1 Corinthians 1:18-31 (The Wisdom Of God In The Gospel Of God)

Good morning, everyone. I think you can hear me right there. This is on. Well, again, it's such a pleasure to be able to be here together, right, to worship

God with one another. And this is so necessary to what our lives are about as Christians.

And so, again, I'm very thankful to be able to be here this morning with all of you.

Now, as we get started, I wanted to kind of start with a little bit of an illustration that I hope will make some sense.

But it made sense to me, so we'll go with it. But being in New England, right, most all of us are familiar with the local professional sports team, professional football team, excuse me, the

New England Patriots. Personally, I'm a pretty big fan of the team, and I have been since I was little.

When I was 10 years old, in 2002, they won their first Super Bowl. And I can remember ever since then just how much fun

I would have watching Patriots games with my dad growing up. And ever since that season, that 2001 -2002 season, the

Patriots have maintained a level of success in professional sports that's just unprecedented across any sport, not just football, any sport.

And they owe much of that success to the fact that they've had, along with many other great players, they've had both the greatest coach and the greatest quarterback in NFL history.

You know, in the span of the last 20 years, having these two on the team, you know, has caused some people, especially the sports radio folks, you know, to debate the question of which person, the coach or the quarterback, is deserving of more of the credit for the team's success.

You know, Brady or Belichick, this is the conversation continuing for the past 20 years. And this year, with Tom Brady leaving the

Patriots, and the Patriots now finishing their season today with a losing record for the first time since 2000, those questions are even more frequent, they're even louder.

Who is more important to the team's success over the past 20 years? And I could talk to you,

I literally could talk to you until I'm blue in the face about the Patriots. And of course, that's not why we're here, so I won't today.

And to be honest, given the season they've had, I'm not sure I'd really even enjoy it as much as I would have maybe a couple years ago.

So I won't be providing my thoughts on that a little bit less than existential question of who is more important to the

Patriots' success. But again, I bring it up as an example, as we get started here this morning, to introduce what we are going to consider in part this morning.

While there can be a lot of debate on who is most responsible for the success of a football team, there's no doubt, right, that the success of the gospel message, which is the message that the church, that we here are commanded to proclaim, is entirely reliant upon God himself and not man.

There's no parts here, there's no most or some of the credit, but all credit for the success or the effectiveness of churches and ministries is due to God and to God alone.

Again, this is what we're going to take a closer look at this morning as we pick up in our study of 1 Corinthians.

And so if you would, would you please turn with me? We'll open our Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 1, and we're going to wrap up this first chapter today.

And we're going to read the whole chapter, because it's been a while since we've been in this, this text. I think end of October was the last time we were in 1

Corinthians. But we're going to have a particular focus this morning on verses 18 through 31.

1 Corinthians chapter 1, the entire chapter. Hear the word of the

Lord. Paul, called as an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God and Sosthenes our brother, to the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling, with all who in every place call on the name of our

Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours, grace to you and peace from God our

Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God always concerning you for the grace which was given you in Christ Jesus, that in everything you were enriched in him, in all speech and all knowledge, even as the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you, so that you are not lacking in any gift, awaiting eagerly the revelation of our

Lord Jesus Christ, who will also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our

Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful through whom you were called into fellowship with his

Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, that you be made complete in the same mind and the same judgment.

For I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe's people, that there are quarrels among you.

Now I mean this, that each one of you is saying, I am of Paul and I of Apollos and I of Cephas and I of Christ.

Has Christ been divided? Paul was not crucified for you, was he? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?

I thank God that I baptized none of you, except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one would say that you were baptized in my name.

Now I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized any other. For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made void.

In verse 18, for the word of the cross is foolishness 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 cleverness of the clever I will set aside.

Where is the wise man? Where is 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 through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.

For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. To Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both

Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

For consider your calling brethren that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong and the base things of the world and the despised

God has chosen the things that are not so that he may nullify the things that are so that no man may boast before God.

