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 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 men. For consider your calling, brothers. Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards. Not many were powerful. Not many were 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. And because of Him, you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption. so that as it is written, let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord. That is the word of God, and we receive it then as such. Well, as we come to the ministry of God's word, then let's ask his blessing upon it. Father, here we come to your word once again this morning. We pray, Father, that you would, by your spirit, open our eyes to the truths that you have for us here, that you'd give us ears to hear, hearts to love you and love your word, and our faith to be increased. Thank you, Father, that the Lord Jesus Christ is risen and that the tomb is empty. Death has been swallowed up in victory. And so certain are these promises that we know we will see the Lord Jesus once again when he comes for his church. And so, Father, we pray now that your word would be powerfully effective among and within us, and we pray this in Christ's name, amen. One of the One of our distance members sent me last week an article from an online publication I haven't heard of before. It would profess to be a Christian publication called Relevant. And the article is about a church in North Carolina. And here's how the article went. It's called Elevation Church. Elevation Church and its pastor are facing controversy after a recent interview with a senior staff member revealed that the church doesn't use words like resurrection, Calvary, or the blood of Jesus in their Easter invitations. Nikki Shearer, Elevation Church's digital content director. Kevin, we need one of those. We need to have a digital content director position. She recently spoke with Pro Church Tools about the way that the church uses social media to draw and engage with new and familiar audiences. During part of the interview, Shearer explained that the church avoids using language that immediately makes someone feel like an outsider, particularly for an event like Easter Sunday. When I think about how I'm going to talk about Easter, I'm thinking about how I'm going to talk to people far from God, because that's the thing that matters most to us, Scheer said. For us, the most important thing on Easter is inviting people to church. This means reaching people far from God. We're not going to use the words Calvary, resurrection, or the phrase the blood of Jesus. We won't use language that will immediately make someone feel like an outsider. Well, we could go through that article and critique it even more. But you see, the fundamental question here that they're dealing with, that really all of us deal with, the question isn't the problem. What the answer that we give to the question is the problem. But the question is, how do we talk to people who are far from God? How do we present the gospel to people that are unsaved, to your unsaved neighbor or coworker or just a stranger that you might meet? And especially since we live in what is called a post-Christian era, where I think I mentioned last week or so that one fellow identified maybe in America back in the 60s could be called a Christian era, where people typically you would see families and so forth dressed up on Sunday morning and going to church and then years later moved into a more of a neutral attitude toward, well, you can do that if you want, that's fine, but you don't have to either, until we come into the era that we are in now, which actually largely sees Christianity, well, is largely hostile, hostile to, so that in our day and age, if you be in your workplace or wherever you might be, if you let it be known that you're a Christian, well, that can raise some some hostility and some problem. It might even cost you, then, your job. But this is the question that's being asked, then, in an environment like that. How do we talk to people who are far from God, as they put it? And Elevation Church gives this answer. You change the language. You change the words. You change the vocabulary. You don't use words that the Bible uses because those words are archaic and meaningless, if not loaded with some kind of a prejudicial meaning that meaning is going to be rejected you. So you don't use that in talking to modern man. Well, yesterday, I was listening to a sermon by Martin Lloyd-Jones. He based his sermon on this passage, 1 Thessalonians 1, verses 4 and 5. For we know, brothers, loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we prove to be among you for your sake. Now, in his sermon on that passage, Lloyd-Jones noted that the question of the day, and he was speaking back in the 1960s. He saw this coming even that long ago. He said that the question of the day among the churches, and there's, as he said, the question of the day. How do you speak about Christ to a world that's ignorant? Change the words. You can't use words like resurrection, or Calvary, or the blood of Jesus. So our message is seen as something that is relevant. So we've got to use relevant terminology. And I would submit to you that what Elevation Church is doing is not only changing the words, they're changing the gospel. The gospel is the