Thank you, Pastor. Well, I appreciate so much Brother
Bruce inviting Shelby to come up for the weekend and not to
come with her. I don't need to tell you how
very dear this congregation is to us. Your pastor and his wife
and their family are so very thankful for you. Thankful God
made you part of our lives. We pray for you and appreciate
your prayers on our behalf. And Bruce has asked me to do
something I've never done before. He's asked me to tell you a little
bit about my life, so I jotted down a few notes. Now, I'm not
real good at dates. I've never kept such records
of things. One of the young men in our congregation, a family
moved in just a few months ago, One of the small boys, after
being there for a few weeks, he said, how many places have
you preached in? I said, I don't know. I'll try to figure it out. And what I could remember, the
past 45 years, God's allowed me to preach the gospel in 158
different places and continues to open doors of utterance for
the gospel before us around the world. And it's a high privilege
and a great, great weight of responsibility. So I ask that
you pray for me and for our assembly as we seek to serve our God with
you in this generation. Turn with me, if you will, to
Psalm 56. Psalm 56. Look at verse 9. When I cry unto thee, then shall
mine enemies turn back. This I know, for God is for me." And I'm more convinced of that
this hour than I've ever been in my life. God is for me. Look at Psalm 57. Verse 2, I
will cry unto God Most High, unto God that performeth all
things for me. I am fully convinced our God
performs all things for me, always has, and will continue to do
so. all things for me. The same is
true of each of His elect, and yet there's a very real sense
in which each of us must, if God will enable us by His grace,
we must come to understand God performs all things specifically
for me, for my benefit, for my good, for His glory. Now let
me tell you about some of the things God's performed. I'm 62
years old. I was born down in Bladen County,
North Carolina, just a little ways below where Brother Rupert
Reichenbach pastures in 1950, June 10, 1950. And I was raised
in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. I may as well say this. It's
going to be on tape, and I like to aggravate folks. Finest city
in the world. On a hot July day, you'd walk
down the streets and breathe in the air and spit out the amber. When I was seven years old, I
started attending church with family, some, and got all stirred
up in an emotional meeting. A lot of pressure going on. Folks
being arms twisted to make a profession of faith. And I came down to
the front of the church building and knelt down. Didn't have a
clue what was going on, except I didn't want to go to hell and
I was scared of hell. So I came down front. A very kind man. I knew him all his life until
he died. Dave, strong man, pilot for Piedmont
Airlines, was in the church and he met with me at the altar and
went through what they call the Romans Road. And then I said
everything he told me to say and repeated the prayer after
him. And he said, now Don, son, you're saved. Don't let anybody
ever tell you any different. And I went home and wasn't long. Folks invited me to start going
out with them to, we called it a colored mission church out
on, off of Stadium Drive when I was eight, nine years old,
preaching on Sunday afternoons. And I didn't know God from a
billy goat. And sadly, the folks in the church didn't either.
But I wasn't raised in a religious home at all. God was used occasionally, and
the word of God used occasionally to scare folks, that's all. And
we didn't go to church much. And by the time I was nine, I
was a hard-nosed rebel. I had no interest in God or anything
concerning God. A few years ago, I was preaching
down in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, and I saw a man who
looked real familiar to me. He got on the elevator. I was
going to preach, and he was there for the Lions Club meeting. I
found out later. And I stuck out my hand. I said, you're not
Bob Spitzer, are you? He said, I sure am. He was my
sixth grade teacher. I hadn't seen him in 30 years.
I said, you won't remember me. I'm Don Fortner. He said, oh,
I remember you. And we got to be good friends.
