He who glories, let him glory in the Lord. 8/5/18

and just began to seek the Lord's face in His Word and I couldn't get away from this passage of Scripture that we're going to read today.

So we'll read the Word of God to you from the book of 1 Corinthians. This morning we want to preach to you,

I guess if we took a piece of a passage here, the title of the message would simply be this, this morning,

He who glories, let Him glory in the Lord. But we're going to read from verse 18 in the first chapter of 1

Corinthians and we're going to read down through chapter 2 and verse 5, if I'm seeing this number correctly.

The Scripture says this, for the message of the cross is foolishness, 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 will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.

Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age?

Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through wisdom did not know

God, it pleased God through the foolishness of preaching.

It pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.

For the Jews require a sign in Greek, seek after wisdom, but we preach

Christ crucified. To the Jews a stumbling block and to the

Greeks 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.

For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called.

But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty.

And the base things of the world and the things which are despised, God has chosen and the things which are not to bring to nothing or to bring to not the things that are that no flesh should glory in his presence.

But of him you are in Christ Jesus who became for us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, that as it is written, he who glories, let him glory in the

Lord. And I, brethren, when I came to you did not come with excellency of speech or of wisdom declaring unto you the testimony of God, for I determined not to know anything among you, you saved

Jesus Christ and him crucified. Paul said

I was with you in weakness, in fear and in much trembling, and my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but was in demonstration of the power and of the spirit that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

Let's go to the Lord in prayer, Heavenly Father, today in my flesh and in my heart from time to time,

Lord, I am tempted, tempted,

Lord, to back up or even sometimes to move away from the truth of your word.

And Lord, when it's in my flesh that I am tempted to do such things that I'm reminded through your word that outside of you and outside of your words and outside of the way that you have provided for salvation, that there is no other.

And Lord, in your word, you have taught me when many of those who you called disciples in the time that your word was written,

God, that they chose to go away, to walk away, to go a different path because the thing was too difficult or they didn't understand it fully and completely.

But Lord, I am so reminded by your Holy Spirit through your word of the words of the apostle

Peter, when he said, Lord, to whom shall we go for you have the words of eternal life.

And it is our prayer, God, for your people in this place today, that your people would not be drawn away, that your people would not be enticed, that your people would not be tempted to move away from your precious and your holy gospel.

And it is my request this morning, God, that you help me to proclaim the pure and simple gospel today, that we do not rejoice, that we do not glory, that we do not hold in high esteem anything other than your gospel.

For it is in the name of Jesus I make my request to you, Father. Amen and amen.

The context of this passage of scripture is simply this. The first few verses we see the apostle

Paul addressing the church at Corinth and many are saying, well, I'm following this bunch or I'm following that bunch and or I am of Paul or I am of Cephas or Peter or some would say

I am of Christ. And the apostle Paul is reminding the church at Corinth that their glory is not to be in men.

Their glory is not to be in anything. Their rejoicing is to be found in Jesus Christ and in him alone.

And he picking up here in the 18th verse, he said he makes a statement and he tells them that the message of the cross is foolishness to many.

It's foolishness. And when he uses the word to those who are perishing, let's just make things very plain and very simple this morning.

When he speaks of those who are perishing, he is speaking of those who are lost and do not have a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Those who do not know what it is to be born again of the spirit of God, those who do not know truly what it is to be regenerated, to be made a new creature in Jesus Christ, to have the fleshly desires and the fleshly lust crucified just as Christ was crucified on the cross.

He is speaking to those who are perishing and those who are perishing are perishing in their sin and separated from a holy

God. And the only remedy for sin is the death of Jesus Christ on the cross for our sins and not only his atoning death, but his resurrected life for Jesus Christ did not die only for our sins, but he rose again according to the scriptures on the third day.

Now, many will say this is a message that we hear repeatedly.

Many might say, I'm just about tired of hearing about the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And I would say to you, if that thought is in your mind, then you need to be born again because there is nothing else.

As far as I'm concerned, I cannot speak for you today, but for myself, there is nothing greater than the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And so Paul said the message of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness.