word of the cross. You can't change the words without changing the, even if they'd come back and say, well, yeah, but we're teaching the concepts, we're telling people the concepts, but I don't buy that. as an excuse for what they are doing. So what is our answer? What is our answer supposed to be to this issue? How do you communicate to the outsider as people? You know, we don't want people, we want to invite them to come to church on Easter. We don't want them to feel like outsiders, you see. So we can't use this language that they're either unfamiliar with or they are hostile to it. How does the Bible approach this issue? How does the Bible show us we are to present the gospel to a world that's hostile to the gospel? Well, first of all, the sinner, that's who people You know, when you're talking about people, when they're talking about people who are far from God, the Bible's term for that is a sinner, all right? The sinner, no matter what culture they live in, no matter what century or millennia they live in, no matter what nation, social class, language, no matter, the sinner is an outsider by definition. You don't want to tell them and make them feel comfortable like you're one of us. You know, the number one thing we want to do on Easter, as they were saying, is invite people to church. That's the most important thing. No. It might be the most important thing to a mega church that where numbers and so forth are a big thing. That isn't the most important thing. The most important thing, then, is the glory of God. as presented in scripture, not only does the Bible not walk away from the fact that the sinner is an outsider, outside of God's household, outside of his church, it emphasizes that truth. You see, it doesn't try to make men and women outside of Christ comfortable. And this is the error that so many churches are, well, If we can just get them comfortable enough, then they will hear the gospel and be saved. Well, if a person is comfortable, what need do they have of the comfort of the gospel then, you see? Paul reminded the Christians at Ephesus about the terrible condition they were in. before they heard the gospel and were saved, Ephesians 2. And you were dead in your trespasses and sins. So you see, just beginning with that phrase, to put it into present tense, so that, all right, it's Easter Sunday, and maybe that Elevation Church is only going to have all these people there, and so on. Is anybody going to tell them, you are dead in your sins? I suspect that's not going to be plainly and forcibly taught. And yet, here it is in Scripture. Paul tells them, you were dead in the trespasses 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's 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, the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. The sinner is an outsider. You're under the wrath of God, you see. The gospel, which is the power of God to salvation. I talked a lot about that point, by the way, in last Friday's Roman study. So you might want to tune in to that, where we find over and over again in the New Testament, we're told it is the gospel that's God's power unto salvation. It is the gospel, the word of the cross, that God blesses and empowers with his saving power. If you're going to have a problem using words like resurrection and Calvary and so forth, I wonder what they're going to do with the cross. What do you do with the cross? If there is an ultimate object of scorn and contempt that people, you know, the most that they realize about the cross is it's some little Trinket, you hang around your neck or something, no matter who you are. But as the cross is explained to them biblically, well, that's very, very foreign. And it's something that, oh, hold on a minute here, right? It's a stumbling block, even then to the Jews. Here and again, verse 18, 1 Corinthians 1, for the word of the cross is folly. to those who are perishing. But to us who are being saved, it's the power of God. So we as Christ's people, as his church, are called and commissioned by him to preach a message that is foolishness, that is stupidity to the natural man. It's something that is ridiculous, even to them beginning with, you are dead in your sin. You are dead to God. You're enslaved to the devil. You're perishing. You're in need, then, of a savior. This is the message we're commanded to preach. And we're not to mess with it, not in the slightest, you see. Else God only promises. to visit his saving power upon the gospel as it has been delivered by him to us. Change it, and his power then is gone, you see. It ceases to be the gospel. It becomes another gospel, as Paul warned about. in 2 Corinthians and also in Galatians chapter 1. So this whole idea of, you know, well, we're going to dress up the gospel. You know, it'll still be the gospel, but we need to tweak it enough in its presentation so that it doesn't turn people off, all right, so that it's acceptable then to them. Paul rejected all of that. He said boldly and unashamedly, he said, Romans 116, I am not ashamed of the gospel. I'm not ashamed of it. I know that it's regarded as foolishness to the world. I know that people will look at me as an idiot, some crazy person, some fool for proclaiming this gospel. But it is in the foolishness of the gospel that the power of God for salvation is unleashed to everyone who believes, you see. A