He came to hear me preach. He and his wife came to visit
us several times after that. But I went on in that course
of rebellion until at last, when I was 16 years old, in the 10th
grade in high school, they kicked me out of school. I went to work at Rister Mills
in Winston-Salem folding cotton. I remember standing there one
night. I was working 16 hours a day, seven days a week, making
a dollar and a nickel an hour, and I saw some fellow who looked
like he was about 70 years old, and I thought, buddy, you have
cooked your goose. This is where you're going to
be when you're 70 years old, standing here folding cotton in a blooming
cotton mill. But just before I turned 17,
1967, God was pleased to call me by
His grace. I started attending church again,
same place I'd been before. Brother Townley Davis was now
the pastor. And I started going to church because there was a
pretty young girl there that I thought I'd like to date. And
the only way I could date her was by attending church with
her. Her daddy wouldn't let me go out with her otherwise. So we
went to church together. And I got to sitting in the class
of young adults. And there were two men. who faithfully
taught the gospel of God's grace. The pastor certainly believed
the gospel of God's grace, but these men were clearer and more
emphatic. Both of them are preachers, have
been for years now, but they were teaching the Sunday school
class. God was pleased to reveal His Son in me. Many things take place in intervening
years, Then I, just a few weeks later, I was by this time working
at a place across town called Champion Dishwashing Machine
Company. And I'd lied about my age to get that job, so I had
to go tell the folks I'd lied about my age. God had saved me.
I couldn't pretend anymore. And just about that time I had
moved back home and I didn't have a driver's license. That's
another story. I'd lost my license again. Go
to town, take a ride to town and ride home with my mother,
who was working at Mother and Daughter Department Store, Winston-Salem.
And there was a beautiful blonde-headed gal, standing back in another
section of the store. And I found out who she was that
was there. And I said to myself, the day
I get my license back, I'm going to ask her out. I'll guarantee
I'm the only man in this building who remembers the first date
of his first date with his wife. June 29, 1969. I know because that's the day
I got my license back. And Shelby and I went out, and
we've been going out ever since. But she was in school at Piedmont
Bible College, and I went back to high school. And I point my
fingers to many things like this where God just intervenes just
for me. That year, when I went back to school, I had been kicked
out, as I told you, in the 10th grade. Three class credits, an
English class, a history class, and an art class. Nothing else. Nothing else. And I went back
to school. They did something for one year,
just one year. Never been done, as far as I
know, anywhere east of the Mississippi except in Forsyth County Schools
in Western Southern North Carolina in 1967-68 school year. They went to what they called
a modular system. made it possible for me to take half of my classes
in class on campus and half of them through correspondence school.
And so I was able to take all three years of high school in
one year and graduate with my class. And that summer, I started
in Bible college. By this time, folks started asking
me to teach and lead classes in both the school and in the
church and other churches, and I began preaching some. I knew
I was too young, too inexperienced, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone,
but I couldn't say no. I couldn't refuse to tell what
God had done for me. And frankly, I have to acknowledge
when I first started preaching, I had never read anything. I
had begun to read the scriptures, I had difficulty with that. I
bluffed my way through school and hadn't read anything in my
life, not even a comic book until after God saved me. When I tried
to read a passage audibly before a congregation, it would take
me as long to read a chapter as it would to preach from it. Overruled it, overcame it, and
I started the school the week before graduation at Piedmont
Bible College in Winston-Salem. Took the summer school courses.
By this time, Shelby and I were engaged. I had doctored into
marrying me, and we were going to be married the next year when
she got out of school. And after I finished the summer school
at Piedmont, I felt strongly inclined of God to go to school
at Springfield, Missouri. Thought it would be best for
us. And our relationship for me to go there, and we'd be separated
the whole year, but we called every day. Seventy-five cents
for three minutes every day. She'd call me, and I'd call her.
And we wrote every day. And I saw her twice that year.
But I went to school at Springfield not knowing what I was getting
into. I didn't know anything about Calvinism, Arminianism.
I knew nothing about it. I knew the gospel of God's free
grace. limited atonement, particular redemption, election, predestination,
those things were planes nose on your face, had no question
about it. Well, I went to school at Springfield, and the year
before I went there, they had decided to purge the school of
all hyper-Calvinists. And they kicked them all out,
all the professors, all the students, everybody. And they made a rule,
you couldn't mention the word election on that campus unless
you were cussing it. And I didn't know anything about
it. A week after I went to school, I was called into the president's
office. They're going to kick me out of school. And I said,
why? And they said, you're a hyper-Calvinist.