But by his doing you are in Christ Jesus who became to us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption so that just as it is written let him who boasts boast in the

Lord. Let's pray. Father we thank you for your word God that you've given us so much to to glean from to learn from as we seek to understand you and who you are and what you've done for us

Lord we personally I am challenged by this text as I as I read and and see that with the wisdom it was in your wisdom

Lord that human wisdom would look anywhere but to you. Lord that human wisdom is so feeble so weak so inefficient

Lord that it given every opportunity given every obvious every bit of obvious work on your part and yet our human wisdom wouldn't look to you, but it would look to ourselves to understand the world around us.

Father we pray that as we again continue to hear your word this morning and and hear it taught

Lord that you would help me to stay out of the way here. Father that the words and the things that you would have us as a church as your people to learn that they would come from you

Lord and anything that was is not of you may you help to silence it either in my speech or in the hearing of others

Lord that anything that is not of you would not be sent out of this room.

Father we thank you again for your word we praise you that it never comes back void but the things that you hope to accomplish with your word you will.

And we pray in Christ's name that you are glorified in this time. Amen. Now in our first few weeks in this book in this letter from the

Apostle Paul to the church in Corinth, which has spanned now I mean this is our I think fourth or fifth but this has spanned almost a year to this point to get to this point to get to where we are today.

We've discussed a few key points that I'm going to briefly review just for some context because it has been a fairly stretched out period of time.

First we considered the context of the letter which of course would have included the context of the Corinthian Church and the culture that they lived in.

Corinth was a dual port city and so commerce was a priority. People from all around the known world would come in and go out often as they stopped in Corinth for commercial ventures.

And so it was a vibrant city. It was a busy city filled with people from all over the world and like many cities with highly churning populations sin was rampant in Corinth.

The anonymity of urban life combined with this particularly temporary urban life made it easy for people to give in to the desires of their flesh without repercussion, without consequence.

It was said of the Corinthians of this period that in the popular mind Corinth suggested culture and courtesans, the sacrifice of morality on the altar of perceived refinement.

They cared a lot about people thinking that they were cultured and so they were very proud of this although they weren't actually that culture because they really had, they were incredibly immortal people.

And if something or someone were to be Corinthianized, it was said at this time, it was popular Greek for going to the devil.

So if someone became like a Corinthian they became pretty immoral at that time.

It was a city known for its vices and the Corinthians in addition to being quite immoral, they were a prideful and arrogant people.

They were marked by their elitist views of themselves and I'm talking about the city not necessarily the church although these cultural aspects did creep into the life of the church.

But the Corinthians were marked by their elitist views of themselves as much of the Greek world was at the time.

But again, the Corinthians were slightly less esteemed among their fellow

Greeks and certainly weren't as wise as they liked to think themselves which we read of in 1st

Corinthians chapter 1. In the text we've looked so far at Paul's effort in these opening verses to set in very clearly to the

Corinthians that Christ is Lord. Ten times in the first ten verses

Paul wrote the name of Jesus to remind them that all they have and all they are they owe to their

God. And he does this again to set the stage as he prepares to confront several sins that are going on within the church and he wants to confront those sins with the reality that Christ is their authority, not themselves, not their own understanding or wisdom.

And finally in our last visit to 1st Corinthians we looked at the first issue that Paul was going to confront and that was division, right?

And their foolish pride, the Corinthians were easily divided amongst themselves and Paul rebuked them for it again reminding them that Christ is the authority.

He is the ultimate authority. He cannot be divided. And he called them to bind together in a greater purpose

He said to them, this is why I came to preach the gospel. He called them to the same purpose, to bind together in that that the gospel is what will heal their division and promote greater unity among them.

And so that's where we're at in our study today. That's kind of the foundation that has been built to this point that allows us to continue this morning.

If we were looking at this on a weekly basis it perhaps would be a little bit easier to see that building, but hopefully a brief summary helps some there.

And hopefully again, we'll see how our text today is a continuation of this thought process for Paul.

This doesn't exist on its own, but it's a flowing thought from him in this letter to the

Corinthian church. And again, we're going to see here, I think, that there's the priority of God that in this gospel message that Paul says the church needs to rely upon, it needs to be focused and contain

God as its substance. And so let's begin. And again, we'll look again at verses 18 and 19 as we get started.

