The Wisdom of our Foolish Gospel

Well, good morning. If you have your Bibles with you, please open them to the Book of First Corinthians, First Corinthians, Chapter one. We'll be looking at verses eighteen through twenty five of First Corinthians Chapter one. As you turn there, let me just say what a joy it is to be back again, and to be here in November again. It's been a while. We didn't really settle on how long it's been since I've been here for one of these Novembers, but I am indeed pleased and excited to have the opportunity to be back again at Lusaka Baptist Church, which has always been a home away from home for me. This morning, my assignment is to examine the idea of Christ as the Gospel, and we'll be doing that from this passage of scripture. The title of my sermon is the Wisdom of our Foolish Gospel, the wisdom of our foolish Gospel, And that really is the play on words that Paul uses in this particular text, this play on wisdom and foolishness, on weakness and strength, and the irony of the Gospel really being both of those simultaneously. On the one hand, for those who who are being saved, it is the wisdom of God. It is the strength of God. But on the other hand, for those who are perishing, the gospel does seem like utter foolishness, and it raises a number of questions that aren't necessarily answered in the text. But the answer is assumed in the text, and we will look at that as we examine this passage of scripture more closely. One Corinthians chapter one, beginning in verse eighteen eighteen through twenty five. For the word of the Cross is folly to those who are perishing, But to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the discernment of the discerning. I will thwart Where's the one who is wise? Where's the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world, For since in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand's signs, and Greeks seek wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified a stumbling block to Jews and folly to gentiles, but to those who are called both Jews and Greeks Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than man, the wisdom of our foolish gospel. It's interesting if you are a parent like me, or if you have younger siblings, or if you are a Christian who find yourself among a number of non Christians, you face those same questions that we all face. You face those questions that to us seem simple, but for some reason, others just can't wrap their heads around them. And it's not just our children not being able to wrap their heads around them because they're young. Even people who are older, who are even advanced in age, if they are on the outside looking in, they can't wrap their head around the answers to those same questions, and so people will ask us, for example, how is it, why is it that Jesus dying thousands of years ago would have anything to do with me? Or why is it if we were created like this and if we were born in sin, why would the God who made us and allow us to be born in sin, actually count that sin against us? And other similar questions. In fact, these questions are so well known and well understood to us that we often find it difficult to answer them when they come from the uninitiated. And sometimes our answer will be something like, well, well just because, or your answer will be something like, well, well, just that's just what we believe by faith, and you know that to the initial initiated, that that's just that's that's not sufficient. I don't know anyone who ever come up to me and said, listen, I had a conversation with someone who was not a believer or not a Christian, and they had questions and they asked me the question, and I said, oh, well, actually, that's just something you have to receive on faith. And they said, oh wow, I never thought of that. Thank you so much, because it doesn't work that way. That's not a sufficient answer. But then on the other side of that equation, you've probably encountered people like this. They have a question about the Gospel, they have a question about the way things work. They asked the question, and you give them the most complete and brilliant answer that anyone has ever given to that question. And then they just sort of look up in the air contemplate your answer to the question, and rather than saying, wow, thank you so much for answering that question. I've had that question for so long that finally settles it for me. No, no, no no, instead of doing that, they merely go on to another question, as though the first one never existed, or am I the only person who's ever experienced that. In fact, we often experience that over and over and over again in a conversation until we realize that the person really isn't interested in having their questions answered. They just want to continue to ask them because what they're really after, what they really want, is to come up with the question that you can't answer so that they can go away and feel okay with their unbelief. And so you ask, and if you give a good answer, they immediately move on to another question because it wasn't about the question. It was about affirming them in their doubt. It was about them feeling okay with not coming to receive and believe the gospel because they've decided that the gospel doesn't make sense, that there are no answers to their questions, and they've met enough Christians who can't answer their questions to where they're settled in that feeling that when they ask a Christian who actually has an answer to a question, it throws them off. Because