I said, I'm a what? They said, you're a hyper-Calvinist. All I'd heard about Calvinists
is they didn't believe in witnessing and believed babies went to hell
and didn't believe in missions. And then they started to tell
me what they meant by hyper-Calvinism. And I said, you don't believe
in election? You don't believe that Christ's
people who will be redeemed will be with him in heaven? You believe
he died for folks to go to hell? Yes, sir. And you cannot go to
this school and promote those things. And I never did have
good sense, but I always had a lot of brass. And the chair
of theology there, a fellow named Dick Melton, was there, and Bill
Downing was president of the school. I said, Dr. Melton, Dr. Downing, I don't
know much, But for some reason I know God told me to come out
here to school. And you're stuck with me. I'll let you know when
God tells me it's time to leave. And every month for nine months
they called me to the office going to kick me out of school.
But I obeyed their rules. I didn't dress where they didn't
say dress. And I didn't go places they said
not to go. But the doctrine didn't change.
And after nine months, I came in at the end of the school term
and told them that, I told you back in September, I'd let you
know when God said for me to leave, I'm leaving. And I resigned,
went back to Winston-Salem. Shelby and I got married on June
the 1st, 1969. And then that fall started school,
Piedmont. Jumped out of the frying pan
into the fire. The theology there was just as bad. But Shelby and
I were married. down to Hillcrest Church in Winston-Salem,
where Brother Dan Park's dad was pastor for many, many years,
until just recently. And I joined the church there,
and the church licensed me to preach, and I was sent all the
time I was in school preaching different places, almost every
weekend preaching. Finally, when Faith was born
in 1971, February 7th, 1971, In fact, Faith was born on Saturday
night and I preached at Hillcrest on Sunday morning. Finally, I got a place I couldn't
provide for my family going to school, working as I was working,
so I applied for a job at McLean Trucking Company. Never will
forget it. Of course, they looked at me and figured I could move
a lot of freights, and the fellow hired me right then. I said,
there's just one thing. I said, I can't work on Sunday. The fellow
took the application and threw it in the trash can. I'm picturing
right now. He's like, we can't use you. All part-time help works
on Sunday. I said, I don't know how to make you understand this.
It's not I'm opposed to working on Sunday, but I'm a preacher.
I don't got to have Sundays free. And I said, I'll tell you what
I'll do. I'll work any hours you want
me to work, any time you call me, except Sunday. I can't work
on Sunday. He pulled that thing back out
of the trash can. He said, you work any time I call you. I said,
yes, sir. He said, well, we'll try it.
And I guess I was the only part-time fellow they ever hired that worked
on Sunday. But God arranged it, and he still performs all things
for me. Then in 1971, a friend of mine
by the name of Harry Siems had pastored a church up in Lookout,
West Virginia. Back in those days, he pastored
four of them, Lookout, Russellville, Beauty Mountain, and I think
over in Levis, I believe is the other one. But he recommended
me to pastor the church in Lookout, West Virginia, and I went up,
I went up there to preach this last Sunday of October. I never
will forget it. West Virginia can be dismal when
they have their first snows. Had about six inches of snow
on the ground. Faith was sick as a dog the whole weekend. Cried
all the way up there all weekend. Cried all the way back. The ground
was covered with snow and had a layer of coal soot all over
it. The blackest snow you ever saw.
Everything was dirty. The church building was about
to fall down. The parsonage was about to fall down. And Shelby
was wore out. I'm going to go home. She said,
they didn't ask you to come back, did they? And I said, not for a couple
of weeks. But they called me pastor. And
I spent nine years at lookout preaching. Preaching the best
I knew how, the gospel of God's free grace. and fighting. Nine years bickering and fighting
and bellyaching. Business meetings and fussing
folks on one side of the church and I'll speak to folks on the
other side. Just fuss and fuss and fuss and bellyaching and
bellyaching. And after nine years I had my
fill of it. I had my fill of it. And I made up my mind I was
serving God when I was selling shoes and I was serving God when
I was loading freight And I don't have to pastor to serve God.
And I went down to Danville, Kentucky. The folks had been
without a pastor for a while. And they had asked me to come
down and preach. And I thought I might come sometime
when I was going in that direction. I was going down to Florida for
a meeting. Went down and preached in Danville
on a Sunday morning. And they were head over heels in debt.