Verse 18, For the word of the cross is foolishness 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 cleverness of the clever I will set aside.

Again, as we've said, this passage is a continuation of the thoughts that we've already considered here in chapter 1.

And we know this explicitly when we see the word for at the beginning of verse 18. Whenever you see the word for in the form that it's in here, when it has that basic meaning of because, then you know that it's important, it's vital even, that we would understand what came before this word if we're ever going to understand what's coming after it, right?

So here, Paul is telling us that his focus and the focus of the church in verse 17 was the preaching of the gospel.

And why? For, or because, to those who are being saved it is the power of God.

The word of the cross, the gospel, is the power by which people are saved and transformed unto new newness of life.

And so in order for the ministry of the church to be effective, it must not forfeit its power, it must not have its power voided.

This is the language he uses in verse 17. And its power is not something, a church's power is not something that just exists within the church, right?

It's not the people, right? That's not our, our secret sauce isn't the people here. Although you guys are great.

It's not small groups. It's not our ministry teams. It's not big budgets. Right? It's the power of the church is only realized when the word of the cross is doing the work.

That's when God's power moves through the church. And you might think, and I know

I do, that this sounds actually simpler for churches. This is a very easy formula for a church to follow, and it probably should be, because it puts all the work in God's hands instead of our own.

But it's not as simple as you would think, I think, when you get down to the reality of it, because people are, people have a hard time with this.

I think it's a natural tendency for most of us to believe less what we read here in 1

Corinthians 17 and 18, more something to the effect of if it's, if it'll be, it's up to me.

Right? It's often the case that when things don't quite go the way that we hope or expect them to, that we take matters into our own hands.

Right? We innovate. We experiment, hoping that something new that we do will end up driving the results that we're hoping for.

I think within the church, this is pretty clearly seen in modern teaching, modern prosperity gospels, where people are fed the lie.

Right? That following God will give them material health, wealth, and happiness. And these churches, what they've done is they've forfeited the power of God for a lie that brings in the result they want.

Bigger crowds, greater notoriety. And there are other churches, this is a little more subtle, that, that teach what

I think of as kind of a karmic Christianity, where the only thing standing in the way of God changing our lives is our ability to obey.

If only we would do the right things and God would love us. Or if we do the right things, God would make the, this church more successful.

And people eat this up. You know, I think that people really respond and resonate with this type of teaching because it puts the ball in our court.

Right? There's a certain security in knowing that it's up to me. That if I do, then

I know, I'll be more sure of my salvation and my relationship with God. But the truth is, we're not in control.

Right? Truth is that God is the one whose power we need, not our own. You know, these false

Gospels and their teachers, and there are many more, these are only two examples, but I think that they all have 1

Corinthians 1 18 in common. The word of the cross, the power of God for those being saved, is foolishness to them.

You see, the doctrine of the cross, that is the doctrine of salvation through the crucifixion of the

Son of God as a sacrifice for the sins of men, is the only thing that is utterly sufficient for salvation.

And that's why Paul labors here to say that, is what he came to them for, in verse 17.

And yet to those who are perishing, the proclamation of a humiliated, crucified

Christ, whose manner of death was too shameful for mention in polite conversation, to say that as the only means of salvation is utterly foolish to the perishing.

From the human perspective, wouldn't it make more sense even for God to make the church more appealing to the world, and thus, by doing so, attract more people to it?

Right? If we were starting a church, wouldn't that be what we would want to do? What's going to bring in the most people? Wouldn't it make sense for God to establish the church in a powerful position, so that it could coerce more people to join it?

To call us to military efforts, which we see in some religions around the world.

Wouldn't it make more sense to give the church license to change the message? Depending on its audience, to have license to make some changes as needed.

Again, speaking strictly from the perspective of common human wisdom, right, business sense, if we might, if I might use that term, biblical

Christianity makes things pretty challenging. When you consider that Christianity is the only major religion in the world that teaches a salvation by grace, as opposed to one of effort, again, people crave the type of assurance and confidence that their own abilities and work can give them.

