Thank you. It's a pleasure to be with you again. It's a pleasure to have my wife here with me this time, Lord willing, to be here for a little bit longer than in the past. She's, uh, only spent one night here before, and of course that was too short of a time to really get to know folks that well and to, uh, enjoy your fellowship. So it's good to be here for a little more extended period of time. I, uh, don't know whether I appreciate being tagged as a visitor or not, but I like getting the keychains and the pins, so if, uh, that's what I have to endure to get the keychain and the pin, I'll, I'll be a visitor today. We'd like to, uh, begin looking in First Corinthians, but before we do that, I'd like to turn to the book of Acts and read a few verses there in chapter eighteen. uh Acts chapter eighteen. I thought it might be good to sort of tie in some similar thoughts with what we'll be taking up with the men in this coming week, again, Lord willing, in our study time together. It won't be exactly the same, but it might be helpful for us to sort of go through the book of First Corinthians. Obviously, we won't have time to go through it verse by verse in all of its detail, but we'll get a good sense of what the book is about. We'll hit the major sections, and we'll find that in the evenings there'll be plenty of material for the gospel, uh, there as well. So appreciate your prayers for the Lord's leading and his help in solidifying that which we would take up in this book. Acts chapter eighteen and verse one. Acts eighteen one. After these things, Paul departed from Athens and came to Corinth and found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, lately come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because that Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome, and came unto them. Because he was of the same craft, he abode with them and wrought, for by their occupation they were tent makers. And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks. And when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the spirit and testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ. And when they opposed themselves and blasphemed, he shook his raiment and said unto them, your blood be upon your own heads. I am clean. From henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles. And he departed thence and entered into a certain man's house named Justice, one that worshiped God, whose house joined hard to the synagogue. And Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his house. And many of the Corinthians, hearing, believed and were baptized. Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, be not afraid, but speak and hold not thy peace, for I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee, for I have much people in this city. He continued there a year and six months teaching the word of God among them. Then just, if you would, turn and look at verse eighteen. And Paul, after this, tarried there yet a good while, and then took his leave of the brethren and sailed thence into Syria. Then turn to First Corinthians chapter one. and verse one. Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes, our brother, unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours. Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ, that in everything ye are enriched by him, in all utterance and in all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, so that you come behind in no gift, waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall also confirm you unto the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called unto the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. When we come to the book of Acts in chapter eighteen, that portion that we read of Paul's travel to Corinth, coming from Athens to Corinth, it presents to us a unique time in the ministry of Paul for a number of reasons. It's one of the few places we read about in the scripture where Paul stayed any length of time, and it's part of the reason why I read that last verse that we read, at least a portion of it, verse eighteen, I believe it was in Acts eighteen, that he tarried there yet a good while. Scripture says he was there for a year and six months, eighteen months. The only place that we read about Paul laboring and teaching any length of time greater than that was his stay at Ephesus, which was for three years. So Corinth was unique in that Paul stayed there almost longer than he did anywhere else, and he taught extensively while he was there, teaching and presenting the things of Christ and preaching the gospel and teaching the word of. So it was unique for that reason, if for no other reason. It's always amazing to me when we come to the book of Acts, I like to remember that when they went into these areas, other than going to the synagogue of the Jews that would have had the Old Testament, that would have pointed to a Messiah who was to come, they often went into places where the name of Jesus Christ was not known. That is an encouragement to us to see them as they went into these places, just sort of raw pioneer territory, and armed only with the gospel, not even having what we would call today a New Testament or a, a Bible in that sense, uh, having only the Old Testament wherever they could find it, but by the power of the Spirit of God, they went into these places and preached the gospel, and they presented Christ, presented Jesus Christ, crucified, buried, risen again, ascended into the glory, and coming again one day. And people got saved, and the Corinthians got saved, and these little bands of believers gathered together, and then Paul sought to instruct them in the things of