and
salvation. through Jesus Christ. This is
our ministry. This is Paul's ministry. This
is why Paul risked death to preach it, that dead sinners should
live. And this is why we, if we need
to, will risk death to preach the same message in our day and
generation. Such that others like you who
lay in the grave, who lay on the brink of eternity in hell,
should hear and be delivered from your sins. Paul knew the
mercy and love of God, the grace of God. And we who know the mercy,
the love and the grace of God preach the same message to you
this day. This ministry. Therefore seeing
we have this ministry, as we have received mercy we faint
not. but have renounced the hidden
things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the
Word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth,
commending ourselves at every man's conscience in the sight
of God. We don't handle the Word of God
deceitfully. There are many who do. We don't
come with another Gospel. There are many who do. We don't
preach that you might be saved if you make the right decision,
when we know that you cannot make a decision because your
will is set against God and his gospel because of the depravity
in your heart and the deadness of your sins. We don't preach
that you might be saved by your own works or your own obedience
or your own keeping of God's law because we know that you
cannot keep that law. It's given to show you your sin. It's given to condemn you and
shut you up as a sinner guilty before Almighty God. We don't
preach that there is salvation by any way or means other than
the free grace of God, the mercy of God revealed under his people. Your salvation depends upon God
opening your blind eyes to see that which is once hidden to
you. Opening your deaf ears to hear that which you cannot hear
by nature. We preach that salvation is by
the free and sovereign grace of God alone. Only God can save
a sinner lost in his sins. Only God can open the eyes of
the blind. Only God can open the ears of
the deaf. Only God can put faith in an
unbelieving heart. Only God can say unto Lazarus
in the grave, Lazarus come forth and a dead man lives. Only God can make you live, but
he will make you live through the preaching of the glorious
gospel of Christ. We have renounced the hidden
things of dishonesty. We will not be dishonest about
the preaching of the gospel. We will not follow cunningly
devised fables or craftily mix the works and the will of man
with the grace of God in order to make the gospel seem more
appealing to the natural dead sinner, as many do. We will not
handle the Word of God deceitfully, making it say what it doesn't
say. But we commend ourselves to every
man's conscience in the sight of God through the manifestation,
the preaching, the revealing, the making known of the truth. It's the truth which saves, and
the truth is the truth as it is in Jesus Christ, for he said,
I am the truth, the way, and the life. Then to preach the
gospel is to preach Christ, to preach the truth, the way, and
the life. This ministry If this ministry,
this gospel is hid, it is hid to them which are lost. But if
our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost. If we don't preach this gospel,
then it's hidden from them that are lost. If the gospel is not
made known, then lost sinners will not hear. There are some that never do. Their minds are blinded. Their hearts are closed to the
truth. And they never see. and the years
of their lives pass away with increasing hardness of heart,
increasing blindness, increasing folly, increasing destruction,
until that day when they draw their last breath. Until that
day when they stand before their maker and he says, depart from
me, I never knew you. religious or irreligious, whether
they have turned their back upon Christianity altogether, or whether
they have made some profession of faith and sought to get to
heaven by their own strength, but have rejected the truth. However they are blinded, if
that's the path that they are on, if that's the path that you
are on, it ends in destruction. If our gospel be hid, it is hid
to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world have blinded
the mind of them which believe not. Lest the light of the glorious
gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto
them. If this gospel shines unto you,
you will be saved. If it shines in your heart, you
cannot stand in its way and not be affected by it. But there
are those whose minds have been blinded in order that the light
should not shine within. in whom the God of this world
have blinded the minds of them which believe not. Who is the
God of this world? Well, we know that Satan, the accuser, the devil,
goes around as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. We
know that he has his influence and does all he can to prevent
sinners from hearing the gospel or being brought to know the
truth. And there is a sense in which this phrase refers to him in his efforts to blind the minds
of those that might believe. But the reality is that whatever
titles are given to Satan, he is not the God of this world. There is a God, a power, a principality
greater than his. He is but a puppet in Almighty
God's hands. and when he comes before Almighty
God and speaks of one like Job of old and asks to do something
to Job he required he requires the agreement of Almighty God
to allow him to go about his evil ways. He is not in control. He is not sovereign. He is not
the ruler of this world or this universe. God is. He is but a
puppet in God's hands. He can only do that with which
freedom he is given. then although he may be the instrument
in God's hands that goes around trying to deceive many, trying
to lead us astray, trying to blind our eyes, ultimately God
has given him the freedom. Ultimately God says, go on then,
go on then, go and blind the minds of as many as you can. But where I preach my gospel,
nothing that you do will stand in its way so satan eager to take as many
souls captive goes around this world deceiving and leading astray
trying to whisper his lies in our ears he's come unto you sinner
and every day he whispers and he whispers and he says have
God said Is there a God? Is that gospel true? Did Jesus
die? Did he rise again? Do you care? Come this way. Come and have
fun. Come and have pleasure. Come
and have riches. He comes unto you like he came
unto Christ. When Christ was born, when Christ
lived as a man in this world, Satan at the beginning of Christ's
ministry tried to tempt him and he took him up and he showed
him the world before him and he said, I could give you this
world if you follow me. And he says unto us, look at
all that I can give you. Turn away from the gospel. Turn away from God. Shut your
ears to this nonsense. Follow me. See all that you could
have. I can give you the world. And he seeks to blind our eyes
to the truth. But God says elsewhere, what
does it profit a man? if he gains the whole world and
loses his own soul. Christ rejected the temptations
of Satan. The audacity of Satan to promise
Christ all the kingdoms of this world when they're all Christ
in the first place. And the lie of Satan is that
he will promise you something he cannot give you. He'll promise
you the world, he'll promise you life, he'll promise you pleasure,
he'll promise you riches and it's not his to give to you.