It is nonsense. It doesn't do anything for them. It doesn't do anything in them and it doesn't do anything to them.

And that is the truth, because a man who is lost in his sins is dead in his trespasses and in his sins and is not able to feel and is not able to know the goodness and the mercy and the grace of God.

But Paul reminded the Ephesian church there in Ephesians and the second chapter, he reminds them just who they were and where they came from, he said, and you who were dead in trespasses and sins, hath he quickened and made us alive and to sit together in heavenly places.

It is a great privilege that we have to have the gospel. The message of the cross is to them who perish foolishness, but unto us which are being saved.

And this is a this is a very accurate translation. The the new King James here to those who are being saved for truly salvation, friends, is of the

Lord. And when I got saved or if you are saved today, when you got saved, my friend, you got saved.

Number one, from the penalty of sin, as in Adam, according to Adam's sin, all die.

But in so in Christ shall all be made alive.

Amen. And so understanding this, that those of us who are being saved past, we have been saved from the penalty of sin.

And presently, currently, if you're alive and you are breathing, you've heard this for months on end, you are being sanctified by the

Holy Spirit. God is doing his continual work in your life.

You are being saved from the power of sin. Never until we leave this life will we be free completely from the pull of sin.

But sin does not have power over you as a Christian if you are saved. And so we are being saved.

So the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God to us who are being saved from the power of sin.

And the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ is powerful because one day after a while when we leave this old world, one day after a while, we'll get a new glorified body and we will forever be delivered from the presence of sin.

Won't that be good? That means you won't have to worry about getting broke down when you work 12 or 15 hours.

You won't have to worry about getting broke down in your body when you turn 30 years old.

And it's all downhill from there for many of us. One day we'll be delivered from the power of sin's sway over our life.

So the gospel is the power of God. And then in verse 20, the

Apostle Paul says this, Where is the wise? Where is the scribe?

Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?

For since in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, that it pleased

God through the foolishness of the message preached. What we're doing today,

I want to inject a statement here, and I want to say this just as a word of personal testimony.

I thank God for gospel preachers in my life. I am so thankful for men who

I've had the privilege to sit under and to listen to, whether I know them personally or not, that stand and proclaim the pure message of the gospel of Jesus Christ, because if it were not for those men who have stood so firm on the word of God over the years, men who were unashamed, men who were unafraid to stand and to just preach what thus says the word of God.

I thank God for those men. Oh, I hope you've got some folks in your life that you can look back on and say,

I thank God for them. Oh, oh, friend, listen, I was reading yesterday also a bit of Charles Spurgeon's testimony of salvation, and I want to share just a little bit about that with you.

What he said concerning his testimony. Charles Spurgeon was saved in the

I guess it was the the mid to early 1800s.

And this was his testimony. And I just want to read this to you. He said, I sometimes think

I might have been in darkness and despair until now, had it not been for the goodness of God in sending a snowstorm one

Sunday morning while I was going to a certain place of worship. He said, when

I could go no further, I turned down a side street and came to a little primitive

Methodist chapel. Now, I want to I want to give you a little bit of context on Charles Spurgeon. Charles Spurgeon is referred to as the

Prince of Preachers. He was a very eloquent man, a very well -spoken man. But more than all of that, he was a very godly man.

He had been saved by the amazing grace of God and he could do nothing else but tell of the amazing grace of God.

And so with him being a very well -spoken man, he's making a reference back to the little primitive

Methodist chapel that he went to. And he said this in that chapel, there may have been a dozen or 15 people at most.

I had heard of the primitive Methodists, how they sang so loudly that they made people's heads ache.

But that did not matter to me. I wanted to know how I might be saved.

Oh, thank God. Listen, folks, today, you don't need to go to the world to find out how to be saved.

I would hope that everybody in this place knows if you need to know how to get saved, that you can go to the church house and hear just exactly how to be saved by the grace of God.

And God help it, if the church ever becomes anything other than that, than a place where men and women can hear the gospel of Jesus Christ proclaimed.