Didn't have a building. They had been abused a good bit. Most of them don't know anything
about it. And they won't know it from me. They were meeting in a rented
place downtown, about 30, 35 people. And I went back to the
motel and called Shelby. I said, for the first time in
my life, I believe I've found some folks who want a pastor
and desperately need one. If they call me, we're moving
to Danville. And I was convinced then that's where God had me
to be and never had any question concerning it since then. That's
where God was pleased to put me. And we've been laboring together
in the cause of Christ these many years, preaching the gospel
wherever God opens the door. And then in 1976, I was going
to a Bible conference down in Lexington, Kentucky. And there
was a fellow I'd heard of a lot, a fellow by the name of Mahan.
I'd heard a lot about him. I met Brother Mahan in 1969.
Just a few weeks after his son Robbie was killed, he was preaching
a meeting in Winston-Salem at Rosemount Baptist Church, just
a couple of miles from where we lived. I was working and couldn't
go to all the services, but I went to two of them. The first night
he preached on Christ our kinsman redeemer. And then the next time
I went, he preached a message on Hosea and Gomer, the grace
of God portrayed in Hosea and Gomer. And then I didn't see
him again until 1976. all these stories about Brother
Mayhead and all the things he didn't believe and the Zantonomian
doctrine and all this stuff. I thought I would go by and give
that old man the benefit of my great learning and wisdom. So
we stopped by and Henry was at his desk studying, getting ready
to preach television message that night. And I went in and
introduced myself and talked to him and asked him questions
about how do you handle church discipline, and what do you believe
about prophecy, and various other things. And kind of a cocky,
smart-aleck, 26-year-old boy who knew everything. And Mother
Mayhem was remarkably patient. If it had been me, I would have
invited me to leave a long time before he did. And I got ready
to leave, time to get down to Lexington, and he had his Bible
open to a passage in Colossians, Chapter 3, and had just left
it open there. And let me tell you the most important thing
I ever learned. I started to leave, and Brother
Mahan turned his Bible around just like this. And he said,
read that right there. And I started to read Colossians
chapter 3. And he said, no, read that right there. He pointed
to verse 11. I started to read verse 11. He said, no, those
three words I've got underlined right there. And I read them. Christ is all. He said, I'm planning
to preach on that tonight. And he said, if God will ever
teach you that, you may learn something about this book. And he may use you to preach
the gospel. And I went on to Lexington and
thought no more about it until a month later. I was laying in
the hospital in Charleston, West Virginia. The doctors had diagnosed
me as having Hodgkin's disease in the fourth stage. They thought
perhaps with treatments I might be able to live another four
or five years. That was in 1976. And I kept hearing those words roll
over in my heart, Christ is all. Christ is all. And I realized
that I had been Preaching all the right doctrine. And I wasn't.
My doctrine hadn't changed. Very little. Very little. Nothing
of significance changed at all. She can tell you. Hadn't changed
at all. But I was defending my doctrines
and setting forth my doctrines, and I realized I spent my life
spinning my wheels in the sand of no benefit to anyone. And
I made a vow. I don't recommend that you do.
I made a vow. I'd never made one before, never
made one since. And it wasn't a matter of trying
to persuade God to let me live. I was prepared comfortably to
die and fully expected to do so. I said, Lord, if you're pleased
to allow me to preach again, once or for many years, I make
this vow. I will never preach anything
but this. Christ is all. And that's all. That's all. Nothing else of importance
in this book. The book is all about Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. It's not about a doctrine, but
a person. It's not about a denomination,
but a person. It's not about an experience,
but a person. The book of God is the revelation
of Jesus Christ in His glorious person. and in his glorious accomplishments
as our Redeemer. Everything in the book is about
the Redeemer. The sooner we learn that, the
better. And I began to preach the gospel of God's free grace
with some life. I believe with some influence
in various places. And started writing some things. Brother Charlie Payne, who was
an elder at Ashland, your pastor and some of you knew him, He
was over there for many years. He'd been saved out of a Church
of God background. He was a Church of God preacher. He was at our
place at lookout. And the first time I wrote any
articles for a bulletin, had an old spirit duplicator, and
I wrote the bulletin articles and printed them up. Charlie
had to be there that night. And he was just being nice, I'm sure,
but he said, Don, this is outstanding. He said, you send me everything
you write. And so I did from that day until he died. Everything
I wrote. And Charlie would duplicate them
and send them folks all over the place and kept everything.