And if you think that you've gained it, if you think that
you've got it, it will be taken away because there's a God above
Satan that's crushed Satan's head, that crushed the serpent's
head and he'll take it all away from you. All that you grasp
hold of, all that you're given by this deceiver of the nations
will be taken out of your hands, you fool. You've gone after what
you can't keep. You turn your back upon the God
that can give you eternal life. For that which is temporal in
this world, which perishes, which rusts, which rots, which is taken
away, and which when you breathe your last breath it pours through
your fingertips like sand, you can't hold on to it, it's a deception,
it's a mirage in a desert. We look not at the things which
are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things
which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not
seen are eternal. Satan can't give you anything
eternal other than everlasting damnation with him and his angels. Go follow him if you will. But you're blind if you do. Yes, he tries to deceive the
world, lest they believe the gospel. Lest the light of the
glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine
unto them. He tries to deceive, but behind him, the God of this
world, the one true and living God, is the one that rules over
all. And if God says, you will see
the gospel, you will see if God says you will hear the gospel
you will hear and if God says no you're blind and you'll remain
blind then you will remain blind you will remain in darkness and
the light of the gospel will shine all around you and you'll
never enter into it and it will never enter into you It will
be words that rumble past your ears which never enter into your
soul. And should you, like Esau of
old, come to realise you've made a big mistake, should you come
somehow to realise that you've sold your birthright and all
those years when you could have heard the gospel and you shut
your ears to it, now you can't hear it. Now the gospel's gone. Now that preacher that God sent
your way with the truth, he's gone. Perhaps he's gone into
eternity. And there's no one else preaching.
There's no gospel for you to find. You go around seeking the
truth. You've come to realise that hell
is your portion. But it's too late. Those days
of hearing the gospel are in the past. You would not listen,
you shut your ears. But now like Esau, you realise
you've sold your birthright. And you want to hear and you
want to know. But you can't find God. You can't
find the truth. You can't find the gospel. You
don't know because you're blind. And you can't see in the darkness. You chose your way and God left
you to it. You said, I will not hear, and
God said, very well. You will not hear. You said,
I don't care, and God said, very well. I'll leave you to yourself. Now you want to enter in, now
you want to come through the door, but the door's shut. Now
you want to listen, but there's no one speaking. Now you want
to know God, but God has said no more. It's too late. These are solemn warnings. If
our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost. If God
ceases to preach the gospel to your soul, and you're lost in
your sins, you may never hear it again. Oh, that we may not be left to our
own will. with regard to the gospel. Oh
that God may not give us the desire of our hearts, which is
for this world and its ways, for all that Satan promises us,
which is not his to give, which ends in destruction. Oh may God
not leave us to our own wisdom. O may God not blind our hearts. If our gospel be hid, it is hid
to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world hath blinded
the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious
gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto
them. Just as Satan cannot blind your
heart unless God allows it. So, Satan cannot blind you to
the truth. If God has said, you will see.