I don't like the shouting the way the preacher does. Jesus Christ died for your sins and he rose again the third day so that you would have justification.

Was that a little bit better? I'll say it either way you want to say it, but either way

I say it, you're going to hear the same exact thing. Jesus Christ saves from sin.

Spurgeon went on to say this. The minister did not come that morning. He was snowed up, I suppose. And he said, at last, a very thin looking man, a shoemaker, a tailor or something of that sort, went up into the pulpit to preach.

Now, he said, it is well that preachers should be instructed. But this man was really stupid.

I mean, he was just honest, Spurgeon was. He said the man that got up was just stupid because one thing, he was probably not as refined as what

Spurgeon was used to. But it ain't always the refined speaker that'll get you where you need to get.

Amen. Sometimes you got to have folks that can't speak that well. And that's what he spoke about right here. He said he was really stupid, but he was obliged to stick to his text for the simple reason that he had little else to say.

The text was from Isaiah chapter 45, verse 22, and the scripture says, look to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth.

Spurgeon said he did not even pronounce the words rightly, but that did not matter. There was,

I thought, a glimpse of hope for me in that text. The preacher began thus, and he said this, and I'm just going to try to read it as it's written here, the transcript from that preacher's message.

He said, my dear friends, this is a very simple text indeed. It says, look.

Now, looking don't take a deal of pains. It ain't lifting your foot or your finger.

It is just look. Well, a man needn't go to college to learn to look. You may be the biggest fool, and yet you can look.

A man needn't be worth a thousand a year to be able to look. Anyone can look.

Even a child can look. But then the text says, look unto me. I said he in a broad

Essex. Many of you are looking to yourselves, but it's no use looking there.

You'll never find any comfort in yourselves. Some look to the God, the Father.

No, look to him by and by. Jesus Christ says, look unto me.

Some of you may say we must wait for the spirits of working. You have no business with that now.

Look to Christ. The text says, look unto me. Then the good man followed up his text in this way.

Look unto me. I am sweating great drops of blood. Look unto me.

I am hanging on the cross. Look unto me. I am dead and buried.

Look unto me. I rise again. Look unto me. I ascend to heaven.

Look unto me. I'm a sitting at the Father's right hand. Oh, poor sinner.

Look unto me, was this preacher's message. Spurgeon went on to say when he had gone to about that length and managed to spin out 10 minutes or so, he was at the end of his tether.

Then he looked at me. Spurgeon's testimony is this. The preacher looked at me under the gallery.

And I dare say with so few present, he knew me to be a stranger. Just fixing his eyes on me as if he knew all my heart.

He said, young man, you look very miserable. Well, I did.

But I had not been accustomed to have remarks made from the pulpit on my personal appearance before.

However, it was a good blow and it struck right home. He continued.

And you always will be miserable, miserable in life and miserable in death if you don't obey my text.

But if you obey now this moment, you will be saved.

Then lifting up his hands, he shouted as only a primitive Methodist could do.

Young man, look to Jesus Christ. Look, look, look.

You had nothing to do but to look and to live. Spurgeon said,

I saw it once the way of salvation. I know not what else he said. I did not take much notice of it.

I was possessed with that one thought as when the brazen serpent was lifted up and the people only looked and were healed.

So it was with me. I had been waiting to do 50 things. But when

I heard that word, look what a charming word it seemed to me. Oh, I looked until I could have almost looked my eyes away.

There and then the cloud was gone. The darkness had rolled away. And that moment

I saw the sun and I could have risen that instant and sun with the most enthusiastic of them.

Oh, the precious blood of Christ and the simple faith that looks to him and to him alone.

Oh, that somebody had told me this before. Truth, trust Christ and you shall be saved.

Yet it was no doubt all wisely ordered. And that's all I can say about that.