church then with another gospel is, in fact, no church at all. I was talking with someone recently about, they had mentioned to me that they had a problem with organized religion, organized religion. So that's an interesting topic, of course. I knew what the person meant. But as I also told them, well, you know, what you're talking about, that you object to, organized religion, that is a creation of man. And it's man's doing, man's organization. And I have all kinds of problems with that kind of a church as well, and that kind of a religion, because it's fake. But the true church, the true religion is God's doing. It is the body of Christ, you see. And that is what we are to be busy about building, the kingdom of God, the body of Christ. And the only way that that's going to happen is to preach and proclaim the powerful, gospel of Jesus Christ, unadulterated, and to do so ourselves unashamedly, because we know it is the power of God to salvation. Deviate from that, and here's something that human beings can do. Human beings can never build the body of Christ. You know, we can plant, we can water, but God gives the increase, all right? It's God that does it. But man can build organized religion of a false church. And it happens all around us today. It's where all kinds of gimmicks and so on and productions are put on that appeal to the natural man, to the sinner. And some so-called preachers and so on are very talented, very talented at getting the masses to come in and building some huge thing, you see. But that thing is not the Church. It's not Christ's Church. And in fact, what happens then is that The only thing that's produced in the production line in such a place is a counterfeit Christian. So you have all these people, all these people, and some of them, I mean, it might only be a church of 100 or 200 or something like, it could be a church as small as ours, but if a false gospel is being preached, right, then what a sad thing. All these people are being deluded by a false teacher And they all think that they're on their way to heaven. Everything is just fine. So we live in a day when most Christians aren't. And I don't think that that is an overstatement. Well, this brings us to Paul at Athens. How did Paul preach the gospel at Athens to a crowd of pagan philosophers to whom the word of the cross was totally foreign. And when they heard it, most of them are going to mock. It's foolish. It's ludicrous. An object of derision. Acts 17 is one of the greatest sermons ever preached. Paul on Mars Hill there in Athens. Acts chapter 17, verse 18. Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him, and some said, what does this babbler wish to say? Others said, hmm, he seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities. Now look at this. Because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. Let's look into this resurrection thing a little more here. believed in the power of the gospel. It didn't matter who he was preaching to. Athenian philosophers, Jews, Gentiles, didn't matter. He preached the same message, the same gospel. Acts 17 goes on. And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus saying, may we know what this new teaching is that you're presenting. For you bring some strange things to our ears. See, this is weird stuff here. Nothing like we've ever heard before. We wish to know, therefore, what these things mean. Now, all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new. That's a perfect description, by the way, of academia of our day. That's all they do. It's not really productive. It's just let's tell or hear something new. If you're going to go to a university, which in most cases, unless you pick it carefully, big mistake, right? But, and I say that as somebody that went to one. I went to a university, but at any rate, what happens in the university? Well, you say, well, I want to work toward, I want to teach, get a Ph.D. Well, what a Ph.D. is, what they want you to do is they want you to come up with something new, something that you can add to the pool of human knowledge. That's what they're after. What do you think the chances are of any of us or anybody going to a university and I got to come up with something new? Something that nobody has ever come up with before. Some little slant. So the pressure's on. And I've got, you know, the clock is ticking. My advisor wants to see some pages written here. What am I going to do? And I'll tell you what most of them do. You know what most of them do? They make something up. It's new, but it is, it's invented, you see. Well, these academics in Athens, were entirely ignorant of Paul's message, he may as well have been speaking a foreign language to them, that's why it caught their attention, oh this could be something new over here. How do you talk about Easter without talking about the resurrection of Christ, how do you even talk about Easter then and the resurrection if you don't talk about the cross? has to be a cross or there can't be, then a resurrection. Oh, but we just use different words. We talk about those things. I don't think so. How would you explain to someone the doctrine, the biblical doctrine of the resurrection of Christ without using the word resurrection, all right? I suppose you could say The chances of you picking a word that puts a different slant on things is pretty high. And why not