God and how they could carry on for God. It really is a remarkable thing. We, we, we tend to forget the history of it in that sense because we get these sort of condensed versions of what we have in the book of Acts. You read one verse, it says Paul was there for eighteen months. Well, that was a year and a half. But other places you read he was only there a matter of weeks, and he had to cast those believers upon God's grace and whatever instruction he could give them at that time, teaching them certain essential things, and then occasionally being able to go back and visit them from time to time and encourage them, correct problems wherever he found them, wherever he was able, and ultimately to write letters to them that would become the very word of God that we have today by the inspiration of the Spirit of God. But these churches prospered, they had difficulties, they had problems, and yet they grew, they evangelized, and here we sit today, really as an extension of that very thing that began there in the book of Acts. So it's a remarkable thing to think about in that sense, isn't it? Uh, what God was able to do with these men in that day. Now, when we come to the book of First Corinthians, I'm sure that you know that it's a book that is filled with all sorts of problems. And one of the reasons why the book was written from the purely human aspect in that sense, or why God caused Paul to write it, was because the Corinthians had a number of questions, and when we see something about their background, we'll understand why they had questions. And so they wrote to Paul. They wrote to him on at least, uh, uh, four questions, and you'll find these if we look at them just briefly, because he'll introduce them with the phrase in chapter seven and verse one, now concerning the things whereof you wrote unto me. And so that will lead him into a, a definition or an explanation to give them instruction in regard to that which they had written to them about. That was chapter seven and verse one. They had questions about marriage. Chapter eight, now is touching things offered unto idols. They had questions about things that were offered unto idols in that day, what their relationship to those should be who ate things offered to idols, whether they should or shouldn't eat things that had been offered to idols. That was a big burning question in the day of, of the Corinthians. In chapter twelve and verse one, Now concerning spiritual gifts or concerning spirituals, spirituality, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. And he writes to them concerning spiritual gifts, a big question again in the church at Corinth. And then finally, in chapter sixteen and verse one, now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye. And he gives them their instruction for collection of funds, not just for the operation of their assembly there at Corinth, but a collection of funds that would be used in what we call today missionary service, or even to help those who were in need in various other places in different parts of the world. So those four questions that were asked by the Corinthians form a good bit of what Paul would write to the, to the church at Corinth about. But he didn't just write to them about those questions. He took opportunity from the reports that he'd been getting of certain things that had been going on in Corinth to address other problems and address issues that had arisen, things that they had not asked about. Now, when you come to the book of First Corinthians, it is often called a corrective epistle. Corrective because he spends so much time dealing with certain of the problems that the Corinthians had. Not, again, just the things that they were asking him about, but things that he knew about from the reports. And so he has to spend a good bit of time correcting them about their practices. And yet, in doing that, it's one of the greatest things that's ever come down, uh, been handed down to us, because when we see how he dealt with those problems, we realize that we're going to face the same kind of problems in the societies in which we find ourselves living. We're going to face the same kind of issues in our life in the church. And so it's a help to us to see how biblically those problems were dealt with, and also the principles that he, that he uses or that he gives to them, because the principles wi- that he gives them will go beyond the immediate situation. For instance, most of you, I would say undoubtedly the majority of us in this room, don't have a problem today with things that are offered to idols. You don't have a problem going to the restaurants here and wondering whether or not that the food that you get had been previously offered to an idol. So the temptation would be to say, well, there's big portions of this book that have to do with that, don't have anything to do with me. But in the midst of teaching them truth about meat that was offered to idols, he'll touch on other principles that will have something to do with you and me, in our treatment of one another, in our own personal liberty as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. So you see, there, there are far-reaching principles that are found in this book and that, that flow out of some of those things that Paul had to address that were happening there at Corinth. The Word of God taught, corrective in nature, and yet remember one of the things that we find in the scripture that it says about itself, Second Timothy in chapter three, that passage that brings before us the, the fact of the inspiration of God's word, it says this, all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. I like the little explanation of that verse that has been a help to me. I'm sure you've probably heard it before, but I pass it on to you because it really does fit with what we're talking about. Doctrine tells us what is right. Reproof tells us what is wrong. Correction tells us how to get right, and instruction tells us how to stay right. And the Word of God is the complete package. All scripture is given by inspiration of God. It is profitable for doctrine to tell us what is right, to give us a standard by which to measure things, so that we're not left to just speculation or human wisdom or coming up with our own devices in order to figure out how things ought to be. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, profitable for doctrine to tell us what is right, but it's also given for reproof. It's profitable for reproof to show us what's wrong, to show us when things are out of line with what God's word tells us they ought to be, and how to bring them back into line. That's correction, and then how to, to keep them where they ought to be. That's instruction in righteousness. The completeness of God's word and its ability to enable us to have that complete package, if you will. And so when you come to the book of First Corinthians, don't get in your mind that just because it's a corrective epistle, that is that just because he has to take them to task for certain things, that it, that it doesn't have a value for us. It does. In seeing the wrong, we see the right. In seeing what they, in seeing how they weren't supposed to do it, we also learn how we are supposed to do it. In seeing what the church shouldn't have been, we realize what it ought to be. And so we find that in this book of First Corinthians. Now again, when we, uh, think about this book, when you read these first nine verses as we did, you know, it's, it's, you wouldn't know that there was a problem on the surface. You wouldn't know that there was a ripple anywhere on the water, would you, when you read these first nine verses, because he speaks in such flowing terms to these Corinthians of what a work God has done in their midst, of what and how his testimony has been confirmed among them, and what they have been brought into in the Lord Jesus Christ, and hopefully we'll see that as we move on. Just a couple of other points of interest, and by the way, this morning is obviously just by way of introduction to sort of get us to thinking about this book, and I find it helpful too, since, again, Lord willing, that we'll be here for a little bit of time, and you'll know what we're doing, at least what we plan on doing, unless the Lord interrupts the, those plans, that you can read ahead in this book, and it'll be fresh in your mind. You'll know where we're going as we sort of move through the book of First Corinthians, and I think it'll be a good help to us as we study together. The book of Romans, and we'll touch on this tonight, Lord willing, was, was written from Corinth, and I think that's a very important thing to see, but we'll say more about that later. The book of Romans presents to us a pattern for the gospel. If I were to ask you, if you're a believer in Christ, where can you go in God's word to, to really find the pattern for the gospel that we preach? Uh, you wouldn't probably suggest to me, well, I'll go to the book of Deuteronomy, or I'll go to the book of, uh, second uh Samuel. Not to say we can't find God's truth there, or not to say we can't preach the gospel from those books. But if I said, where are you going to find the gospel unfolded for us in all of its clarity, in all of its beauty, in all of its wonder, and and that the foundation of it is laid so that you can understand what the gospel's about. Undoubtedly, we would think of, wouldn't we, the book of Romans, because the book of Romans gives us that foundational truth of God's gospel, the gospel of God concerning his son. And it unfolds to us all the wonder of what Christ has done. It shows us the condition that we were in outside of Christ. It shows us how a man can be right in the sight of God, which is there at the very front door, isn't it? That this gospel reveals to us a righteousness of God, which is available to all those who believe. How we can stand in the sight of God, justified by faith and faith alone. The book of Romans lays that foundation for us, and it's a great book to preach the gospel from. It's a great book to teach the gospel from. Every believer, young believer, old believer, should have some understanding of the great truths that are found in that book of Romans. Young people need to understand it. It's a foundational book when it comes to the gospel. It gives us a pattern. Interesting that Corinthians, the book of Corinthians, First Corinthians, is said to have been written from Ephesus. And Ephesus is one of those books that unfolds to us the mystery of the church. The church, which is the body of Christ in this age in which we find ourselves living. It is there that Paul will talk about that which God has revealed, that which had been hidden in the ages past, but now has, has come to light in this part of God's program, the church, which is his body, of which he is the head. And it was that book of Ephesians that, that unfolds that, but Corinthians was written from Ephesus. And remember that Paul was in Ephesus for three years. And you seem to get a sense of the fact that as he was there, and as he was being led by God's spirit, he gives us, in the book of First Corinthians, a pattern for the church. If Romans gives us a pattern for the gospel, First Corinthians gives us a pattern for the church. Back up one book, maybe even one page in your Bible, to the last chapter