That is what Spurgeon went on to say. And friends, let me tell you something. I could stand up here and when

I read the testimony of Spurgeon, I'm moved by that. But friend, there is nothing that moved me more than whatever shall move me more than that day back in March 1987, when at that youth conference,

I thought I was just going about my business. You might very well think you're just going about your business, that you're going to put another

Sunday in and get another Sunday under your belt. But friend, today might be that very day where the spirit of God convicts your heart and draws you unto salvation.

All because Jesus made it possible for you to hear the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And that day I got saved, not because of anything I did or because of anything, any emotions that I went through.

I got born again because the Holy Spirit of God sought me out, brought me out of darkness, translated me out of darkness, gave me life so that I might live, so that I might trust, so that I might believe, so that I might have hope, so that I could not only see through the eyes of faith what

Jesus Christ did, so that I might hear the good news of the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Because before that day, it was foolishness to me. But on that day, it became the power of God unto salvation.

And it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save them.

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord. Those who believe, for he said in verse 22, the

Jews require a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom. The Jewish still today are seeking after a sign.

They're seeking for something more than what God himself has already accomplished and provided as his means of salvation.

Matter of fact, in Jesus' day, if you go back in the Gospels, you'll see in one place they said, show us a sign that we might believe in you.

And Jesus said, there will be no sign given you but that of the sign of the prophet

Jonah, who just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so shall it be concerning the

Son of Man, who after he is crucified will spend three days and three nights in the earth.

But afterward, he'll come out of the grave and be alive forevermore.

The Jews request a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom. The Greeks seek after something that makes sense.

Oh, listen, I'll be honest and I hope that you will be honest enough with yourself to say this, that the message that someone actually died for your sin and rose again the third day would be a message of hope if you're honest.

You would have to say, before I got saved, I thought that was crazy talk. Would you not agree?

I mean, it's crazy. It is crazy to us, but God's ways are not our ways.

His thoughts are not our thoughts. And thank God he don't do anything according to what I think he should do.

Amen. I mean, how good a place would this world be, James, if God did things like you?

Right? What about you, young man? You perfect?

No. You know why? Because sin has ruined your heart. Sin has ruined your life.

And sin has caused you to know nothing but death and sorrow. And it will forever do that.

But Jesus Christ provided a remedy for your sin. Jesus Christ provided the way of salvation so that you can know the forgiveness of sin.

So that you can have the hope of eternal life. The Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach

Christ crucified. To the Jews, a stumbling block. And to the Greeks, foolishness.

But to those who are the called. See, there's a comma there.

And I would dare say, in any translation you're using, whether you're using the King James, the New King James, if you're using the

NASV, an ESV, there's a comma there. And it's important to read the punctuation marks.

They're there for a reason. He didn't say, to those who are called, Jews and Greeks. But he said, to those who are called.

Those who have been elected. Those who have been drawn unto salvation. You cannot be saved unless the

Holy Spirit draws you. Jesus said, no man can come unto me except the

Father which sent me draws him. And where does the

Spirit come? And whose bidding does the Spirit do? But the

Father's. So you might say, well, I'm just deciding to follow

Jesus. Friend, if you're going to decide to follow Jesus, it's going to be because the Holy Spirit has drawn you.

It's going to be because the Holy Spirit has called you. Not because you've just done it on your own. It is, salvation is of the

Lord. To those who are called, both Jews and Greeks. It doesn't matter if you're a

Jew or a Greek, a Jew or a Gentile. Whether you're in the in crowd or whether you're in the out crowd, the message is to you and to all,

Jesus Christ saves. 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 you see, you're calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called, but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise.

And the base things of the world and the things which are despised, God has chosen and the things which are not to bring to nothing the things that are that no flesh should glory in His presence.

But of Him. The Apostle Paul reminds the Corinthian believers and I want to remind you today, but of Him.

Are you in Christ Jesus who has become unto us the wisdom of God, the wisdom of God.

For Jesus Christ is the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Amen.

God is a spirit according to the Word of God and a spirit hath not flesh and body.

Amen. But Jesus Christ came in the flesh, the fullness of the

Godhead bodily and demonstrated exactly who the Father is.

And He went on to say here, but of Him are you in Christ Jesus who became for us wisdom from God and righteousness.