And so, most people in the world find comfort in religions that give them that. And that's not to say that Christians can't have assurance.

The opposite is true. In fact, it's quite the opposite. Christians just don't find their assurance from how they live their life, or how their life has changed.

These are the good things, right? We should seek to honor God and obey God, but we don't find our assurance in those things.

We don't find our assurance in how different I used to be, and now ten years later, I was this, and now

I'm this. These are good things, but our assurance isn't found in those things. We find our assurance from faith in the promises of God.

Not only our salvation, but also our assurance is given to us by faith, not by works.

And how much greater of an assurance is that? I mean, when we know that it's not up to our feeble hands to hold on to this, but our good and powerful

Lord, who would never lose one of his own, he's the one who's in control. He's the one who's the author of our assurance.

He's the author and perfecter of our faith. And this is the power of God. This is why it's so important.

While it might be folly, it might be foolishness to those who are perishing, to those of us who are being saved, this is all we live by.

This is the only hope that we have. All of that, all of our hope, lies with that truth. And God, in his great power, you know, he encourages us as we put our hope in what the world might say is foolish, right?

As onlookers say that this is crazy, that we could believe stuff like this. God has encouraged us to not be dismayed by that.

And Paul shows us how here, when he quotes Isaiah 29, verse 14, and verse 19 here.

He writes, Just as God promised to put to death the so -called wisdom of men, which was so coveted in Jerusalem in the time of Isaiah, Paul is telling us that the ultimate death of human wisdom by quoting this verse, he's saying that this has not quite been fulfilled yet, and that it will finally and fully be fulfilled one day, this ultimate death of human wisdom.

God is going to destroy the wisdom of the world, which would call his gospel message foolishness.

He's gonna set it aside forever in its weakness, because that's all it is, its weakness, its foolishness. That is actual foolishness.

So let's continue in the text. We're gonna pick up in verse 20. Paul, again, hammering on this point of the foolishness of God according to the perishing.

He says, For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know

God, God was well pleased through the foolishness of the message preached, to save those who believe.

For indeed, Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both

Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

And so we know that God has promised to destroy the wisdom of the world, and it's here in these verses, verses 20 through 25, that we're gonna see why.

Paul opens, he mocks man here. He rhetorically asks three times, where is the wise man?

Where's the scribe? Where's the debater of the age? Where are they?

Knowing ourselves and knowing other people, I'm sure we all, we are all well aware that our hubris, our pride, has a strong hold on us.

We're prone to thinking quite highly of ourselves and what we know, and yet when we really sit with it, when we really consider eternal things, we very clearly know so little.

But we do certainly think ourselves wise, don't we? And yet,

Paul writes here, it's through our wisdom, in verse 21, through our wisdom, we did not come to know

God. We were too busy, too preoccupied with ourselves, finding anything that would convince us that we don't need

God, that instead of becoming wise, we've actually become fools. They look no further than modern scientific research for proof of that, in my opinion.

I think I was doing a little digging this week, and if you consider the things that we invest our time and energy and resources into knowing and understanding, the

United States government, for example, in 2014 paid $171 ,000 to watch monkeys gamble and understand what are their gambling habits, and they spent over 1 .25

million dollars on trying to get mountain lions and shrimp to run on treadmills.

It's unbelievable, when you consider the things that in our efforts to eliminate the need for God, we have invested our time, energy, and resources into understanding and building tiny treadmills, so that we can understand if a shrimp can run on it.

I think, sadly, it might have. Is it any wonder, is it any wonder that God would deem us fools?

These are the things that we that we seek to know in our efforts to ignore God. Romans 1 verses 18 through 22 says this.

I think it sums it up perfectly. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them.

For God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes, his eternal power, and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.

So God has made these things clear. If we want to know, we could know.

For even though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

Professing to be wise, they became fools. God has made everything that we need to know about him abundantly clear to us.

But in our wisdom, we have sought any way possible to avoid

God. And by doing so, we've called ourselves wise, but we've become fools.

