Kind of an unusual message, but nothing new. 1 Corinthians 1, verse 18, the first part of it. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. So I want to preach on the foolishness of preaching. Now, you've got to understand what the word foolishness means. It means a person that acts silly or says something silly or does something silly. It's foolishness. In other words, it's not to any use or any good advantage. Can't think of the word I want there. But the foolishness there is people that look at the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, Him dying on the cross some 2,000 years ago and shedding His blood to pay for our sins, and they just can't comprehend that. It's foolishness to them. It's silly. It doesn't make any sense. It's not reasonable. And for good cause. 2 Corinthians chapter four, verse three and four says, the God of this world has blinded the minds of them that are lost, lest the light of the glorious gospel should shine upon them and they'd be saved. Satan's got them blinded to the truth. Do you remember what was the lady by the riverside? And Paul went down there to the river and started preaching to all the women. It was Lydia, I believe her name was. And it says that God opened her understanding. And I remember before I got saved as a young boy, I couldn't understand everybody's always talking about Jesus. I had no idea who he was. I said, well, why aren't they talking about God? And then when I got 15 year old, got under some good preaching and I began to understand who Jesus was, And then the Holy Spirit convicted me. I realized I was lost and going to hell. No doubt about it, I was scared to death. Y'all remember that? Before you got saved? And so what did I do? I called on the name of the Lord, best I knew how. He said, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, well, I might save you. No, he don't. What does he say? He shall be saved. He saved me. And boy, did he start doing a work in me. Still is, matter of fact. So the world looks at this preaching that we're doing about Jesus Christ as foolishness. They can't comprehend it. And the only way we can comprehend these things of the Bible is by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit enlightening our hearts and minds to the Word of God. And He brings understanding and we can understand these things. But the lost world can't understand them because they're spiritual things, and they're not worldly things. I was thinking so many people have joined a church and got baptized, and they go on in their life, and you never see a change in their life, yet they'll say they're saved. But they had an intellectual knowledge. They were trying to reason it out in their minds what salvation was all about. but it never reached their heart. And so they're not really saved. Isn't that sad? I've tried to lead people to the Lord through years, and I've led a few that I don't think they really got saved, because I never seen no change in their life after that. And it breaks my heart to see that happen, because it's harder to reach them then, after they've made a profession, and not really been saved. They think they're okay. So the world looks at our preaching as foolishness, but preaching is very important. And that's what I want to talk to you about tonight, the things that's beneficial from the preaching of the gospel, preaching to the word of God. And we always talk about the Roman's road, and we talk about the gospel there in First Corinthians 15 and other verses, but I remember a man, he was over there in one of them foreign countries, he was over here in our church talking, and he said the verse that got him was, I think it's in Matthew, where it says, what does a man gain if he gained the whole world and loses his own soul? That verse got his attention. and the Holy Spirit convicted him and he was led to the Lord. Now he's doing a great ministry over there, wherever he's at. But it takes the Holy Spirit's power to understand the Word of God. And to get the benefits of preaching, you got some steps you gotta take. First of all, you got to have faith. Turn to Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter 10. You'll never get anywhere without any faith. And I'm kind of like the man that went to Jesus about his little boy. And Jesus said, if you believe, and he said, I believe, help thou my unbelief. I think we'll battle unbelief as long as we're in this old flesh. But thank the Lord, the Holy Spirit gives us faith, helps us to believe. There's some things that I'm grounded on in my faith and my belief, First thing, I'm saved. I've got that settled. The second thing is he called me to preach and teach his word. I've got that settled. I got a few problems with a few other things, but I've got those things settled. But we got to have faith. Romans 10, verse 17. So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. What got me under conviction as a 15-year-old boy? Hearing the Word of God being preached. And when we go out witnessing, preaching means to speak forth, to talk out to somebody. And so when we're witnessing, we're in fact preaching. We're giving out the gospel. And so when we give that gospel out, the Holy Spirit can take that gospel and prick that heart and give them faith to believe. Some people believe it, and some people don't. I've seen people here in our church stand there under conviction, shaking and grabbing ahold of the pew, so much conviction on them, and turn around and walk out lost. Isn't that sad? And who knows if they ever got another chance to be saved. And so we must have faith, and faith comes by hearing and reading the Word of God. I stress