they're able to sleep at night because the gospel doesn't make sense. They're able to sleep at night because there are no answers to their questions. And for some of them, their pride is satiated because they feel like they're wiser than God, or at least wiser than those who claim to believe in God. And so they don't get the wisdom of our foolish gospel. They don't want to get the wisdom of our foolish gospel. And yet our goal and our desire is that they would do precisely that that they would grasp the wisdom of our foolish gospel. Well, in this text we see a number of things four that I'd like to draw out for you. The number one is this, the wisdom of the Gospel is not equally available to all. The wisdom of the Gospel is not equally available to all. We see that in verse eighteen. Look at verse eighteen again for the word of the Cross us and again the word of the Cross is a euphemism for the Gospel. The message that we preach, the Word of the Cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us or are being saved, it is the power of God. This word of the Cross is not equally available to all. Now, when I say it's not equally available to all, I mean that in a number of ways. On the one hand, there are I believe one point six billion people in the world who've never one time heard the name of Jesus. But let me say that again, there are one point six billion people in the world who've never once heard the name of Jesus. Most of them don't have the Bible available in their language. Just marinate on that for a moment. And I want you to marinate it for a moment. First of all, to just be grateful to God for the privilege that you have of having access to the Gospel, for the privilege that you have of having access to the Word of God. But I also want you to contemplate it for a moment so that you understand the magnitude of the task that remains for those of us who do have the Gospel, for those of us who do believe the Gospel, and for those of us who's desire it is that Christ would have the fullness of the reward for which he died. So I mean it from that perspective not equally available to all. But I also mean it from this perspective of not equally available to all, even who hear it. We all know stories, and perhaps could tell the story ourselves, of people who grow up in the exact same home, sometimes twins, identical twins who share the exact same DNA, who were raised by the exact same parents, who had the exact same education, who grew up in the exact same church, who listened to the exact same message, and one was saved and the other wasn't. How does that happen? It happens because the wisdom of the Gospel is not equally available to all. The information of the Gospel may be available equally, but the wisdom of the Gospel, and grasping the wisdom of the Gospel, that is not equally available to all. As we see clearly here in this text, the groupings in this passage are two one Jews Gentiles or Jews and Greeks. It's either Greeks or Gentiles. It means the same thing those who are Jews and those who are not Jews, those who are Jews and the rest of the world, and those who are perishing and those who are being saved. In its entire passage, Paul makes a play on those two groupings Jews versus Greeks, are gentiles, and those who are perishing versus those who are being saved. Paul's point here is that the difference between those who understand the wisdom of the Gospel and those who see it as folly has nothing to do with their ethnicity or their religious background, nothing whatsoever. It has nothing to do with the color of their skin. It has nothing to do with the language that they speak, It has nothing to do with the part of the world in which they're born. It has nothing to do with the parents and who raise them, And it has nothing to do with those things per se, although God uses all of those things. Amen, God had you if you were a Christian, And God had me born to the parents that I was born to, born in the place that I was born to. God had me hear the Gospel in the language that I heard it. God had me here the Gospel at the time that I heard it. All of that in his providence. But it was not those things in and of themselves that made the difference. There is something else. In John chapter twelve, verses thirty six to forty, we read these words, while you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light. When Jesus had said these things, he departed and hid himself from them. Though he had done so, though he had done many signs before them, they still did not believe in him. So that the words spoken by the prophet Isaiah or Isaiah, if you prefer, and I know you prefer, might be fulfilled. And what was that word? Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? Therefore they could not believe. For again, Isaiah says he has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them. Lest you think that that's sort of some sort of anomaly in the scriptures, look with me in Ephesians chapter two, verses one through three, and we see the same thing explained a different way. There we see bl blindness. Here we see death. And you were dead in the trespassins and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind, blind and dead, and therefore unable to see. This is what I mean when I say that the wisdom of the Gospel is not equally available to all. Not everyone has the same access to the Gospel, and our natural response to that is, well, that just doesn't seem fair. Well, before you make that conclusion, might I suggest to you that this blindness