All right, and we will turn then in our Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 14, and we will continue where we left off last time. So we'll read from verse 20 down to verse 25, and this Sunday I'll try to preach all those verses, and we'll have a look what the Word of God says to us. 1 Corinthians chapter 14, verse 20. Brethren, do not be children in your thinking, yet in evil be infants, but in your thinking be mature. In the law it is written, by men of strange tongues and by the lips of strangers, I will speak to this people, and even so they will not listen to me, says the Lord. So then tongues are for a sign, not for those who believe, but to unbelievers. But prophecy is for a sign not to unbelievers, but to those who believe. Therefore, if the whole church assembles together, and all speak in tongues, and ungifted men or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are mad? But if all prophesy and an unbeliever or an ungifted man enters, he is convicted by all. He is called to account by all. The secrets of his hearts are disclosed. And so he will fall on his face and worship God, declaring that God is certainly among you. Amen. Now, this chapter of spiritual gifts that we've been looking through has been granting us some new insights, I hope, into just the general use of spiritual gifts, but especially that of the gift of tongues, tongue speaking. We have, with the help of the Apostle Paul here, seen the Holy Spirit's teaching about the proper use of tongue and how not to use it and what it is not meant for. Now, just as a quick reminder, we've seen that the most important principle for this whole chapter, right there at the beginning, first two words of this chapter, pursue love. Pursue love. Now, in all things that we do, in spiritual gifts or really anything at all, Always, always pursue love. But how, Paul? How do we pursue love in using the spiritual gifts? Well, by seeking the gifts that edify the church the most. What are they, Paul? Can you answer that? Yes, primarily those that give the people of God the Word of God. The gifts that give people the Word of God through prophecy, through preaching, through the exposition of the Word, through the reading of the Word. These should be pursued. Why? Because it is loving to give the people of God, and really unbelievers as well, the words of God. These gifts should not be hindered. They should not be put to the side and everybody should start speaking in tongues. No, please, by all means, let those who have the gift and let the reading, the preaching, the prophecy be first among you. The one that can edify the whole church through the Scriptures. The Scriptures that are preserved for us to this day. Now, we contrast with this, of course, we've been looking at the gift of tongues, and Paul has been giving quite a lot of rebuke here in this chapter on how the Corinthians are using the gift of tongues, or should we put it in quotation marks, gift of tongues, because as I have been pointing out, it was probably not the true gift of tongues. They were seeking to desperately hold on to this gift so that they started to manifest a force gift of tongues. One that reminded more of the force or the speaking in tongues in the pagan temples. I told you about that a few Sundays ago, how they came from a pagan background where they spoke with the gods in tongues. It was just a A lot of noises and words that didn't mean anything, but they were probably drunk. They were semi-unconscious, speaking words that sounded like it was a different language, a heavenly, divine language of sorts, a speaking in tongues, but truly just was demonic, a false manifestation of speaking. in tongues. And, of course, at this time in Corinth, they might still have been the true gift of tongues. Paul would have written this in maybe the 50s, 50 AD, or a little bit later than that. And we know that the gift of tongues truly existed back in that time. Paul was one who spoke in tongues. The gift of tongues was displayed to Well, for many different reasons, but first and foremost to show who were the apostles. They were equipped by God to speak the words of God. And one of those signs that they were truly an apostle of God was that they could speak in tongues. And another reason for the speaking in tongues was, of course, a sign of judgment on unbelieving Israel. The Israelites, who would not believe, who heard the gospel, but rejected it. And so God let the gospel go to the Gentiles. And one sign for that was the speaking in tongues among the Gentiles. And that probably happened in Corinth as well. But now, as time passes on, and this gift was very temporary, very short-lived, it started to cease. It started to disappear. And in their seal for this gift, it started to manifest something which was Not the true gift. Or those who had it started to abuse it and use it for all the wrong reasons. To display and show themselves how spiritual they were. And that's really what Paul has been arguing against in this chapter. Showing us how important it is not to speak words that are Unintelligible, but words that people can