It's in our rebellion against God that we have become this way, because we are in a constant state of running from the

God of wisdom. And biblically, there's a great example of this in Genesis chapter 11,

I think, in the story of the Tower of Babel. You know, at this early point in history, the people of earth, you know, they came together to build a city and a tower.

And Genesis 11 verse 4 says, they said, the people said, Come, let us build for ourselves a city and a tower, whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name.

Otherwise, we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth. In their rebellion against God, they sought to make a name for themselves.

And so God, what does he do? He says in verse 5, The Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built.

Apparently, they didn't get very far on the tower, because God had to come down from heaven to see it.

And he scattered them all throughout the whole world and confused their languages, because in their foolishness, they fancied themselves wise.

They thought they could build their way back to God without ever having to know him. That type of foolishness doesn't please

God, but rather, Paul tells us here in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 that God is well -pleased to save those who believe through the foolishness of the message preached.

God is pleased to give himself to those who believe him, not who rely upon human wisdom.

He's not simply there for our taking when we're ready or when we think that we know enough.

And this is the error of the Greeks of Paul's day, that they search for wisdom, and yet they dismiss true wisdom as foolishness.

Because how could any God worth his salt die on a cross? Right, they don't understand.

It doesn't make sense to them that God, that the God of the universe could die in such a way.

And the Jews were similar. They just couldn't bring themselves to believe that their Messiah would suffer in a way like this.

It made no sense to them, because they had defined God in the way he should act according to their understanding of wisdom, but really they had become fools.

And yet the wisdom of God is that the church would, verse 23, preach Christ crucified. To Jews, a stumbling block, and to Gentiles, foolishness.

But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

And so while we may be personally and corporately tempted to think that we know best, and the reality is obviously quite different.

We're prone to hubris, but we really are rather unimpressive when it gets down to it.

We're not all that wise. We're not all that strong. And in the church, hopefully that that fact is a little more obvious, because we should be rightly comparing ourselves to the wise and powerful

Almighty himself. But even within the church, that's not always the most obvious thing.

And so Paul is reminding the Corinthians, and he's reminding us that it's yet another foolish exercise to trust in, or seek the wisdom of men, or to rely on the wisdom of men, as opposed to the foolishness of God.

It has only ever led to difficulty for man. And he encourages us to remember that, because it's not actually a bad thing.

Right? It's something that we should be encouraged by. Right? Our faith and our assurance is bound up in this wisdom of God, and this power of God.

This is a good thing for us. And that's why Paul is encouraging the

Corinthians to think this way. It's okay that it's not up to you. It's okay that you're not the smartest.

You don't need to be. He says in verse 26, consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble.

Say remember, brothers and sisters, you don't have to be wise according to worldly standards. You don't have to be mighty.

You don't have to be noble. You never were. He's telling us, I never thought you were wise.

Don't try to pretend to be now. You know, even if we've tried to convince ourselves and other people in the past, you know, that we are wise, or we are strong, or we are somehow refined.

Don't covet their praises anymore. Don't chase their approval for your faith and for your ministry.

Take heart that that's not what you are putting your hope in. Was Moses wise according to the flesh, when he could hardly get the words out when he spoke?

Was Israel mighty according to the flesh, when they cowered in the face of Goliath and the Philistines? Was David noble in the flesh, when he was the youngest of eight brothers and tending sheep, and his own father didn't even think that he could potentially be the king?

Of course not. And that's okay, because in verse 27 we see, but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise.

And God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world, and the despised.

God has chosen the things that are not, so that he may nullify the things that are. The reality of man is that we were made for relationship with God, and since we have run from him, we are weak, and we're perishing for our sin and for our rebellion against him.

And yet despite our hubris, despite the pride, the amount of pride that it would take for someone to do this, and this is what we have all have done,

God has determined that in his mercy, he is going to save some of these rebellious people.

And he won't save the ones who the world would think most deserve it. The best ones.

Because he has an answer to the wisdom of the world. He saves the ones even that the world rejects. Just as the world would reject the means that God accomplished this by a

Roman cross, the world has rejected even the people that God has decided to save. The despised

God has chosen, it says. The things that are not, to nullify, to bring to nothing the things that are.