You stand in need today of righteousness. Now when

I say you, let me just do one of the things like I usually wait for the end to do to try to eyeball every one of you.

I can tell you I love you, but you, you stand in need of righteousness.

You are not good enough. You are not good enough to get to heaven.

You are not good enough. Claude Ramsey is probably worse than every one of y 'all in here.

I ain't good enough. But Jesus Christ is.

God gave His righteous standard for goodness in the Ten Commandments.

Thou shalt have no other gods before me. You shall worship the Lord thy God and Him only shalt thou serve. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

And He went on and He went on and He went on. The first four commandments are all about our relationship to God. The last six are about our relationship with our brothers and sisters, our people that we relate to on a daily basis.

And friends, we have all sinned and come short of God's glory. And therefore, we lack righteousness.

Righteousness does not come from within us. We say, I know some good people, sir. I don't know how he's ever been a bad person.

From what I can tell you, I've known of him. I've talked about him since he came here. But guess what?

He ain't good enough. He never has been good enough. As good a man as he is, has been as long as I've known him.

He's never been good enough. Nobody's good enough but Jesus Christ. But Jesus Christ has become unto us righteousness because He came and He lived perfectly and fulfilled fully and totally

God's holy standard of righteousness. So He has become unto us our righteousness.

He is my righteousness. What a reason to glory today. But to say

I was lost and on my way to hell, but Jesus Christ showed mercy and grace and drew me unto

Himself, called me unto salvation and He saved me that day back in March 1987 and He became my righteousness.

So that when we come down to the end of the road and there is going to be an end of the road, when we come to the end of the road and we stand before God, not a one of us is going to say

I lived most of my life pretty good. Just let me in, Lord. Because you know what

He's going to say? Depart from me, you that work iniquity for I never knew you.

There is nothing worse than to be rejected and to be sent away, naturally speaking. But friends, we will have nothing, absolutely nothing to say and we have absolutely nothing else to say today, but if it comes down to it and somebody says if you die today and go to heaven, what are you going to stand on?

And today all I can say is this, what I'm standing on is the blood of Jesus Christ that was shed on the cross at Calvary who died in my place so that I might be made righteous before the

Father. Jesus Christ is becoming to us wisdom. He's becoming to us righteousness.

He is becoming to us sanctification. That's the work of God cleaning us up every day of our lives continually over and over and over.

It's Jesus Christ. And He's becoming to us redemption. One day,

I don't know when, I don't know how exactly, to be honest with you, but one day, according to the

Word of God, the Lord is going to close the book on all this that's going on.

And one day, according to the Scriptures, He will come back in the clouds with a trumpet.

And at the last trumpet, when that trumpet sounds and the shout of the voice of the archangel, the dead in Christ are going to arise first.

And then we, which are alive and remain, are going to be caught up together with Him forever where we'll be with the

Lord, according to the Scriptures. We're going to be fully redeemed. Amen?

And I think about this, and in closing, and I want to just read you a short passage from the book of 2

Samuel. In closing here today, 2 Samuel, back in the

Old Testament, 2 Samuel chapter 9. And when I think about us, He who glories.

Let Him glory in the Lord. Let the Lord be your cause for rejoicing and nothing else.

I think about the Old Testament story that we have concerning a man named

Mephibosheth. And I want to just read this to you. The Word of God says this in 2

Samuel chapter 9, verse 1. Now David said, Is there still anyone who is left in the house of Saul that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake?

And there was a servant of the house of Saul whose name was Zeba. So when they called him to David, the king said to him,

Are you Zeba? And he said, At your service. Then the king said,

Is there still not someone of the house of Saul to whom I may show the kindness of God? And before I read any further,

I don't want you to hear this and not know the context of what's going on here.

This is King David, the king that's being spoken of here. He had a best friend named

Jonathan who was King Saul's son. And King David had promised

Jonathan long, long years before what we're reading here that one day after a while when

God put him over the kingdoms and when God put him in charge of everything that he would, because of his great love that he had for his friend

Jonathan, that he would not completely destroy and wipe out Saul's household.