in my Sunday school class, and every time I preach, I guess I probably do too, the importance of reading your Bible. And so I'm almost halfway through reading my Bible this year. I just like a few chapters being halfway through. And it's just five chapters in the morning, five chapters at night, and you can read it through in four months. It's very easy. Now you get, my wife gets aggravated at all them words he tried to pronounce in there, especially people's names. So we'll just skip over them. Get what God's trying to say, don't worry about the words. And so we must read our Bible. We must get under preaching of God's word to get the Holy Spirit to enlighten our hearts and minds and to increase our faith. And so when we grow in faith, there's something that happens. Turn to 1 Corinthians 1. I guess we're there, aren't we? First Corinthians chapter one, verse 21. We're talking about the foolishness of preaching. For after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. You can't know God in worldly wisdom. It takes spiritual wisdom. It pleased God by the what? Foolishness of preaching. There we go again. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Not save them that keep the Ten Commandments. Not save them that get baptized. Not save them that join the church. But it's what? Believe. We must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ with all our heart and mind. And when we do, the Holy Spirit will save us. So we first must get faith, then we get saved, and then we get in church. Turn to Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10. Most of you probably know where I'm going already. Hebrews 10, 25. Hebrews 10, 25, forsake not, I got it backwards, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the day approaching. If you're watching the news, any at all, or following things on Facebook, You see more and more of the things coming to pass that is about the last days and the tribulation time coming. I seen something the other day about the Pope and that Iman or whatever that Muslim leader is, that they were getting together. And I don't know how you'd get together when they believe totally different things, but they are. So what is that pointing to? a one-world religion, folks. And what are we going to have during tribulation? A one-world religion. One-world currency. One-world leader. And I don't know who's going to be the pope or the imam, but somebody's going to be that antichrist that's going to take over the whole world for seven years. And I'm glad I'm not going to be here during that time. So we're not to forsake the assembly of ourselves together, But we need to do it even more as we see these days coming in our day and time. I know a lot of people that they look for an excuse called church off. And I got a cousin, matter of fact, she's one that just died recently there in Kentucky. Her husband, he complained. So what are y'all canceling church for? That's what we need to do. That's my kind of man. He was a good spiritual person. And he couldn't understand just canceling church for just no apparent reason at all. Now, when you got five foot of snow and can't get to church, I guess you can cancel it. But people call it off cause the least little things. So we don't need to do that. So we have fellowship. Fellowship is not getting together to eat. even though that's what we call fellowship around here. What is fellowship? It's getting together and talking about the things of God. And I enjoy that, especially after Sunday school class, I'll have several will come by and talk to me about the lesson I've taught and things that I've brought out. That's fellowship, talking about the things of God, growing in spiritual things. So we have faith, we have salvation, and we have fellowship. Now turn to 1 Peter 2. First Peter chapter two. And verse two. First Peter two and verse two. Now, when I first got saved, I had a hunger to know the Bible. I wanted to learn what it's about and get to know it. And that's what it says here. As newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby. And so we need to grow. We need spiritual nourishment. We need the milk of the word. What is the milk of the word? The gospel. And you know, very few people are taught the gospel. They're taught everything else. But how'd you get saved? By believing the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. So you start out by learning the gospel, where it's located, and how to share it with others. And then we build upon that the other things that we can grow in until we can get to the point where we can take meat. And that meat is, I think, over in Ephesians and Colossians and Philippians, it's got some strong things there. As a matter of fact, 1 Thessalonians does too. So that's why we need to study the word of God. so we can grow. So our growth comes from studying the Word of God, not only studying it, but listening to preaching or Bible teaching. There are some that have Bible studies that I like to listen to. And so all this helps us to learn the Word of God and to grow spiritually. And so we grow spiritually. And when we grow spiritually, something else happens. Turn to 1 Corinthians Chapter one again, verse 18, that one we read earlier. And look at the last part of that verse. We'll go ahead and read the whole thing. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved, it is the what? Power of God. You want the power of God on your life? Then get in the book, read it, study it, meditate on it. and you will grow powerful spiritually, and the power of God on your life that you'd be able to be a witness to others. So we have faith, we have salvation, we have fellowship, we have spiritual growth, and we have power. Now, 2 Timothy 2.15, when we're talking about this in my Sunday school class, I say this is one we don't like. Reminds us of school. What did we do in school? Are we supposed to have done in school? Some of us did, some of us didn't, more or less. Study. How many of you love to study? Anybody? Not a one raised hand. I do, I like to study. Now, I didn't always like to study, but I love to study the word of God. Look at there in 2 Timothy 2.15. Why do you study? Study to show thyself approved unto God. That's who you want to be approved of is God the Father, that he'll say well done one of these days when we stand before him. And he says, well done, thy good and faithful servant. So study to show thyself approved unto God, a what? Workman. What does a workman mean? That means somebody is putting forth an effort and doing something. It's not somebody sitting still, idle, and not doing anything. So it's a workman. And he says, that workman that needeth not to be ashamed. What would be something to be ashamed of? Has anybody ever asked you a Bible question and you couldn't answer it? Sure they have, haven't they? And I'd be ashamed that I couldn't be able to tell them, but I always say, I'll see if I can find out and I'll let you know. So we need to study that we won't be ashamed in front of our Lord one of these days. Rightly dividing the word of truth. What's rightly dividing means? You mean there's divisions in the Bible? Well, we got the Old Testament and New Testament. That's a division, isn't it? Rightly dividing. You've got the nation of Israel under the law. And all those Old Testament scriptures that go with that, up through Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and through verse nine of Acts, that was to Israel under the law, to the Jewish nation. And that's what they were doing at that time, following the 10 commandments. And then Paul comes on the scene, and we're under the age of grace. And now, under the age of grace, through Paul's writings, the church age, as we know it today, what we call it, that's the body of Christ, it's no longer the nation of Israel, even though they're still saved, they're still going to heaven, but we're in a different dispensation or a different administration, you might say, like every time we get another president, they call it that president's administration. Well, we're under Jesus Christ's administration today. And so we are to divide the word of truth. Don't put things that was to the nation of Israel try to put them under the age of grace to the church. What would we say? Well, how about sacrifices? Do we have to go to the temple and offer sacrifices anymore? No. Why? The sacrifice has been made by Jesus. So we're no longer under that commandment anymore. And so we have all these commandments There's about 22 commandments there in 1 Thessalonians chapter five. We're getting to that in our Sunday school class here in a few days, a few weeks. So we need to rightly divide the word of God. Find out what's to us and what was to the Jew and separate it out and it'll make a lot better sense to you because the Bible is like somebody took the Bible and tore it all up and put it in a blender and then just dished it out And it doesn't make any sense if you don't divide it out. Because it seems like it's contradicting itself. But when you rightly divide it, everything falls into place. And only God could write a book like this Bible is. It's so unique. It's so different. It's so spiritual. No wonder the world can't understand it. That's why they need to be saved. That's why they need to see something in our lives that would cause them to want to be saved. 2 Timothy 3.16. 2 Timothy 3.16. I mentioned, I think it was the last time I preached this, hyper-dispensationalist. That's those that say the Old Testament's not relevant anymore. We don't need it. We don't need to study it. Well, I beg to differ. Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 3.16, All scripture. Now, when Paul wrote this, what scripture did they have? The Old Testament. Paul's writings were just now getting to be written and passed around. And then over in 2 Peter 3, 15 through 18, Peter accounts Paul's writings as scripture. You can look over there and read that sometime. But Paul says all scripture is given by inspiration of God. It's not what man thought. It says inspiration, it was God breathed on them men and they wrote down what God inspired them to. All scripture is given by inspiration and is profitable. In other words, all scripture is good to study because you're gonna learn something that'll help you. It's profitable for doctrine, Now we get our doctrine in Paul's writings for the New Testament church and the dispensation of grace. So it's profitable for doctrine. It's profitable for reproof. When somebody is doing wrong, you can show them in the Bible. The Bible says that is wrong. And it's profitable for correction to show them what's right. No, that's wrong. This is what you need to do or whatever the circumstances are. and for instruction in righteousness. How do you know how to live as a child of God if you don't read and study your Bible and get instruction how to live righteously? And so is preaching foolish? To the world, yes. To those that are saved, it's the power of God. And I enjoy preaching. I enjoy hearing preaching. And I enjoy studying God's word, so let's take that home with us and apply it to our lives, that we might be a child of God that can be a witness to the lost people we come in contact in our lives, that we might be an influence on for the glory of God. Let's stand.