understand. Clear, easy, simple words. Words that edify people. So this should happen in all speech and in the whole church service. In singing, in praying, in thanksgiving. We looked at that last time. And that's really where we left off there. Verse 19. And now we'll continue to look at verse 20 through 25. And really, we'll have another look at the purpose of speaking in tongues. Purpose of speaking in tongues, or one of the purposes of speaking in tongues. And the effect that it has on those who do not believe. So we'll look at that. We'll start in verse 20. I'll read it again. Verse 20. Brethren, do not be children in your thinking, yet in evil be infants, but in your thinking be mature." Now again, we see that Paul, when he has a rebuke coming, he starts with the affectionate word brethren, meaning brothers and sisters. You who are my beloved siblings in the Lord, my brothers and my sisters, those who I associate with. You are my family in the Lord. So he starts here with this word, and when he uses it, especially in 1 Corinthians, we know that a rebuke is coming. He is softening his rebuke by reminding them that, beloved Corinthians, it might seem like I'm harsh to you, but you are still my brethren, my family. Now, what he has to say here is just a continuation on the theme we looked at at the end last time. The mind speaking just a few words with the mind. And here he's not using the word mind, but thinking. It's the same concept, obviously. And how it must be included in proper worship. That was what we looked at last time. Now here we see that he says, brethren do not be children in your thinking, meaning do not be immature in using your mind, your thinking, your intellect. Now the Greek, The word here is present imperative, meaning that it's something that is probably going on right now. So Paul is literally saying, you who are acting like children in your thinking, stop. Stop acting like children with your mind. Not difficult to see that the Corinthians were indeed very immature. We've been looking at this letter and seeing how many problems they've had, how many times Paul has to rebuke them, correct them, lovingly bring them back to the truth and say, this is what you're doing, but it's wrong. They've been just abusing everything. They've been divided over certain persons. One was with Paul, one was with Apollos. We remember that from chapter one. We remember from chapter five where they were tolerating a man who was in sexual immorality. Chapter eight talked about how they abuse their freedom. You know, just problem after problem after problem. This church would not have been a mature church. They would not have been adults in their thinking, using their mind wisely, maturely. They were very childlike in that sense. And children do what they do because they are children. They're immature. Their mind is not fully developed. Their thinking is not fully developed. They often do very self-centered things because That's as far as their mind often goes. They see only to themselves. Now, adult would not necessarily, they can do that, of course. Adults are very capable of being selfish and childlike, but an adult has the ability or should have the ability to evaluate what they're doing, to consider, is this the best for my neighbor? Can I do that which is best for him or her? To take another person's interest into account. But the believers in Corinth were not doing that. They were literally being children in their thinking, just thinking about their own selfish desires. And in this instance, speaking in tongues, they were just thinking about, how can I speak in tongues so that I can show my spirituality so that people will come and see, oh, what a spiritual man that is. They were so, so childlike. And they needed to be adults in their thinking, in their use of the spiritual gifts and literally everything, everything. But they were adults in terms of evil. That is not something you want to be an adult in. You don't want to be an adult when it comes to evil. You certainly don't want to be like adults can be very planning in their evil. We know that children can be evil, but most of their evil deeds are spontaneous. It's something they do in the heat of the moment. But adults can plan and think for a long time ahead. They can scheme and plot against another person for days, months, years. Now that is being adults in evil. But again, why is Paul bringing up this in this context? We've been speaking about the gift of tongues. Now, why is Paul all of a sudden speaking about evil? Well, certainly one can see that the Corinthians' behavior were evil, were not good. That they were evil in their thinking. They were not pursuing love. But is there something in this context, this specific context about the gift of tongues, which shows that the Corinthians were adults in terms of evil? Well, to answer that, we need to understand a very important and serious purpose of the gift of tongues, and that's that it was a sign of judgment on rebellious Israel. I have mentioned it in the past, and we'll look at it now in verse 21. Verse 21. In the law, it is written, By