Well, I was on, after I moved to Danville, I was on the radio
for a number of years every day, and I wrote the messages out,
just five-minute broadcasts, and I'd send Charlie a copy.
And he told me his sister, who taught in the Church of God,
take those things and teach them in Sunday school. But they want
you to do it, I don't know. But Charlie kept them. And Brother
Bill Clark was visiting. And I was in Jamaica, and he
said, Bill, you got anything to read on the plane going back
to England? He said, no. He said, take these
and read them. He gave him about 400 of those radio messages.
I got a call. Bill took them to John Rubens,
who was the editor at Evangelical Press Publishing Company, and
said, he gave them to John Rubens, and Rubens read them, and called
me while I was in Kingston. This was in, I think it was in
January of that year, 1986. Asked me if I could produce a
book of daily readings, about half the length of those. I said,
well, I'll try. I've never heard tell of anybody
in my life being asked to write a book who had never written
a book, but they asked me to do so. This was back before we
got computers. So Shelby and I got together. They wanted it ready by May,
and so we took bullets and articles and literally cut with scissors
and pasted on paper most of what's in grace for today. And they
published that book. And that's how things began with
the writing that just opened doors God's given us. And I say
this because I want to say to you as a congregation, your pastor
and I were talking about this yesterday. I'm not responsible
for what God gives Bruce Crabtree and Sovereign Grace Church in
New Castle, Indiana, the opportunity, the means, and the ability to
do. I'm not responsible for that.
You are. I am responsible for what God
gives me the means, the opportunity, and the ability to do. And so
I began writing Sunday School Literature. As long as somebody's
willing to publish it, wanting to, I felt it was my responsibility
to do it. Do what God puts in your hand
to do. and do it with all your might.
Commit yourself to the calls of Christ to serve the Redeemer.
Remember what our Lord said concerning that woman who came in Mark chapter
14 to anoint Him for His burial? She took that alabaster box of
ointment and broke it and anointed Him and washed His feet with
her tears and kissed Him and wiped them with the hairs of
her head. The disciples, being led by Judas, began to ridicule
her because of the great waste. That alabaster box of ointment
was the cost of about a year's wages. And they said, this could
have been taken, sold, and given to the poor. And the Lord said
something concerning that woman that's never said of another
human being in this book. He said, she hath wrought a good
work on me. She hath done what she could. She hath done what she could. Would do God, Steve, that from
this day till I draw my last breath, I will be found doing
what I can do. She hath done what she could. Terrence, do what you can for
Christ, whatever it is. Give yourself wholly to it, completely
to it. In whatever field God puts you,
do what you can for the Redeemer, for His cause in this generation. And God promises Them that honor
me, I will honor." And he does. I've had some tremendously influential
people to come into my life at just the time when I needed them. The most influential is one sitting
here. I happen to have the privilege of being married to the finest
human being I ever met, and I'm thankful. She's a faithful, faithful
companion. Early after God saved me, shortly
after Shelby and I were married, just a couple of years after
God saved me, I met a man in Winston-Salem by the name of
Harry Graham. Well, Harry's with the Lord now. He was probably
35 years my senior. He was my best friend when I
was in college. Spent a lot of time at his hearth. trying to
learn from him. Harry was a faithful, faithful
gospel preacher, just a walking encyclopedia of the scriptures.
And I tried to learn all I could from him. And this I learned
from Harry early on. There's absolutely never a reason
to compromise the gospel of God's grace. Never a reason. Never an excuse. Harry was a
man of uncompromising dogmatism, whom I greatly admired, from
whom I learned a great deal. And then I met a fellow up in
Mount Airy, North Carolina. It was in the fall. We'd gotten married in the summer.
A fellow named Ron Rumberg, his sister Pam. Some of you know
Ron and Pam Wood. Well, Ron's sister Pam is in
our congregation in Danville. But Ron was pastor of New Covenant
Baptist Church in my area, North Carolina. They just started it.
And I saw him on the streets right in front of Piedmont. He
had graduated from Piedmont years earlier, selling some books.
And I recognized him. I had just heard a report and
seen a report right before I left Springfield that fell out in
Texas, was reprinting all those Spurgeon sermons, Metropolitan
Tabernacle. And so I saw what Ron was doing.