God saves cross -hanging thieves, he saves murderers like Moses, and David, and Paul.

We read that in Acts 22 today. Cowards like Peter and the disciples. Sinners like you and me.

That's who God saves. And in his wisdom, God does this to show us that we are nothing before him.

And that all we have we owe to the risen Lord Christ, and he'll use it again someday to show the foolish, the perishing, that they were nothing before him either.

In verse 29, it says God does this so that no man may boast before God.

All that we have, all that the Corinthians have, is because it's been given to them, given to us by Christ.

Five times in verses 4 through 8 of this chapter, Paul explicitly sets the Corinthians, in all

Christians, as passive participants in grace. From their salvation, to the gifts that they now have, to their sanctification, to their future glorification.

From our salvation, from the gifts that we now have, from our sanctification, to our glorification, all these things, we are passive participants.

God is the one doing this. That's in verses 4 through 8 of chapter 1, if you want to look at that again at another point.

The point is we have nothing to boast about before God. And even so, this is really incredible, as we get ready to close here, even so, even with that being the case, we have nothing to boast about before God, and no man will boast before God.

The end of this chapter really is truly incredible to consider with that in mind. It's clear, obviously, that man has rejected

God, that we've sought wisdom on our own, and as such, we've become fools.

It's clear that we suffer from soul -destroying pride, and even though, when we're honest, there's nothing really to be all that proud of.

And yet, God saves. He brings the ones who are nothing, and yet, believe the message preached back to Him.

That's not all. That would most certainly be enough. Right? That's enough for us to forever declare how worthy this

God is, that He would save a wretch like me. That's not all that God has done for us, or all that He's promised to us.

God is not only the author of the Gospel message, He's its substance. God is the long -awaited reward of faith for those who believe it.

God is the Gospel. You look at verse 30, it says, Again, notice,

His doing, right? Verse 29 said that no man may boast before God, right?

And certainly not us, because we are the base things of the world, the least deserving to boast. And yet,

God has not only spared us from the just penalty of our sin, He has brought us into the love of the

Trinity itself, as we now abide forever and ever in the person.

In the person, it says, we're in Christ Jesus, God the Son, that we may be wisdom, we may be righteousness, we may be set apart and redeemed, and that while we will never boast in ourselves, or of ourselves, we will forever boast in the

Lord, who bought us and covers us, and has made our home with Him.

We will never boast, man will never boast before God, but in Christ we do boast of the

Lord and His work for us. What a gift that God has given to us. And so we cherish, as Christians, let's cherish being thought foolish by the world, as we look forward to the reward of our faith, and that's

God Himself. That we would know Him, we would know this Triune God, and know the love that Christ has for the

Father, and the Father for the Son. This is what Jesus calls us to in John 17.

This is what He prays for, for us, that we would know that love. And that is the gift that God has given to believers.

Let's pray. Father, thank You for Your Word, and thank You for the true gift,

Lord, that it is to us to know that, while we are incredibly undeserving, and while the world would look on at us with judgment and laughter even,

Lord, that we can take heart in knowing that Your promises are true. Lord, that the things that You have told us, we can have great faith and trust in, because You, God, are powerful and mighty to save.

Lord, You love Your church, because Your church is in Christ. Lord, and the love of the

Father towards the Son is unbreakable, immeasurable, Lord, and because we are in Him, we will forever be enjoying this love that You have so graciously given.

Father, give us faith to trust not in our circumstances, but to trust in Your promises.

Help us to be a people that clings to Your Word, because we know that it's in there, in Your Word, that we find

You. Lord, we don't look to the things around us, the things that we have for some sort of encouragement or building up,

Lord, but that we look to You, and You alone, Father. We thank You, we thank

You for Your great wisdom, that even though the world would call it foolishness, Lord, we can forever glory in the fact that You, Lord, have deemed it to be wise to save Your people in this way.

We praise You, Lord, and we pray that as we continue our service and we sing songs, Lord, that we would be singing with full hearts, knowing and believing that we are loved by God in Christ.