men of strange tongues and by the lips of strangers, I will speak to this people, and even so they will not listen to me, says the Lord. Now, Paul is here quoting from Isaiah chapter 28, verse 11 and 12. The quote is not exact. You won't find this exact quote in either the Masoretic text, you know, the Hebrew Bible that our Old Testaments are translated from, and you won't find it in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament. So Paul is just freely quoting here, probably from memory. from the Old Testament. And what he's doing with that is just urging the Corinthians to look for themselves, to be good Bereans, to search the scriptures. He's just giving them a free quotation of the text to force them. Is this what it says? Go and look in the Isaiah scroll. Go to the synagogue next door and have a look. Ask for the Isaiah scroll and have a look at yourself. Be reminded what it says there. So he's just being a good teacher. Literally, he's quoting freely to force them to go and look it up, to be a good Berean. Berea would have been a town just north or just north, but a little bit north of Corinth. So, and yeah, Book of Acts says that they were searching the scriptures day and night to see whatever it was so with all that Paul was preaching. So being a good Berean just means search the scriptures yourself. Now again, back to the quote. This judgment that is spoken of here is... that the kingdom, the southern kingdom of Judah, is being warned of its godlessness, of its idolatry. They had just a few years previously seen the northern kingdom, kingdom of Israel, being led away in captivity by the kingdom of Assyria. Assyria had come in, had conquered Israel, had destroyed Samaria, led away the people into captivity. And one of those signs of judgment was that they could no longer hear the words of the Lord, their God, in their language. They could only hear it in the language of the Assyrians, Akedah, something like that. Very, very different from Hebrew. It was a language of very short words and syllables. It sounded like they were stuttering, stammering, just pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, short syllables and words. It didn't make any sense to the Hebrews or to the Jews with their Hebrew. That's really if you look there in Isaiah chapter 28 verse 11, it says stammering lips because that's what it sounded like to them. This language was a sign of judgment. It's just like stammering lips, strange tongues that they could not perceive. What are they telling us? Now God was speaking to these rebellious Israelites in captivity only through a foreign language. So for the Jews, hearing the word of God in a foreign language was clearly a sign of judgment upon them. But now in the Corinthian church, they had forgotten this, or maybe they had not even been instructed. We don't know. But still, they were using this gift of tongues to edify themselves, and they were using it. out of context and inappropriately making those who were Jews among them think about that. Quote in Isaiah, Oh, this is such a sign of judgment. They were not thinking about their Jewish brothers and sisters among them, knowing that this sign was a sign of judgment. They had become so full of themselves and so proud with their speaking in tongues that they were literally just speaking words of judgment upon their Jewish brothers and sisters. This was not loving. This was indeed very, very evil. Not thinking about what they were saying, not thinking what implications it had, what purpose the gift of tongues had. It was very evil of them. They were very much adults in terms of evil. Now it can also be seen here that the Corinthian had chosen to let this gift, the gift of tongues, become more important than the gift of prophecy. They had let it become more important than words from God, which prophecy is. It's just speaking the words from God to God's people. That's basically what prophecy means. And they have just neglected that to speaking tongues. That was John Calvin says in his commentary on this verse. Now, when you, meaning the Corinthians, when you reject prophecy which is placed within your reach and prefer to stand amazed at empty sounds, is not this voluntarily to incur the curse of God? Now, what folly is this? To choose that which is a sign of judgment rather than that which is the words of God. This is folly. This is to choose to incur the curse of God, as Calvin said. To voluntarily choose that which is not edifying over that which is edifying. What an absurdity. And when we remember, moreover, that the gift of tongues was a sign of blessing to the Gentiles, and it truly was. It was a sign of blessing that the gospel had come to the Gentiles, that the Holy Spirit had been given to them also. It becomes even more absurd that they would let this sign of blessing to them become a disgrace. A disgrace, something that shows their immaturity, their evil, their wickedness. It is truly a tragic scene. And it's no wonder that Paul is very heartbroken by what he sees and why he has to start this section here with the word brethren. Oh, brethren, what are you