Took him home for supper, and we fed him the best we had. I
think it was some corn and maybe some beans, or she had her mother
involved. But my interest was not really in Ron. My interest
was that Mrs. Fortner needed to start purchasing
me a gift. And so she started purchasing
little 63 volumes at $3.45 an issue. By the time they got done,
I think it was $16 an issue. But anyway, that's how I got
them. And Ron and I became good, good
friends, good friends. He passed in the church in Mount
Airy, I preached for him a lot. And I learned something from
Ron. I learned the value of diligent study and preparation and the
need to behave as a gentleman in this world. Ron Rumberg is
probably one of the most clear examples of what a Southern gentleman
is, what a Christian gentleman is that I've ever seen. And we
ought to behave as such. And then the Lord was pleased
to bring Brother Mahan into my life and gave me his influence
as well. And I'm so very, very thankful
for what I owe him. You know Brother Henry, you know
him well, and we owe him a great deal, this generation. owes him
a great deal. God raised him up at the time
he was needed in this generation to teach you and me something
about the gospel of His grace and the ministry of the gospel.
We've learned what we know a great deal from Brother Mahan. So very
thankful for that. Turn with me if you go to 1 Corinthians
chapter 4 and I'll wrap this up. My life really Testimony to God's
grace, I hope, but my life really is the ministry of the gospel.
It has never been a sideline. It has never been secondary.
I don't believe that I would spend so much time away from
my wife and daughter and grandchildren as I have and do to make a million
dollars a year doing anything else. I don't believe I would.
I don't think I'd make those sacrifices for anything else,
but I wouldn't change anything. I wouldn't change anything. I
would make the same sacrifices and more, I believe. I would
labor the same hours and more, I believe, if I was starting
over. This thing of the ministry is
something that must consume our lives. the totality of our lives. For God's servants, particularly,
I'm talking now about preachers. You don't need me to tell you,
God's blessed you with a faithful, gifted pastor. Understand, understand
that a faithful man devotes himself to the cause of Christ. That
means, Joe, you're not number one. That's what it means. Means the kids are number one.
Means the grandchildren are number one. That lady has to take a
second place to Christ and his church and his cause. Regret
that? I don't think she regrets it
at all. Because we are the stewards of the gospel of the grace of
God. Brother Bruce, we have this treasure. This treasure. God Almighty has
put the treasure of the gospel in these earthen vessels and
uses such things as we are to call out his elect, to save his
people from their sins, to edify, comfort, and strengthen his saints,
to give direction to his church and kingdom in the days we live
upon this earth. All right? This is what Paul
says concerning this. Let a man so count of us as of
the ministers, the servants of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries
of God. Stewards in a household to whom
the householder has committed all his treasures, the mysteries
of God. Moreover, it is required of stewards
that a man be found faithful. That's the one thing God requires,
and when only God can give it. But He requires the steward be
found faithful. He doesn't require success. He doesn't require that
men recognize Him. He requires that the steward
be found faithful. Verse 3, But with me it is a
very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man's
judgment. Yea, I judge not mine own self. I get letters at least every
week or two. Somebody has decided that I need
to be burned at stake and they try to do it. And usually I answer
them with 1 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 3. I really don't care
what you think about me. I'm really not interested in
what you have to say, and you're not going to get any defense
from me. Just go ahead and have fun playing with yourself. I'm
not interested. Verse 4, For I know nothing by
myself, yet am I not thereby justified. But he that judgeth
me is the Lord. That means nobody else's judgment
matters, not even yours. Nobody else's judgment matters.
Therefore, judge nothing before the time until the Lord come,
who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness,
and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts. Then shall every
man have his praise of God. And these things, brethren, I
have in a figure transferred to myself and to Apollos for
your sakes, that ye might learn in us not to think of men above
that which is written, that no one of you be puffed up for one against another. For
who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that
thou didst not receive it? Now if thou didst receive it,
why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it?" Look
at 2 Corinthians chapter 4. Therefore, seeing we have this
ministry, as we have received mercy, we
thank 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, by the open declaration of God's
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
has 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. For we preach not ourselves,
we don't preach from ourselves, about ourselves or for ourselves.
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 has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure. in
earthen vessels, in broken, dirty, clay pots, that the excellency
may be of God and not of us. Amen.