of the book of Romans, and just note something that's found there. As Paul is concluding, finishing this book, he says in verse twenty four, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all, chapter sixteen, verse twenty four. Now to him that is of power to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith. To God only wise be glory through Jesus Christ. Amen. I always find it fascinating just to see how the word of God is put together. Paul closes the book of Romans with the mention of the mystery, as he says, the mystery that has been revealed, but it had been kept secret since the foundation or the beginning of the world. We know when we come to the book of Ephesians, he will refer to the church in the same language. And then the very next book we come to is First Corinthians, which is going to give us truth concerning the church, what the church should be, what it is, what it shouldn't be, and so on. And really, don't you find in these two letters, if in no other letters, in these two, as they are placed side by side in this book, really what Paul gave his entire life to. He gave his life to the preaching of Jesus Christ, as he says here in Romans, to the obedience of faith to all nations. And he gave his life to the teaching of believers in the church that they might be presented to God in all the perfection that they are intended to be, that they might go on for the Lord and be a testimony to him in this world in which we find ourselves living. And really, those two books there present to us the thrust of Paul's ministry, to proclaim Christ, to proclaim the gospel, and to build believers up in their faith and to see them established in that which God had established, his church. And so I find a remarkable connection between these two, two books. One is foundational in the gospel. It lays the foundation upon which we, we are saved and enter into salvation. The other seeks to show us how to build on the foundation. Now let's turn to First Corinthians chapter three. First Corinthians chapter three. And I'll read for context verse eight. I'll back up to verse eight just to sort of get the, the sense of this passage. Well, let's start at verse nine. For we are laborers together with God. Ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building. According to the grace of God, which is given unto me as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. And then he goes on to talk about how we build. Now just stop and think for the, for a moment about this question. Just let it sort of settle in your mind and think about it. I don't think there's any question in our mind that when it comes to the foundation that has been laid, which is Jesus Christ, other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. I don't think there's any question in our mind that God has given us the foundation for the gospel, in the gospel, that which we believe, how we are saved, how we are brought into Christ. Now the foundation is laid. Do you think that once that foundation had been laid, that we would be left to our own devices to figure out what now to put on that foundation, how to build on that foundation, what the building should look like, what character it should take, what its components would be. Well, I don't, not only do I not think so, I know that the Lord would not have left something as critical as the building that is to be the very place that his presence inhabits. He wouldn't have left it to man's devices. What in the world would have ended up being? Some folks joke sometimes about committees, you know, they say, uh, a camel is a horse that was designed by a committee. If you leave it up to man's devices, there's no telling what it'll end up looking like. We find ourselves in that situation. You may not notice it as much here where you are in this particular place, but you travel around a little bit out- outside of here, as I know most of you do, and you find some awfully peculiar things going under the banner of the name of Christ. Has God left us to wonder, now the foundation's been laid, just build any old thing, throw any old thing up upon it? No, and that's why he says, be careful, take heed in verse ten, how you build thereupon. And so I suggest to you that as we, we look at the book of Corinthians, what we're getting is how we build on the foundation. Romans, the foundation laid, the gospel, Jesus Christ, his person, his work unfolded. First Corinthians and these other books of the New Testament letters, particularly books like this that will deal with the church, how we build on that foundation. And obviously we'll have to look at that a bit more in detail. You know, I was noticing, just, just thinking about this book, I, I wrote down a number of things that First Corinthians will touch on, what we might call doctrinal truths, important truths, obviously, but, but those that are unfolded in this particular book alone. Think about how many things we find here. Certainly the gospel is unfolded in this book. You'll find that in every major section of the book of First Corinthians, Paul will always be bringing these believers back to the truth of the gospel. They got a problem with dividing. They've got a problem with separating themselves off from one another, calling themselves by different names. He brings them back to the essential truths of the gospel. They have a problem with sin in their midst, he brings them back to the truth of the gospel, and on and on through this letter, he'll bring them back to the great truths of the gospel. The name. Think about the name in chapter one. Did you notice as we were reading these first nine verses? I mentioned to you that when we read these