and this death is exactly what man desires in his fallen state. That there is none who is right, just know, not even one, That everyone has turned to his own way, That man lives in darkness and desires that darkness. As Luther says, it's not as though man is being you know, prevented, But even when we bring him away from his sin, it's as though he's being grabbed and dragged by the scruff of his neck, because he desires it more than anything else in the world. Man does not desire God. There is none who seeks after God. And so this blindness is not something that God has to enforce on man or impose on man. His blindness is actually something that man imposes on himself, because he loves his sin, and he loves his darkness more than he loves light. The second thing I want us to see is that the wisdom of the Gospel is not accessed by human effort. Those who overcome this blindness don't overcome this blindness because one day they wake up and they just decide, I don't want to be blind anymore. I don't want to be hostile towards God anymore. I don't want to be engaged in evil deeds anymore. I've decided that I've had enough of this life, and now I am Now that's not what happens. Look at Verses nineteen and twenty, For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wives and the discernment of the discerning. I will thwart Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world. Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world. Now we need to know that Paul here is citing Isaiah twenty nine, thirteen and fourteen. And here's what we read there. And the Lord said, because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men. Therefore, behold, I will again do wonderful things with this people, with wonder upon wonder, and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden. Paul is pointing to the fact that the wisest men in the world were not the ones who figured out the Gospel. This is not something that men discovered like scientists discover the laws of physics. This is something very different. This is why later on Paul writes in verses twenty six through twenty nine, just after our passage, for consider your calling, brothers. Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards. Not many of you were powerful, not many of you were noble of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not to bring to nothing, things that are so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. No human being can boast that they are a Christian because they are smarter than other people and figured it out. No human being can boast that they are a Christian because somehow they were more innately or inherently holier than other people. No human being can boast that they are a Christian because they were more powerful or more wealthy, and somehow we're able to get in on this. In fact, the way God has designed things is almost the exact opposite. It is the weak things in the world and the powerless things in the world that bring God glory because they are by God's grace made wise, not with earthly wisdom. In fact, it's interesting it seems that the more wise a person is, and the more educated a person is, the harder it is for them to understand the wisdom of our foolish gospel. Now that's not to say that God doesn't save wise people. We have Pastor Califungo right here among us. Obviously, God saves wise people. Some of the most intelligent people in the world have been Christians. Speaking of science, the fathers of modern science, the preponderance of the fathers of modern science were Christians. So the point that Paul is making here is not that somehow intelligence makes it impossible to understand the Gospel. The point that Paul is making here is that understanding the Gospel is not directly related to our wisdom. If that were the case, then this is what the world would look like. You would have you would have, you know, this sort of bell curve, and the most intelligent people in the world would be the people who were Christians because they were the ones who could figure it out. And the least intelligent people in the world will be the ones who are not Christians because they weren't wise enough to figure it out. But the world doesn't look like that because we don't access this wisdom by human effort. There is something else altogether that is involved. Luke Chapter ten, verses twenty and twenty one, one of the most interesting passages of scripture in all of the Bible. Jesus says and in that same hour he rejoiced, or Luke says, in that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, this is Jesus speaking. I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and Earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children. Now he's referring to his disciples. By the way, Yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father. And no one knows who the son is except the father, or who the father is except the son, and anyone to whom the son chooses to reveal him John six forty four. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day. No, this wisdom is not accessed by human effort. This is a supernatural work of the spirit of God. And only a supernatural work of the spirit of God. Man's eyes have to be opened to the wisdom of this foolish gospel that we preach. And that's the difficult culti that we face, because it just seems like we should be able to answer people's questions, and then once we've answered their questions, to their satisfaction, then they should just say, okay, fine, that makes sense. But it doesn't work like that. And not only is that frustrating, but it's also heartbreaking. How heartbreaking is it when there is someone in your life whom you love dearly, someone in your life who means the world to you, a parent or a child or a sibling, who is outside of the Kingdom of God, and yet right there within your reach, and over and over and over again you share, and over and over and over again, you answer their questions, and maybe you discuss, and you debate and you dialogue, and it seems like you go away in their first they're from the Gospel than they were when they started. Worse yet, when a parent or a child, or a sibling or dear friend whom you love dies and goes off into eternity, never having come to faith, despite the fact that they heard again and again and again, despite the fact that you wrestled as best you could. If we're honest, each of us wishes that it could be about human effort and human wisdom. At certain points, I wish that there was just a magic list of truths that I could share with my parents, with my children, with my friends, with my family, with all of those whom I loved, like a combination to a lock. I wish, And people frequently come to me and ask me questions about it, as though there is a combination to a lock. They've wrestled with their parent, with their sibling, with their friend, They've wrestled with them over and over again. And they come and they say, listen, you know what can I say to someone who dot dot fill in the blank, as though somehow I have access to that information and I could just tell them, Oh, wait a minute, how tall are they right handed or left handed? What's their skin color? What nation where they're born in? What language do they speak? What's okay? Fine, let me go to my combination book, share these verses in this order, and they will come to faith. I wish I did have something like that, but I don't. No one does, because the wisdom of the Gospel is not revealed through human effort, It's not understood through human effort. There is no secret combination that will unlock every human heart. And when you feel discouraged by that, just remember one of Christ's own disciples was a reprobate amen. If anyone heard it, the wisest way they could hear it, if anyone heard it win some way they could hear it, if anyone heard it the most logical way that they could hear it, if anyone heard it the most spiritual way that they could hear it, And if anyone heard it the most powerful way that they could hear it. Judas did, which brings us to this third truth. The wisdom of the Gospel is unveiled through the folly of preaching. The wisdom of the Gospel is unveiled through the folly of preaching Good Verses twenty one through twenty three. For since in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demands signs, and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and and folly to gentiles. This is an amazing truth. Chraig Kener notes that you Greeks were known for their love of learning, and Greeks and Jews alike with desire of testing miracles. But Paul keeps these two separated in order to make this point rhetorically that there are people who seek wisdom and there are people who seek signs, and regardless of which camp they fall in, that wisdom that they seek or those signs that they seek is not the answer to the problem. He starts off with this, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom. What an incredible turn of phrase. The world did not find God through human wisdom, and they didn't find God through human wisdom because God, in his wisdom didn't design it that way. And notice what we preach. We preach Christ crucified, who is what a stumbling block to Jews and folly to gentiles. In other words, intuitively, here's what we think and what we believe. What we believe is we need to find out as much as we can about a given person. And in fact, there is a move in this direction now in missions, we find out as much as we can about a given person or a given group of people, and then what we do is we tailor our message to whatever fits or suits that group of people. So if Jews are looking looking for signs, well, then we come to the Jews with signs. And if the Greeks are looking for wisdom, will. Then we come to the Greeks with wisdom. We come to them with whatever it is that humanly speaking, they seem to respond to. But notice what Paul does here, But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles. In other words, Paul says, we don't preach what they like. We don't preach what they want. We don't preach what we think would best suit them intellectually. In fact, what we've been called to preach is the exact opposite of what would appeal to them. That's the irony of the statement. Seems like we've missed this. People want health and wealth, you preach health and wealth. If people want mysticism, then you preach mysticism. If people want self help psychology, then you preach self help psychology. That's the spirit of the age. But Paul says, Jews, de man, this we preach the opposite of that. Greeks the man, this, we preached the opposite of that. Because we don't preach what people demand. We preach Christ. Because Christ is the Gospel, He is the good News. In chapter two he expands on this further. Look are those first five verses in chapter two. And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech and wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling. And my speech, my message, were not implausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Now why is this so significant? Bear with me for a moment