He wouldn't wipe them off the face of the earth. He was going to show mercy and have compassion. And friends,

I don't know about you, but there are many times in my life where I feel like people need to give me a reason to show them mercy and compassion.

To give me something of value that they are willing to trade for mercy and compassion.

But friend, God is not such a man as I am. Amen. Praise the

Lord. And the Scripture goes on here. Let's pick up in verse 4.

So the king said to him, Where is he? And Ziba said to the king, Indeed, he is in the house of Makir the son of Amiel in Lodabar.

Then King David sent and brought him out of the house of Makir and the son of Amiel from Lodabar In verse 6, when

Mephibosheth the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul had come to David, he fell on his face and he prostrated himself.

Then David said, Mephibosheth! You've got to understand something.

At the age of five, Mephibosheth and his family had to run for their lives.

And Mephibosheth, when he was five years old, just a child, fell. And he completely crippled himself.

He couldn't get around. And my friend, it's bad enough that a person with good health is unworthy of anything the goodness and the kindness and the mercy and the grace of anyone else who they have plenty to offer.

This man, Mephibosheth, had absolutely nothing. He couldn't get around, he couldn't move, he couldn't walk.

And then listen to what the Scripture says. He answered and he said, Here is your servant.

And David said to him, Do not fear, for I will surely show you kindness for Jonathan your father's sake.

And we'll restore to you all the land of Saul, your grandfather, and you shall eat bread at my table continually.

Then he bowed himself and he said, What is your servant that you should look upon such a dead dog as I?

Oh friends, I'm not going to try to put myself in this text.

I'm not in this text and you ain't in this text. But I am going to say this, that when we come before God and we worship before the

King of kings and the Lord of lords, what better a statement for us to say and what better an admittance for us to make than to say,

God, I am not even better than a dead dog unto you.

And yet, according to the Scriptures here, David invited

Mephibosheth to come and to sit at his table. And not only to sit at his table, but to live in his house and to care for him the remainder of his days.

Jesus Christ. No, let me say this. The Father, God the

Father, for the sake of Jesus Christ, has shown us mercy.

And he has invited us to sit at his table.

So what else can we do but glory in the

Lord? If there was a song, and in closing, April sung it years ago and it's an old song.

But I spent some time and I about got so mad, I about threw my kindle on the ground two or three times.

I was trying to type so fast remembering the words this morning and my finger kept hitting a button two or three times and I'd have to go back and I was just getting frustrated.

I bore through it. But for a cause and for a reason. I can imagine

Mephibosheth sitting there at the table and I can hear, I can just hear it begin to sing.

I know this song probably wasn't around but this is a song I can imagine him singing. By the way, this ain't the Scripture what I'm telling you right now.

I'm just making an analogy but I believe it's a good one. I believe you'll get it. Mephibosheth crippled from a child unable to offer any value or any worth at all to the king being invited to sit at the king's table.

I believe he's sitting there and I can begin to hear him sing something like this. There are so many things in life people brag about treasures that their money's bought things that I can do without but I have something in my heart

I'll tell it everywhere I go the love of Jesus can be bought and it's worth more than gold he took away my broken heart replaced it with a smile he took away all my sins when he made me his child he put these teardrops in my eyes now

I can clearly see is it any wonder why

I brag of him look what he's done for me

I'll tell it to my friends around I'll sing it in my song how he took away my sin away and he made for me a home and I'll keep preaching night and day for I want the world to see just what it is

I brag about look what he's done for me he took away my broken heart replaced it with a smile he took away all my sins where glory had he made me his child he put these teardrops in my eyes now

I can clearly see is it any wonder why

I brag of him look what he's done for me oh friends today are you saved do you know the forgiveness of sins do you know what it means to know that your name has been written in the

Lamb's book of life and to know that you have been passed from death unto life not because of anything that you have done or accomplished or will ever do but simply because of the grace of almighty

God oh God today thank you thank you thank you that we have preserved in your word the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ thank you