If God has purposed through His glorious Gospel to make His Son
known unto you, nothing will stop you seeing His Son. Nothing will stop you hearing
Him. Nothing will stop the light of
the Gospel shining into the darkness of your heart. For God is God. God is sovereign and God will
save all for whom his son died. For we preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus'
sake. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. We preach not ourselves. What
does Paul mean by this? He means twofold. His message, the subject of his
message, is not himself and not yourself. He doesn't preach what
he thinks. He doesn't preach what He doesn't
preach about his experience. He doesn't preach about you or
your experience. He preaches Christ. Christ is his subject. Christ
is his message. Christ is all. Christ is the
Saviour whom he declares. Our message to you is that salvation
is in and through the person of Jesus Christ. but also Paul's ability to preach
and Paul's opening of his mouth to preach was not of himself
it isn't Paul that's preaching here it's Christ And there's
the difference between man's preaching and God's preaching,
between that gospel which is in word only and that which comes
from above. We preach, not ourselves, but
Christ Jesus the Lord. It's Christ Jesus the Lord who
preaches. I may be the man standing up,
I may be the man uttering the words, but Christ is the one
that gave me the words to preach, and Christ is the one that sent
me here this day, and Christ is the one that utters through
His Spirit unto your soul this day. That's what Paul's telling
us. We preach, not ourselves, but
Christ Jesus the Lord. He's the subject, he's the object,
he's the one who preaches, he's the preacher. He in heaven above,
utters by his spirit, through those whom he sends with the
gospel on earth, that you might hear not the words of man, but
the words of almighty God. Holds but a servant. Ourselves
your servants for Jesus' sake. He's but the mouthpiece. He says
later on, we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the
excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. He speaks
of being troubled every day, persecuted but not forsaken,
cast down but not destroyed, always bearing about in the body
the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might
be made manifest in the body. His constant experience is of
dying in order that the life of God might be preached and
that sinners might live by it. He's nothing. He's crucified
with Christ. He's but the mouthpiece, but
the preaching and the messages of God. And if you're to live
sinner, It's God who must preach unto you, it's Christ who must
preach. You don't just need to hear the
message of who Christ is and the message of what Christ did,
but you need Christ himself. Having died, having risen again,
having conquered sin, death and hell, you need Christ himself
from the other side of the grave. to stand up and preach by His
power, preach by the power of the Holy Ghost unto your soul. And when Christ Himself says
unto you, from the other side of the grave, from eternity,
when He comes in the Gospel and says unto you, live, and you
hear, you will live. This is the gospel that Paul's
speaking of, this is what it makes it glorious. He heard Christ
from the glory of heaven. When did Paul believe? When he
read the scriptures? No, he was brought up reading
the scriptures. He was born of the tribe of Benjamin. He was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. He was trained as a Pharisee.
He grew up in religion. He grew up in the scriptures.
And he knew not God. Was he saved when he prayed? No, he spent years praying unto
a God he didn't know. And it never saved him. Was he saved when he kept the
law, obediently living as God had instructed? When he worked
out his own righteousness before a holy God? No, it led him to
persecute the church and reject Jesus Christ. It led him to assent
to the stoning of Stephen. Stephen stood up and preached
the gospel and even that day when the gospel was preached,
Paul stood by, Saul stood by and had Stephen stoned to death. Was Saul, was Paul saved when
he heard the gospel with the outward ear? Not on the day that
Stephen preached. He even heard the truth from
ministers sent of God. He even heard the truth of the
gospel, not a corrupt gospel, not another gospel. Not a gospel
preached by men who are not sent of God. But he heard it from
the apostles and rejected it. Like you may be rejecting it
today, you've heard the truth, you know the truth, you've heard
the words, and your heart says no. Your heart, as it were, would
silence the preacher if you could. You'd take up stones and stone
Stephen if you could. Was Saul saved when he read the
scriptures? No. Was he saved when he prayed?
No. Was he saved when he kept the
law? No. Was he saved when he heard the
gospel outwardly? No. But there was a day when Saul
woke up and purposed to go to Damascus to persecute the church,
to take believers captive, to put them to their death, to cause
havoc. He raged against Christ, he raged
against the gospel and he raged against any who believed or followed
Christ. Like you may be today. and his
goal that day was to trample the blood of Christ underfoot.