use the word resurrection, right? Why not? Well, we want to speak the language of the sinner. Look, the sinner has to learn to speak the language of God. I heard a reference, Lloyd-Jones again, I heard Lloyd-Jones mention one time that in a sermon that he said, he said that, you know, people sometimes tell me that I'm just, you know, I don't read much in theology or Bible or religious Christian publications. I just don't, you know, because I'm not really interested in that. And Lloyd-Jones said he told him, you better get interested You better get interested in the gospel or you are, you see, in trouble. What words in the word of the cross, the gospel, are familiar to a pagan culture? There aren't any. There aren't any, you see. Justification, propitiation, atonement, Redemption, even an accurate view of forgiveness, the wrath of God, you see? Those aren't just words. Those are truths which they communicate, but they're utterly foreign to your unsaved neighbor today. I mean, if you start to talk to them, You're lucky if you can just get an opening. But if you start to talk to them, have you ever thought about the wrath of God and the cross of Christ? Have you ever thought about those things? And the fact of the matter is, for the most part, all of them, they really haven't. What they have done is they've come up with some notion of what's going to happen to them when they die. Now, mostly they'll suppress that knowledge and not want to think about it, but what does your unsaved neighbor think about when they think about dying? If they happen to, well, I just want to think about that stuff right now, you know, I'm happy and so forth. Well, you know, the day is going to come when you're going to have to think about it. What's going to happen? What is going to happen to you when you die? Well, nobody really knows. I think it's going to be okay. God is love. You see, man invents these things and at the same time suppresses the truth. Paul rebuked the Corinthians for listening to a false gospel that was brought to them by creeps, as Jude would call them, creeps who crept into the church then among them and altered the gospel. Listen to it here in 2 Corinthians 11. For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received than the Holy Spirit, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough, you see. This is the characteristic of are deceived flesh or of the natural man. Give him a false gospel that exalts man and brings God down, and he'll put up with it then readily then enough. So what did Paul do? Here he is with the opportunity of opportunities. He has the opportunity to preach the gospel of Christ in the very center capital of human wisdom, Athens. This is where he is. What did he do? I better be careful about my vocabulary here. This is what he did, Acts 17. So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus said, men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, to the unknown God. What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, he goes right back to Genesis. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man. Nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place. that they should seek God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he's actually not far from each one of us, for in him we live and move and have our being, as even some of your own poets have said, for we are indeed his offspring. Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent because he's fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed. And of this, he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead. And that's what Paul did. That's what he told them. What was the first thing then that he did? He told them that they were, well, he didn't put it subtly, all right? The first thing that he did, he told them You guys are ignorant. Here's these academics, these philosophers, you know, the height of human wisdom as they regarded themselves. And Paul tells them, you're ignorant. In spite of their apparent knowledge, they were nothing more than ignorant idolaters. You know, when you think about Greek or Roman architecture, or statues, and these kinds of things that you think of, and ruins that you might see, and archaeologists might find. You think of art. They weren't just art. They were idols. And the buildings were idol. Temples, they were statues of false god. Earlier in Acts 17, we're told that Paul, when he got there to Athens and he was going through the city, and he's seeing all these statues and images, his spirit was provoked within him. He was angry. He was mad at the deception that Satan had brought into that height of human culture. For all of their religiosity, he says, you're very religious. But you're blind. You've got it wrong. They were Romans 1 people. For what can be known about God is plain to them. For his invisible attributes have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made. So they're without excuse. For although they knew God, They did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise. See, that's Athens. Claiming to be wise, they became fools. Why? They exchanged the god for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. And that's what they had done. God had clearly revealed himself to all of them in creation, ever since creation. And in the very substance of themselves, their body, their hands, and their eyes, everything screams at them that there is a creator. But they became fools because they chucked that knowledge, and they built these little gods then, idols, for themselves. Thus, they're children of wrath. They're under the wrath of God. Paul went on to show them this Romans 1 revelation. He introduced them to the living and true God. Look at it again, verse 24. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, doesn't live in temples made by man. Nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything." So Paul's announcing, he's communicating with them in regard to something that he knows, he assumes they know, and they do know it. There is a God. There is a creator who made the world and everything in it, all right? Now, you Athenians, Paul says, you've been very busy building houses for your gods. And you've been serving them. You establish these priesthoods. And the priests carry food in to the temple for the god there, you see. By the way, at that point, I was thinking of Roman Catholicism. all these processions. You've seen those processions. What are they doing? They're carrying their god. It can't move. Some statue of Mary or something carrying it around. Well, this was the same thing that was happening there at Athens. And Paul's saying to them, do you really think that the god, who is the creator of everything, resides in some localized house that you build for him? and that he needs you to feed him and carry him around? I mean, you great philosophers, the creator is necessarily greater than that which he creates. But your gods are inferior to you, you see. And then he told them that the living and true God is right in front of their eyes. It's like he's saying to them, the living and true God is right at this very moment giving you life and breath and everything that you have. The thing is plain and obvious, but you're blind to him. You're in the dark. Your minds have been blinded, or else you would have found him already. But you've got a statue. a monument built to the unknown God. You haven't found him. You are blind people groping about in darkness, even though you're bragging about how enlightened you are. His existence, God's existence, and his being are screaming at you. moment by moment. So you're without it. It's clearly revealed to you, but you're pushing it down. You're pushing it down because you don't want a God like that, you see. If you are flesh and blood, how is it that you think that God is made out of metal or silver or gold or stone or that you, the creature, are superior in your being to the God's that you've carved out and that you worship. You are blind. Classic description of the futility and foolishness of man. Isaiah 44. He cuts down cedars or he chooses a cypress tree or an oak and lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest. He plants a cedar. and the rain nourishes it. Then it becomes fuel for a man. He takes a part of it and warms himself. He kindles a fire and bakes bread. Also, he makes a god and worships it. He makes it an idol and falls down before it. Half of it, the tree, he burns in the fire. Over that half, he eats meat. He roasts it and is satisfied. He warms himself and says, oh, I'm warm. I've seen the fire. The rest of the tree, the rest of it, he makes into a god, his idol, and falls down to it and worships it. He prays to it and says, deliver me for you are my god. Now, what is the word for that that Isaiah is saying? Well, Isaiah is mocking the foolishness of, the wicked foolishness then, of man. And man's still doing that then, you see, today. Look, think of this in the church. If a so-called church is the product of man's creation, because man has created and tweaked the gospel, he's made a false Jesus, another Jesus, that is appealing to the natural man, to the sinner. Then he's doing the same thing that Isaiah is talking about here. He has created a Jesus of his own making, and then he falls down and worships that that he has created. Same thing. Here's the summation of Paul's argument again. Verse 30, the times of ignorance God overlooked. But now he commands all people everywhere to repent because he's fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed. And of this, he's given assurance to all by raising him from the dead. Now, let's be very clear on what is obvious here. Paul is preaching to people have no concept of Jesus whatsoever. None. Their whole idea of religion and God is false, right? They don't have any idea at all of resurrection. In fact, they wouldn't be hostile to that idea. It has no place in their so-called theology. He's preaching to people who are in sheer idolatry and falsehood, absolutely separated from any knowledge of Christ and the gospel at all. What words did Paul use to present the gospel to them? How did he present the gospel? Did he make it so that they would feel included? Did he offer them At first, anyway, did he offer them comfort? We Christians, we don't want you to feel like you're an outsider. We want you to come in among and be comfortable, you see. Doesn't sound like that's what Paul was doing. He told them, first of all, you're ignorant. You've been worshiping an unknown God. You don't know God. God, the living and true God, commands you to repent, to turn away from your sin and the lies you've been following and turn to him. And Paul spoke of the living and true God