doing? Oh, my beloved in Jesus Christ, what are you doing? However, it's not all that we can read about the purpose of tongues. We'll continue to look at it in verse 22. So then, tongues are for a sign, not to those who believe, but to unbelievers. But prophecy is for a sign, not to unbelievers, but to those who believe. Now, here Paul continues to explain that tongues are a sign. Tongues are a sign. They're a sign to unbelievers and not to believers. They're a sign of judgment over their unbelief, just as it was with the unbelieving Israelites. When you're speaking tongues, it's a sign to the unbelievers that they don't understand the Word of God. It's a sign of judgment. It's a sign that they cannot, even if they wanted to, understand. Now we must remember here that tongues was a very special phenomenon. It had a very specific purpose or purposes. Existed only at a specific certain time in history. Really only a few times in history we have ever seen this gift in action. And this would have been one of those times. But very, very shortly, very, very specific, not anything was common about it. And when it happened, it was always as a sign of judgment to those who did not believe. God sent this sign, or this gift rather, as a sign to speak to those who did not believe. You are under judgment. I will not tolerate your continual rejection. I will speak to you through foreign lips that you do not understand. And in Acts 2, we remember that It was a sign against the unbelieving Jews gathered there in Jerusalem at Pentecost. They heard the apostles speak in many different languages about the mighty works of God. And still they mocked them. Still they said, ha, they are just drunk, drunk with sweet wine. We've seen this in the pagan temples. We've seen how they drink wine and become all, strange and then they start speaking in tongues. This is just this. So they were rejecting what they saw there in Jerusalem. Their heart and their hearts and God for them, it was truly a sign of judgment. And if the words in Isaiah have any relevance to the Corinthians and to us, it is that God speaks in a foreign language to those who have previously heard the word, The clear words of God rejected them and are now under a curse. It has not become a sign of blessing to them, but a sign of judgment and punishment. You have rejected me. When I spoke to you through my prophets and through my servants, I spoke to you clearly. I gave you my word. You rejected it. Now you will no longer hear my word in your language. I will not make it understandable to you. Even if you wanted to understand, I will actively prevent you from it. A sign of judgment. So this speaking in tongues in the Corinthian worship had really just become a sign of judgment on everyone who came there and did not understand. All the unbelievers who came in and heard the strange words and they were perplexed, could not understand, were truly not converted, which should have been the objective of the Corinthians. It should have been their priority to see the Gentiles converted, those who do not believe. Their seal to hold on to this gift, whatever it might be, the true or the false, had caused only damage to the believers and hardened hearts to the unbelievers. So the gift of speaking tongues was not meant for worship. It's not meant to convert anyone. But it was a sign of God's displeasure and His judgment on unbelievers. Now, in contrast to this, we have prophecy, which is a sign for believers. We've already stated that prophecy is to be pursued. to be prioritized, to be strived for so that everyone is edified. Everyone hears the words of God. Everyone understands. Everyone knows what God is saying. Should not be hindered by speaking in tongues. But take every opportunity to edify the church and convert those who do not believe. And in its miraculous form, of course, prophecy would have been direct revelation from God. We don't have that anymore. But at this time, when the New Testament was still being written, when they still did not have the completed canon, God was speaking miraculously through those who had this gift. And this was, again, a clear sign of authority. that he was using certain people, the apostles and some of their disciples, to give them new revelation, which we now have, of course, in the New Testament written down for us, the completed canon. So this word of edification is for believers. It is for those who live then, and it is for those who live today, and it is for really every believer at all times. It's for them to be edified, but it is also for unbelievers to be converted, to be converted. When they hear the words of God, the power of the gospel, they're transformed in their hearts and they repent. They repent. Now, in this sense, prophecy is truly a useful and necessary sign for Christians in all generations. It accomplishes so much more than the gift of tongues ever accomplished or ever was meant to accomplish. It is more long-lasting. It has more immediate effect. It's just better in every single way. More edifying, more blessing or more blessings come through it. It accomplishes so much