as I try to unpack this a little bit. If you look back at our text, look carefully at our text. Our text is found in the middle of a frame, if you will. The first part of the frame is verses ten through seventeen, where Paul is talking about divisions in the church. Some of you are saying, you know, I'm of Paulos, or I'm a Paul, or I'm a Christ. There's divisions in the church, and Paul is rebuking those divisions in the church. He wants them to be of one mind. Then one eighteen through two sixteen, he talks about proclaiming the crucified Christ. Then in chapter three, verses one through twenty three, the whole chapter three, he goes back to talking about divisions in the church. Again, So whatever Paul is saying here in our text, it's connected to the idea of the divisions in the church. And there in chapter two, which is part of this same section, he's dealing with the divisions in the church. Here's the point that he's making within the church in Corinth. There are those who were arguing that this teacher was the best teacher to follow because this teacher had the message that was most fitting for the day, or that teacher was the best teacher to follow because that teacher had the message that was the most fitting for the day. And Paul, in between these two is actually saying, no, no, this is not about anyone's personality. This is not about anyone's wisdom, This is not about anyone's skill. We don't rely on that. Especially for example, with Apollos. Imagine he's talking about Jews and Greeks, and here in Corinth surrounded by Greeks who sought wisdom and Greeks who were impressed with wisdom. Imagine the Christians at Corinth hearing Apollos, who was well trained and polished and erudite, everything that the Greeks respected, all of a sudden they think, wow, if we could just unleash this man, we turned the world upside down. By the way we do that. Today, we think about, you know, the most famous footballer in the world, and we just say, wow, you know what if he came to what an impact and an influence he could have if he came to faith. We're doing the same thing. We're saying, people love him, people listen to him. If God would just save him, then those people who love him would love God. Or a famous actor or a famous musician or entertainer, or if that person would just come to faith. Listen to me. If that famous footballer or that famous singer or that famous actor came to faith and started preaching Jesus, all they would do is lose their fame, not save the world. If you can't say amen, you ought to say alj It doesn't work that way. God, hear me on this. God does not need to borrow anyone's name. He already has the name that is above every name, the name of Jesus at which every knee will bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that he is lured to the glory of God, the Father. The most famous footballer scores goals, the most famous actor plays parts, the most famous musicians sing songs. Jesus Christ died and rose again from the grave. They won't listen to him. You think they'll listen to a footballer. No, because our problem is not that the Gospel is not about somebody famous enough, or that the Gospel is not being proclaimed by somebody famous enough. Our problem is that our hearts are darkened, and we love darkness rather than light. And the only answer to that it's a spiritual one, which leads us to the fourth and final truth. The wisdom of the Gospel is evident, and the folly of the cross, and this is why it's not received because of the folly of the cross Verses twenty four and twenty five. But to those who are called both Jews and Greeks, it's interesting. At the beginning he talks about Jews and Greeks, and those who are being saved and those who are perishing. Now he combines those categories and says, but to those who are called both Jews and Greeks Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God, for the foolishness of God is wiser than man, and the weakness of God is is stronger than men. In other words, he says, Jews seeks signs and they don't hear the Gospel because they're not seeing those signs. And Greeks seek wisdom and they don't hear the Gospel because they're seeking that wisdom. But there are Jews who are saved, and there are Greeks who are saved, and those people who are saved are not saved because of whatever that thing is that they were seeking. They are saved because to them Christ has become that Christ and him crucified. Kraik Keene again makes this note, and I think this is incredibly important for us to wrap our heads around. Romans regarded crucifixion as a death appropriate for slaves. Jews also saw it as shameful. Those viewed as saviors were normally gods, kings, wealthy benefactors, or miracle workers. Roman society was built around power and status. Power was concentrated in the male head of household and wealthy and aristocratic families, and so forth, associating power with a crucified man the epitome of weakness, thus made no more sense to ancients than it does to modern people. Outside of Christ. You were calling on people to bow the knee. If you are calling on people in the Greco Roman world to bow the knee, if you're calling on people to believe in someone as a savior, than what you would have to present to them is a superman if you will. Because they respected power, strength, and being crucified meant that you were powerless, that you had no strength, and were probably a criminal. Those are the only people who are crucified. And so now here are the Christians preaching Christ and him crucified. They're