first nine verses of First Corinthians chapter one, that you wouldn't know there was a problem in that church, really, from reading what he says, but just think about this for a minute. How many times do we read the phrase Jesus Christ our Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ? You get it in almost every verse. He's letting them know from the very outset, isn't he? That the name under which they find themselves gathering, the name which they have attached themselves to, not only is it important, but that this is the Lord Jesus Christ, and they claim to be followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now that carries a weight to it, doesn't it? Because if they are followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, you see what he's doing is bringing them before them the authority of the name of the Lord Jesus. A name speaks of authority, doesn't it? I remember before I was saved, I used to, uh, work doing a little bit of rough carpentry before I was saved. It was very rough, but, um, we, we lived up in Savannah, Georgia, a friend of mine, and he had an aunt, Aunt Mary, and next door to where Mary lived in this fella's grandmother's house, she had a house next door, and she let us live there, didn't charge us any rent, and we worked doing frame carpentry around the city of Savannah. Now, Mary had one requirement, that was we had to go to church on Sunday. And I tell you, I, it was, uh, often on a Sunday morning she'd come over beating on the door if we weren't out of bed, because that was the one thing that she, uh, demanded of us, that we would, uh, go to church there on, on Sunday morning. But, um, anyway, the other thing was we'd often go over to his grandmother's house, which was next door where Mary, Mary lived, to, to eat our meals. Now they were raised Christian folk, you know, a Christian background, so before we ever had a meal, we always prayed. My folks were not Christians. I wasn't raised in a Christian background, and yet, oddly enough, my father always made me pray before any meal. Now, I didn't know anything but little prayer that they taught me. Uh, God is great, God is good, let us thank him for this food, amen. That's how I said it every night, every meal before we sat down. My father, even as an unbeliever, made me pray that little prayer. But when I was up at my friend's house, when it came my turn to be called upon to pray at the meal, I didn't know anything else to do but that little prayer that I'd heard as a little boy, as a child, and so when it came to mealtime, God is great, God is good, let us thank him for this food, amen. And afterwards, David said to me, God didn't hear that prayer. Now, David was an unbeliever. I said, what do you mean God didn't hear that prayer? You didn't pray it in the name of Jesus. You don't pray it in the name of Jesus, he doesn't hear it. Of course, we'd probably go out in the yard and get in a fist fight about that afterwards, but, uh, anyway, uh, I, I never forgot that. I had no clue what he was talking about, but it seemed to me like he was saying, if you put that name on there now as a tag, you see, in other words, y- y- that gave that prayer special entrance into heaven. Well, is that really all it means to pray in the name of Jesus? Now, believe me, I believe in praying in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. But there's another reason just because of mentioning the name and saying the name. It's because, you see, what we're doing when we pray in the name of the Lord Jesus, we are recognizing his authority. We are coming, in that sense, in that name which all of heaven recognizes. All power is given unto me in heaven and earth. We are coming in a sense also saying, you are my Lord, and I stand under your authority. You are the one that directs and controls my life. So you see that the name, he's getting that across to them at the very s- start, isn't he? Yes, you're believers. Yes, you're in Christ. Yes, you're a church, but the Lord Jesus Christ is the one that's over you. And when you gather together in that name, you say in as much we are recognizing the authority of the risen Christ who sits in glory to govern and control us and to guide us, and we follow his leading. I mean, it says a lot, doesn't it, when we think of the name of the Lord Jesus. And so that's a very important thing that he's going to deal with. We mentioned in chapter three that he's going to talk about how we build. We mentioned in chapter five, just briefly, he'll talk about the purity of the body, of sin in our midst, how we deal with it, of discipline. He'll mention in chapters eight, chapter nine, chapter sixteen about giving. He mentions in chapter, uh, eleven about the Lord's Supper, about headship, about women, about men in gathering together in our visible roles. He'll mention about spiritual gifts in chapters twelve through fourteen. He'll give us that great chapter that we often refer to as the chapter of love, chapter thirteen. And then he's even going to talk about the doctrine of the resurrection in chapter fifteen. Now I ask you a question. I ask you two questions. What time do we close? That's the first. Ten thirty. Thank you. I thought it was, but I wanted to make sure. Second question. Which of those truths is unimportant? Which of those truths can we say, well, you know, that one's not really important. We can just sort of leave that one out. I don't think we'd say that about chapter fifteen, the resurrection. That's one of the most foundational doctrinal truths in the entire New Testament word of God. Christ rose from the dead, or else our faith is vain. Well, what about the practical chapters? How about