more. Truly, it gives everyone what they need. Believers, the ratifications. Unbelievers, a chance to repent. The Corinthians were too busy with themselves. They're speaking in tongues and just seem to forget this aspect. Forget this aspect. Where their speech should have been for the edification of the church, for their brothers and sisters in church, and for the conversion of the unbelievers, they were abusing the gift of tongues, even misrepresenting it, just causing confusion. not doing anyone any favor. And this realization should have been obvious to them, should be obvious to us or to anyone who can put two and two together, but seemingly it was not obvious to them. And because they did not seem to understand it, Paul needs to continue to explain that in the next verse, verse 23. Therefore, if the whole church assembles together and all speak in tongues and ungifted men or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are mad? Question mark. This illustrates just what we have been But we have noted already that if the church, when it gathers, decides to speak in tongues, no one is edified. It just causes chaos, disorder. But then someone comes in, maybe someone has been invited, an unbeliever, or the word there, ungifted, it's the same word we looked at last time in verse 16. The ungifted was also there, just means idiot, or the Greek word is idiotis, and it means just ignorant, or someone who does not have the knowledge, knowledge of God in this instance. When such a person comes in, maybe they might be invited, maybe they just come because they've heard about this church, this new religion in Corinth. What is it? I must go and see it. And they come in and they see this total confusion, this mess of a service where everybody's speaking in strange sounds and no one understands. What will they conclude? But that the Corinthians are mad. That's the only reasonable conclusion they can draw. To them, this cacophony of words or incomprehensible things is just a sign of madness. So rather than being led to Christ, then understanding who God is, who we are, what repentance and salvation and the gospel is, they are prevented from it. probably even hardened by it. They see it and they draw the conclusion that if this is Christianity, then I don't want to have anything to do with it. It's just a mess. It's just a mess. They don't understand anything. Just like the Israelites when they were led into captivity and heard the words of God in a foreign language and they could not understand it. How could they repent? They cannot. Same thing with unbelievers. How can they repent if they do not understand? They cannot. So the effect of the gift of tongues was very limited. Now, where the genuine gift existed was a catalyst for bringing unbelievers to salvation. We know that from Acts 2. Then it was always a speech that was understood. They spoke in those languages which the people understood, or it was interpreted so that they had a chance to understand. And when a word from God is spoken in a foreign language and is then interpreted, it just becomes prophecy. It's just prophecy. That's really what it is. So ultimately, Paul is saying, whatever you do, prophesy. Speak the words of God in the language they understand. So, in this sense, the gift of tongues is edifying and is to be strived after. But it is always in the context of being intelligible words, understandable sentences. Now, the effect among the Corinthians were, of course, instead, anything but that. No one understood anything. Not the church, not the unbelievers. Imagine that. Imagine that we would have something like that. You bring along a group of friends, or let's go back to Corinth. Let's say we were all in Corinth at this time. This is the first church ever. We could call it truly the first Baptist church of Corinth, because they were obviously Baptists. They would not have been Lutherans or Presbyterians. They were Baptists. But anyway, this was the first church in Corinth. And this was a new thing. No one ever heard about this religion before. They've heard about Judaism and all that, but this was a new thing. And they had, of course, a lot of foreign religious. They had temples for every single kind of God. The temple of Aphrodite existed in Corinth. And now these unbelievers hear about this new religion. Oh, what is it? I must go see it. This is intriguing. What are they talking about? They're talking about the bread of life. What is the bread of life? They're talking about the light of the world. What is the light of the world? All these things sound so interesting. I must know. And they saw their brothers and sisters who had been pagans or Jews, but anyway, they had not been believers and they had been going to the pagan temples. They had been. participating in these wicked feasts that they arranged there, their sexual immoralities. And all of a sudden they were changed human beings. Their heart were new. They seemed like a new person. So they must have been intrigued. What is this? I must find out. I must research this. As we had one guy visit us not too long ago, he said he's researching, well, I'm glad he's researching. I hope his heart was changed, that his heart was researched by God. But anyway, they had to be intrigued by this. These people have changed so much. We must go and see it. And then they come to this church, this only church in Corinth, a city full of spiritual darkness, of sexual immorality. And they come in and what do they see? cacophony sounds, just everyone speaking out whatever was on their minds. Just no order, just chaos, just what could they possibly be thinking? Like, what is this? This is no better than the pagan temple. I thought this was a better way, a new way, a way to God, the only God that they have been talking about. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. But this is nothing like this. This is just chaos. I don't understand. We thought all the crazy things happened in the Temple of Aphrodite and all the sexual immorality and all the strange speaking in tongues. And then we see this among Christians. What a circus! Ha! Let's leave this place. Let's go do something wiser with our time. Now, in one little instance, the Corinthians had tarnished their own reputation. They had blemished the gospel just because they were so zealous for the speaking in tongues. What a total lack of wisdom and love this was. I can understand Paul. He had labored for years among them. He had been there on his second missionary journey and this was the result. Must have broken his heart. Must have broken his heart. It would have broken mine. If I had planted a church somewhere in total spiritual darkness and this was the result after years of labor, oh brothers, oh brothers, they should have been prophesying, preaching the clear, simple, understandable words of God. And we will see that in the next verse. Verse 24, try to pick up a little bit of speed here now. But if all prophesy and an unbeliever or an ungifted man enters, he is convicted by all. He is called to account by all." Now here we see the effect that the service should have had in Corinth. This is what should have happened when your unbelieving friends and neighbors and those intrigued by this new religion come. This is what should have happened They should have been led to conviction, to be held accountable by all. Now, if the Word of God is clearly and distinctly, simply read, taught, preached in the service or by all means in every single instance where people come to hear the Word of God. Might be evangelism, might be home meetings. Whenever you have the Word of God read, this is what you should strive for, the effect of it. That those who believe are edified and those who do not believe are convicted. They are convicted to the truth and held accountable for their sins in light of God's holy law. And this is precisely the point of proclaiming the Word of God and the whole Word of God. Let me add that. That is very important. The law and the gospel, the Old Testament and the New Testament. We believe not just in the New Testament, but in the whole Bible. We must preach the whole Word of God. Because before you can give a sinner the good news of the gospel, you must give them the bad news of their sins, the transgression of the law. He must understand who he is, who God is, what his perfect standard, his righteousness, his law is. We must give them that so that they can compare the light and the beautiful gift that the gospel is with the complete darkness that their sin is. And we can see this even more intensely in verse 25. The secrets of his hearts are disclosed, and so he will fall on his face and worship God, declaring that God is certainly among you. What a testimony this is of the power of God to say through his eternal and perfect Word. All the secrets of the hearts, the unbelievers' hearts, are revealed when they come in the light of the Word of God. when he sees his own sin compared to the perfect Word of God and he realizes that he is a sinner, he has transgressed the law, he is going to be held accountable on the day of judgment. This is the effect when they hear the gospel, the good news of God, they repent, they fall on their face, they worship God. This is what the Corinthians should have strived for, what we should strive for. Because we cannot reach men and women, men's most inner part, the secret chambers of their hearts, where they don't allow anyone to go, where they hide and keep things in secret that they don't want anyone to understand. God's Word can penetrate that. It can reach into the most hidden place of the human heart, convicted of sin. Draw out those sins that are hidden there in secret into the light and force them to fall down on their face, acknowledging God, acknowledging their sin and their need of a Savior. You know probably of a person who is in this situation right now, someone who is so hardened in their heart, so fixed on doing what is wrong, who will not believe, who will not repent, who will not come to God. You probably know of such a person right now or more than one for that matter, but it doesn't matter. Giving them good advice and fine words and all that. That's great. All the human wisdom that we can give