preaching that the God of the universe, the God who made the world, has revealed himself and he calls upon you to repent and believe. And they say, well, who is this God? Where is his throne? No, don't look up, look down at the cross where he died. And to the carnal mind of the jew and to the carnal mind of the Greek, that was the most foolish thing you could possibly say, because there's no way that that could be God. God may put a man on a cross. But God would never hang a man or hang on a cross as a man. It made no sense. It was absolute folly. And yet to those who are being saved, and yet to those who recognize that God is the righteous judge. For those who recognize that God, the righteous Judge, must punish sin, all sin everywhere, then they also recognize that there is no way for any man to be right before that God. If we recognize that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, then we must also recognize that no one, no one can stand before God and plead his case, and therefore no one could ever be saved, no one. The only way that anyone could ever be saved would be by the grace and mercy of God. That's the only way. But yet there's still a problem. Remember we started with a God who is just and who is righteous, and who must punish sin. So how can God be just and righteous and not punish your sin? Because the moment God says okay you I forgive in that moment, that God has not been just because your sin has not been paid for. So somehow, some way, God has to be As Paul says in Romans, both just and the justifier. How is that possible? Through the cross? God made him who knew no sin, to be sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God in him, the son of God, born, the son of Man, born of a woman, born of a virgin, so that he does not inherit Adam's sin because he was not born through ordinary generation. Therefore, fully God and fully man, as fully man, he can be our federal head and our representative and carry upon himself our sin, and in his active obedience, keep the whole law, so that he might impute to us his righteousness. And because he's fully God, he can actually take the wrath of God and survive and rise again on the third day after being crucified, So that in the God Man on the cross we answer that question, how can God be both just and the justifier of the one who places faith in Jesus. God can be both because Christ was both man who could pay the penalty and God who could endure it. That is the wisdom of our foolish gospel. And here's the great irony. The great irony is that when we're on the outside of that, we think that it doesn't make sense we think we're wiser than that explanation that I just gave you. But here's what's ironic. Outside of that, there is no other explanation. Everything else falls apart. What else do we have, Well, well, you need to have some sort of religious experience. Okay, fine, have your religious experience. But then what do you do about your sin? Well, you just need to make a commitment to doing righteous things. Yeah, but what about the unrighteous things that you did before your religious experience? What takes care of those? No religion in the world has an answer to that question. Everyone else you have a religious experience, and then you do more good things than bad things, and hope for the best when you die. But you and I both know that you can't be good, and even when you are, you're proud of that fact, and pride is a sin. So now you've got to go try to be good for that. So, in all of our aerodyite wisdom, we reject the folly of the only answer that actually makes any sense. Christ died for sin, once for all, the just, for the unjust, in order that he might bring us back to God. As Ida says, all we like sheep had gone astray. Each of us had turned to his own way, but God hath laid upon him the iniquity of us. All. That's the answer, that's the only answer. That the only person powerful enough to overcome our sin problem was the one who was weak enough to allow himself to be crucified and die the death of a criminal slave. That's the wisdom of our foolish gospel. And when, by God's grace we embrace that foolish gospel, the good news is we're saved. Saved because at that moment we walk into the reality of God being just because our sin has been punished and nailed to the tree, and the righteousness that He requires has been imputed to us and the justifier of the one who places faith in Jesus Christ, because now the just God can look on him and pardon me. We just sang that because the sinless Savior died my sinful soul. Amen. The hymn writers have asked and answered the question in other ways, What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. So precious is that flow that makes me white as snow. No other fount I know nothing but the blood of Jesus. May you, by God's grace believe cling to run, to embrace, and find your salvation in the wisdom of this foolish gospel. Let's pray, Gracious God, our heavenly Father. We bow before you and humble gratitude for the mercy that you've shown us through the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ. Grant by your grace that we might be found in Him and in Him alone. I pray for those under the zouto my voice who have not yet placed their faith in Christ. I pray that, by your spirit's power, that you would remove the scales from their eyes, that you would call them to yourself, and that they might find freedom and redemption through placing their faith in the finished work of Christ. For it is in His name that we ask in pray all this Amen.