as a he, not some impersonal force. He told them judgment day is on the calendar. Is that a doctrine designed to make the sinner comfortable? No. Judgment day is coming. And if you enter that day without Christ, you're going to hell for all eternity. You're under the wrath of God. God has appointed a judge. This judge is man, and yet he is the son of God. He's going to judge the world. He's going to judge you. And here's like the punchline for it all. God has proven who this judge is, that he is Jesus, the God-man. How's he proven it? By raising him from the dead and the resurrection. Our culture today is no more ignorant of God and the Bible and Christ than the Athenians were. The Athenians were as ignorant of those things as anybody ever was. But Paul didn't say, man, I've got to reword this thing so that it's relevant, so that they don't feel like outsiders. What was their response? Verse 32, when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, see, there it was. When they heard of that, some mocked. Others said, we'll hear you again. Those are the procrastinators. They didn't really mean it, but they put them all. But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius, the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them. And that was because God blessed Paul's presentation of the gospel. with his power. The church today would look at that, I think, when I say the church, the visible church. Many churches would look at this and say, you know, we can do better than that. Paul only got some mixed results. We can get a whole lot more people. Paul, you were coming on pretty strong for these guys. I mean, you talked about Judgment Day and sin, and you talked about Resurrection from the dead. Come on, Paul. You know that that's going to turn off these Stoic and Epicurean philosophers. Don't go there. Don't use that. And what Paul's sermon tells us is, Paul would answer and say, you better go there because nobody's going to get saved unless the power of God is present. And he's not going to bless some message. that leaves out or dummies down any part of the gospel, in some ways, especially then, the resurrection. Look, the tipping point here, the one where they really, oh, that's it, I heard enough of this guy, was what? When Paul mentioned the resurrection from the dead. What should that tell us? It shouldn't tell us that, it doesn't tell us that we need to dummy it down. It needs to tell us it's an integral part of the gospel. And the fact that that's the point that these people began to be driven to decision, that tells us this is a vital part that is never to be watered down, you see. How are you going to dance around the resurrection on Easter Sunday? You get all of these people coming, and then what are you going to do? with that. This isn't the first time that this would happen. Paul had to deal with the same thing at Corinth. If Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there's no resurrection of the dead? And as we heard R.C. Sproul talk about that earlier this morning, is a gospel with no resurrection. And I suggest to you that that's what's really going on. When somebody says, we don't want to use words resurrection and so forth when we're dealing with people that are going to make them feel like they're outside. Well, I would submit that all that is is kind of equivocation language for changing the gospel. Christ is coming again. Christ is risen. And he's coming again on a day set by God himself. He's going to judge the world. He's going to raise bodily every human being that has ever lived. And those that are outside of Christ on that day, he is going to judge them by their works, and by their works they will be condemned, and they will enter an eternity in hell. His own people? I hope everybody here is born again and knows Christ. If you're not, I hope you're really uncomfortable and you recognize that you're an outsider and that somehow you need to be calling upon God to show you mercy because you need to get inside. You need to be in Christ and be born again. Christ's own people on that day will enter into eternal life, the new heavens and the new earth. And that's our certain and absolute hope as Christ's people. It is also a certain and absolute terror to those on that day who will say, the day of the wrath of the Lamb has come, and call out to the rocks and the hills to fall on them, to hide them from the wrath of the Lamb. But one thing's for certain. Every eye that's ever opened in this world is going to see him on that day. Christ is risen indeed. He comes again in judgment. and he comes for his bride, the church. Father, we thank you for these great and powerful words in the scriptures. Thank you for that sermon by the Apostle Paul that you inspired, that you've written down for us in this Bible we hold in our hands so that we can hear Paul preaching and see that that's the gospel. That's the way and that's the message that we must be unashamed of and that we should be ready to share with the lost. Father, we pray that you would give us that opportunity. It seems like it's so hard today in this culture to even talk about Christ, to friends or neighbors and others who are still dead in their sins. But Father, we pray that your Spirit would provoke within them an interest in hearing about the hope that they see in each of us. And we pray this all in Christ's