them. We do that, of course. But this is what saves a person from that hardness of heart. This is what can change a person, a sinner. Take out their heart of stone. Replace it with the heart of flesh. Give them life. These words of God that we have written down for us are that power of God unto salvation for anyone, even the greatest of sinners. Even Paul, who was truly one of the greatest of sinners. Now imagine the testimony that an unbeliever can give. of the Corinthian church or of our church. If these are the words that they would say when they come into our service, they would fall down on their face. They would say, God is certainly among you. Is this not a testimony we all desire to hear from those we invite, from those who just stumble in here and sit down in the chairs and listen to the word. And they would say, truly, God is among you. Imagine hearing that from someone who just... Maybe not even our believer, but they recognize God is here. He speaks here. I might not believe, but I recognize that God is here. This is what the Corinthians should have done. This is what we should always desire and strive for. To proclaim God's Word clearly, understandably, so that they can repent, so that they can come to God. This is truly to pursue love. So I think the application for us is very clear here. Whatever the unbeliever or the ignorant, as Paul, or the ungifted, as he says here in the New American Standard Bible, but the ignorant, the one who doesn't know God, whatever they see of Christianity or hear of Christianity in us, it should always be this testimony. Certainly, God is among you. Certainly, God is among you. They should hear clear, understandable words of God. Not speaking in tongues or not just using language that is hard to understand. Just theological language that sounds so good, but doesn't bring anyone to Jesus. They should hear about God, about His holiness, about man and his sinfulness. They should hear about the gospel. They should hear the law and the gospel so that they can repent and believe. And of course, this must leave us to a gospel invitation this moment for those who do not believe, who might be here this Christmas season and have heard about Jesus. Who is Jesus? Who is this baby boy that we're talking about so much? We're celebrating Christmas that everybody is making a little small pictures of, and please don't do that, but we know that other people do that. They have small pictures or large pictures, whatever, of Jesus. Everybody's talking about this Jesus, Jesus, Jesus here, Jesus there. Who is Jesus? Well, let me tell you, Jesus is God, but Jesus is also man. He humbled himself and took on human nature so that he might be able To sympathize with us in all things. Help us when we're weak. To help us find grace in the time of need. This Jesus, we remember this Christmas season. He's the Savior of the world. Not meaning every single one in the world, but everyone who will believe. Everyone who will believe. He took upon himself that penalty which we could not pay or no one could pay. This Jesus is now presented to undeserved sinners. We give gifts at Christmas to those who we love and some might deserve it and some might not. None of us deserves this gift of gifts. We deserve only hell, but we are given eternal life. And this gift is presented to anyone, anyone who will come and fall down before the cross of Jesus. who see the horror of their own sin, who understand who Holy God is, who have broken and contrite hearts, for you Jesus has come as Savior and Lord. This gift, above every gift, is the one I present to you this Christmas season. Do not harden your hearts. This is still a time of grace. This is still a day of salvation. Please do not turn away from Him who can save you. And I will conclude that our text this Sunday morning. And I hope as we go back to our homes, to our families, to our friends, that this would truly also be the words we bring to them. Jesus is born his savior for all who believe. And all the people of God said, Amen. Now let's pray. Father, we thank you for the words this morning that you have prepared for us and preserved for us, Lord, that we are not left in darkness, that we have received the gift of gifts. Jesus Christ, our Lord and our Savior, our beloved High priests, our beloved brother, oh God, how we are indebted to you forever and ever. Oh Father, we would like everyone to understand this. Help us to speak, to use our tongue in this way wisely. Clearly, for everyone's edification and salvation, Lord. As we read in the text this morning, help us to do that, Lord, with our families, friends, relatives, neighbors, colleagues, whoever it might be. Please, Lord, have mercy on their souls and save them. Save them, Lord. Now, Father, we thank you for this time this morning, and as we will continue to fellowship and use our tongues, Lord, let it be for everyone's edification, Lord. If there's anyone here this morning who do not believe but are convicted in their heart, Lord, let them come to you. Let them find salvation at this day. Lord, we pray all these things in Jesus' precious name. Amen.