And that day, on his way to Damascus, he met with his Saviour. There was a light that shone
round about him from heaven above, and a voice that called out unto
him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And that's the day. that's the hour that this gospel
became glorious to Paul. He heard not the voice of man. He heard not the bare letter
of the words of the Gospel. However true those words might
be, he'd heard the disciples. He'd heard Stephen. He'd seen
the calibre and the faith of Stephen as Stephen stood firm
even though he was stoned to death. He'd heard these words,
but he'd never heard them from Christ. And on this day Christ
himself met with him and called unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest
thou me? And that day he heard the gospel
in power from Almighty God. The glorious gospel of Christ. from that God who commanded the
light to shine out of darkness, who shined in Paul's heart at
that hour to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of
God in the face of Jesus Christ. Has he done that for you? Because that, my friend, is what
saves a sinner from the grave. That's what takes you off your
path of self-destruction and puts you on a path unto eternal
life. That's what delivers you from
the blindness and folly of the wisdom of this world and reveals
unto you the truth and the wisdom of God. That's what delivers
you from your guilt, the wretched guilt of all your unbelief and
all your rejection of the gospel, of all your indulgence, of all
your pride and arrogance, of all the foolishness of your own
natural sinful way. That's what will deliver you
from the captivity of your sin and the judgment and wrath of
God against all that you've done, fought and said throughout your
lifetime. That's what will save you if
Christ in this Gospel comes unto you and says, I am the Lord Jesus
Christ. I am alive, I am risen, I am
alive forevermore. I am the Alpha and the Omega,
the beginning and the end, the creator and the sustainer of
all things. I am your God and your Savior. Have you met with Him? When we
preach this Gospel, it's Him that we preach, and it's His
salvation that we preach. He came into this world to save
His people from their sins, and that's what He did. He went to
the cross and died because He purposed to. He went to the cross
for a reason and a purpose, in order to bear the sins of His
people. He chose, the Father chose a
people before the foundation of the world and He gave the
names of that people unto His Son and His Son promised to enter
this world and to go to the cross and to suffer in their place. He didn't die for all. He doesn't
love all. He's not trying to save all. He delivered his people from
their sins. He loves his people. He died
for his people. He shows unto his people mercy. And he shows unto the rest his
wrath and anger at their sin and their unbelief. I will have
mercy upon whom I will have mercy. And I will harden the hearts
of those whom I will harden. I will blind the minds of those
whom I will blind. Salvation is in his hands. It
is before him whom we stand this day. It is before him whom we
must answer. What think ye of Christ? What
think ye of his gospel? Does it matter to you? Does it
matter to you more than your bread and your water? More than
the breath that you breathe? More than the beating of your
heart? Does it matter to you more than your job and your career
and your family and your ambitions? Is this the thing that's most
important? Because it needs to be. Because
unless you know this Christ, unless you know this God, unless
you know this Savior, you are lost. Why? Do we risk our lives? Why do we risk persecution? Why do we suffer the hatred and
rejection of men in order to preach this gospel? because this
gospel delivered us from death and our concern for others is
that they should know what it is to be delivered from death.
We are seeking the lost sheep of Israel. We are seeking sinners
like ourselves, chosen of God under salvation, sinners who
are yet in their sins, yet in darkness, yet blind, whom God
have chosen to spare. To deliver from darkness, to
save with an outstretched arm. We are seeking to make known
the light that God has shone into our hearts. We are seeking
to make known the mercy that God extended to us. We are seeking
to preach the grace of God which delivered us from our sins. We
are seeking to preach the love of God which he set upon us though
we hated him. Oh, will you know the love and
the mercy and the grace of God? Or does it all wash over you
like water off a duck's back? Does it just wash over you? Is
it just words in one ear and out the other? If our gospel be hid, it is hid
to them that are lost. lest the light of the glorious
gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto
them. The glorious gospel of Christ! It's glorious! It's glorious
that God chose to save a people though they hated Him. It's glorious
that God had mercy upon us, though we were in darkness, though we
rejected him, though we cared not for him, though we had no
time for him, though we didn't want to hear the gospel, though
we'd run away as far as we could go, though everything we did
with all that God gave us, we used to harm him, to reject him. It's glorious that God loved
us in spite of our hatred. It's glorious that Christ was
willing to suffer in the darkness of the cross, to suffer the darkness
of sin, to suffer the outpouring of God's wrath in order that
his people should know what it is to enter into the light, to
have the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ shine into their hearts. It's glorious that God
should love such a people. It's glorious that Christ in
grace should be their substitute. should be their sacrifice, should
be their offering, should be their righteousness, should be
their life, should be their husband, should be their saviour. It's
glorious. We preach not ourselves, but
Christ Jesus the Lord. He's the image of God. God himself,
as a man, gave himself that men through him should live. Did Christ give himself for you? Has he met with you on the way? You may be on your path to Damascus
this day. You may be breathing out threatenings
against the people of God and Christ himself. You may seek
to silence the gospel and silence Christ, but will he meet you? For if he does, it's the greatest
thing that could ever happen to you. It's the greatest thing
that happened to Saul, that he met with Christ on the way. That
despite all his hatred, and all his rejection, and all his blindness,
that God still loved him, God spared him and God sent him forth
to preach this gospel, the gospel which is set down in scripture
at the writing down of Paul, as led by the Spirit, the gospel
he preached, which is preached today. Because God met Saul that
day, this word from Saul, this word from Paul, echoes through
the generations, echoes through the ages, unto this very hour. And Saul, as it were, from the
other side of the grave, with Christ his Saviour, would say
with Christ, listen! Listen to this message, listen
to this gospel, listen to what Christ did for me. Hear him,
hear Christ, hear the Saviour and believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ to the saving of your souls. Sirs, what must we do? Those lost sinners cried out
when the alarm of God sounded in their hearts. Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.