chapter thirteen, that love chapter? We can't discard that, can we? I mean, how essential is that when we talk about how we function together in the body of Christ. You see, you get the picture, don't you? We can't discard any of these things. We can't discard chapter five. we can't discard chapter one, chapter eleven, chapter thirteen, chapter fifteen. All of those were essential things that he taught, doctrinal truths that were important for the church and its testimony on planet Earth. We can't just discard any of those things or leave them out or say they don't matter. They obviously mattered a great deal. You know, when you come to the Word of God, I tell you, you can learn so much, can't you, just even in some of the verses that we find. Let's back up, if we could, to First Corinthians chapter one and verse two. Under the church of God, which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours. You know, you can take the word of God and look at it, as we'll do in these next few weeks, sort of in a broad view, you know, looking at it more with the telescope than the microscope. But you can take it, can't you, and dissect the verses that you find there. Just think about verse two. I listed seven things that are here, and they wouldn't have to be seven. it just happened to be the, the way that I see it. Seven great truths that are found just in verse two of this chapter. First of all, the truth of the church, the character of the church. What is the church? It is those who have been called out of the world. That's what the word basically means, those that have been called out. And from the divine perspective, from God's viewpoint, when the preaching of the gospel goes forth to those that are in the world and outside of Christ, when you respond to that gospel and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you are called out of the world and you are brought into Christ. You are the church. It's the church of God. That tells us its ownership, doesn't it? Whose church is it? According to the book of Acts, it's the church which he purchased with his own blood, with the blood of his son. It's God's church. Each one of these has a very practical application, doesn't it? If it's God's church, if he owns it, he bought it, he purchased it, well, I better take heed to who the owner is. I better find out from the owner what he thinks is important, and so on. It's the church which is of God, which is at Corinth. This was a local assembly he's talking to. That becomes important because much of the truth that's taught here has to do not just with the church universal, as we sometimes speak of it, but it has to do with the church that is gathered in a particular place, a local church. It's the church of God which is at Corinth, them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus. That tells us who composed the church. It was made up of those who had been set apart or sanctified in Christ Jesus. The church is composed of believers in Christ. It's the church of God, not only those that are sanctified, but those that are called saints. We know that the word saint, rightly understood in the biblical definition, is those that have been set apart, and it implies also the conduct of those that were there. As someone has put it, if God has called you to be a saint, and he has everyone who's a believer in Christ, you ought to live in such a way that reflects the fact that you are one of God's saints, one of God's set apart ones. It's the church of God, not only those that are sanctified, those that are saints, but those that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. That is our common confession. That is our common confidence. He is the one we find our reliance upon, the name of the Lord Jesus. We call upon him for salvation. We call upon him for every aspect of our Christian life. It is the Church of God, he says, not only those that are sanctified and called to be saints, that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours. The church, in that sense, is bigger than us, isn't it? It's not just us, it's all who own Jesus Christ as Lord. And you and I, no matter what people call themselves, if they bow the knee and recognize Christ as Lord, then I bow the knee with them and recognize him as both theirs and our Lord. And that is the one great thing that unites us, isn't it? And again, the church ought to give expression to the fact that there is only one body, and we all are found under that name of that lordship of the Lord Jesus. So I trust that God will bless as we study his word and give attention to this book, and trust that your prayer might also be for me, that the Lord will help me direct my thinking into those areas that'll be beneficial to the assembly here, and certainly help in the area of the gospel as well. Let's look to him in a word of prayer. Our Father, we thank you again for the Lord Jesus Christ. What a remarkable thing was done there at Corinth. And yet, so long ago, the word of God is still powerful and effective today. And these principles and truths that were related to that church at Corinth are still valid for the church today. It hasn't been left to us to come up with some new thing, to go back and see not only what was established through the gospel, but what should be built on that foundation once it has been laid. Help us, we pray. We thank you again for your word. We pray that you'd bless the word that's been spoken to the young ones. We pray that their hearts might be penetrated by the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, they might see their need for a savior and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. We give you thanks in his name.