and the resurrection. And they took him and brought him unto Arapagus, saying, May we know what this new doctrine whereof thou speakest is. For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears. We would know therefore what these things mean. for all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing. Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill and said, Gee, men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. But as I passed by and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, to the unknown God, whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, well if not in temples made with hands, neither is worshiped with men's hands as though he needed anything, seeing he giveth to all life and breath and all things, and have made of one blood all nations of men, for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and have determined at times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation, that they should seek the Lord. If happily they might feel after him and find him, though he be not far from every one of us, for in him we live and move and have our being. as certain also of your own poets have said, for we are also his offspring. For as much then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, silver, and stone, graven by art and man's device. So the times of this ignorance God winked at or tolerated, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent. Why? Because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. When they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. Another said, we will hear thee again of this matter. So Paul departed from among them, albeit certain men clave unto him and believed among them was Dionysus and the Arpagite and a woman named Demerus and others with them. In our messages on the Acts, I think this is about the fifty-ninth, since we started last September, and we're hoping to finish up before I leave for the North. If not, we'll continue it when we return, Lord willing. Here we find the Apostle Paul, and he arrives in his journey, his second missionary journey. He arrives at Athens. Athens was the center of the world, the world university. It was a center, you might say, of all Greek culture and wisdom. The Jews seek a sign, but the Greeks seek after wisdom. And so this great city, this university city, a city of learning. And here's the Apostle Paul. He enters into this great city. And when you stop to think about it, we have the Old Testament scriptures written in Hebrew, but here is God, and he selects this Gentile nation, the Greek nation, and most of our New Testament is written in the Greek, showing the importance of the Greek language. And there are those two languages that are called dead languages. They really should be called living, meaning they have not changed, they have not altered in two thousand years. They're just the same. So those who know Greek can go back if they can get their hands on the scrolls, the Greek scrolls, and they can read the Word of God as it was given two thousand years ago and read it in the English today to see if any of the meaning has been taken away from the original text. And so you have Paul entering into this city. I don't know what city you would call today by comparison with Athens then in Greek. If you're in England, it would likely be Cambridge or Oxford. but here you find the Apostle Paul, and he's coming, or he now arrives at Athens. Here you have a clash between Christianity and all the wisdom that you find in Greece, in Athens. And here Christianity and the various philosophies clash they meet. And you'll notice some of the audience of the Apostle Paul on this occasion that are the Epicureans. In other words, they were the followers of Epicureus. A man was born about four hundred years prior to this. And what was his philosophy? His philosophy was that you were to seek or make your main object or interest in life, you were to seek pleasurable emotions. That was our main pursuit, should be our main pursuit in life. ruling out anything that spirits you, go in for all that satisfies your emotions, and satisfy them to the full, this should be in your main pursuit in life. Then they come to the Epicureans, and he was a man born some three hundred years, he know by name, three hundred years prior to this. And intellect was to be their guide. they believed in fatalism. But they did believe in human virtue for one's advantage. Simply meaning this, if you live a clean life, if you leave out debauchery and going into sin, you'll hasten the end of your life. You'll likely die prematurely. But if you live a clean, far, respectable, upright life, you'll live the longer. And that was the philosophy of the Stoics. I know the words you have here at Athens. Frankly, all that man is seeking for today, the wisdom of this world, they knew it all. They were ready to challenge anyone who came along. All comers could have an argument. And when Paul went in, they said, now what's this babbler going to say? They spent their time in nothing else but to hear or to say some new thing, or to listen to anyone who came along with something that was new. They were ready to argue. They were ready to debate. And so the Apostle Paul comes into their midst. You find that in verses twenty-one and eighteen. They are ready for a challenge. Also, you'll notice here they had the Jews and favored people and devout Greeks. That was a picture of Athens at that time. I was thinking in reading this, if you were to kick out all the universities and the best brains of the universities of our country, what would God say by summing it all up? And there are some smart men in our country, but if you were to get on the walls together, All that represented the wisdom, the intelligence, the real brains of our country, without Christ, how would God describe it? Foolishness. Foolishness. The Bible tells you that if you want to read it, it's over in First Corinthians chapter one. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolish. but unto us which are 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 strife? Where is the disputer or arguer of this world? Have not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For you see your calling, brethren, How that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many nobles are called. I think it was Queen Victoria, she said, she praised God for that little word many. Because she said, if it said not any wise, not any noble were called or saved, she would have been left out. She was a queen. But she says she thanks, thanks God. It says not many. She was among the not many. And not many of the wisdom of this world. These fellows who know it all, very few of them get saved. The Bible says can man by searching kind of God know he can. You can't prove God in the test of you. You can't by learning, searching, find out God. God is only known by revelation. Blessed thou, thou Simon, Bar-Jonah, flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee. And when a wise man comes to realize he's a fool, when a strong man comes to realize he's weak, When the rich man of this world comes to realize he's poor, then God will reveal Jesus Christ unto him and not to live. Is that in your Bible? It certainly is. Read in Jeremiah nine, twenty-three. Thus saith the Lord, let not the wise man glory in his wisdom. Neither let the mighty man glory in his might. Let not the rich man glory in his riches. But let him that glory. Glory in this that he understandeth and knoweth me, saith the Lord. That's true wisdom. That's true knowledge. That's true understanding to know God, and God is only known through Jesus Christ. That, according to that, over in John, I mean, God, this is life eternal, the Lord Jesus says, that thou mayest know. him, God, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom he has sent. And if you want real wisdom, real life, eternal life, it's found only in God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Everything else is foolishness. Christ is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. How wonderful then to know the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. That's all the wisdom you need. A little child, five, six, seven years of age, but doesn't know as yet the alphabet, may be unable to write his name. That little child can receive Christ and have Christ in all his fullness revealed unto that little mind. where some great professor of some great university, with all his leverage, and he dreamed, he can see it, he's too wide. But the little child can see it, and except you become a little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. And so the Bible makes it very plain that it's not the wisdom of this world, it's not the intelligence of this world. The conscience of this world is Christ, not Christ only, that takes a person to heaven. I heard this many years ago. I don't think I've ever told it on the platform. But a man was asked, he had a boat, and he used to take men, women, or anybody wanted to go cross that big river. He'd take them across in his boat with a little feet. And one day a passenger turned up, and it happened to be a big professor. man. And so they hardly got started across this big river. Before the professor, in his dignified way, he said to the boatman, he says, what do you know about astrology? The boatman said, nothing. Oh, that's sad. He says, a quarter of your life has been wasted. Little silence. What do you know about Plato, the great philosopher? Nothing. Oh, sad, half your life's gone. What do you know about anthropology, the science of man? His origins are nothing. Oh, how pitiful. Three quarters of your life was gone. And just then something happened, the boat sprang a leap. and it soon filled up with water, and it began to sink. And the boatman said, Professor, what do you know about swimming? He says, Nothing. Then he says, All your life's gone. All your life's gone. And then the poor ignorant man, if he knew Christ would go to heaven and the professor would go to hell with all his knowledge. Thing is, do you know Christ? Christ is the wisdom of God. Christ is the power of God. Well, I'm sure we're well aware of the mess that the world is in today because of its departure from God. And today is knowledge, wisdom, understanding. What does the Lord Jesus say? Father, in his prayer in Matthew eleven, he says concerning the Father... I thank thee, thou hast hid these things. The simple truths he was presenting. Thou hast hid these things from the wise and the prudent, but thou hast revealed them unto David. Even so father of a sort seemeth good in thy sight. And today men and women don't want Christ the wiser they get, the more wicked it seems they become, and the less fear of God or less time for God. And so the Lord Jesus says these things are revealed unto the page, but they're hidden to the wise and to those who think they know it all. Why is that? God tells us. That no flesh should pour in His presence. Why if a man could reason his way into salvation, if he were saved on the basis of knowledge, he could glory in the back. I was saved. I entered heaven because I was trained. I was educated. I was cultured. I was inclined. I was one of the most powerful intellects in the land. I had one of those minds of penetrating to the depths of a thing. I could see it through. I could work it out. Oh, yes. Let me tell you all those kind of men will be left here on earth after the Lord Jesus Christ comes. For if they were to get to heaven on the basis of what they know, then heaven would be by intelligence, but heaven's gained only by the blood of Jesus Christ and nothing else. The blood of Jesus Christ God's Son cleanses us from all sin. On the ground around Calvary's cross is level ground. There are no distinctions in the mind of God and the work of the cross, the rich and the poor, the old and the young and the male and the female. They're all lost. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And God will save all who come to that place, be it a beggar or be it a professor, be it a rich man or a poor man. Anyone who comes to the foot of the cross and accepts the Savior, God will save. God would say. In other words, I think as we look at our world today and see the mess that we're in, I was thinking while studying this year and the week, of what has been accomplished in the past is the simple message that God preached at Athens, this city of learning and culture. What was Paul's message? He didn't, when trying to explain held fire, he didn't say now the operation of combustion is going to proceed. Supposing someone looked at the house burning, and he said the operation of combustion is proceeding over there, who would understand? If you set the house on fire, you know what he's talking about. Now when God speaks of the lake of fire, he doesn't speak in language that men don't understand. caused in the fire that never shall be quenched into which men shall weep and wade and gnash their teeth. You understand the language. God doesn't speak in language that men don't understand. Simple language. Sin is easy to understand. Salvation is simple. And getting to heaven, friend, is free, is wonderful. And hell is horrible. These expressions can be understood by a six-year-old child. But today look where our wisdom has gotten us. And Paul's simple message when he went to court was Jesus. He preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection. As we think about what the gospel has done in our country, when Whitfield came to this land, I think he made about eleven trips. What was his message? The simple gospel. What did that simple message accomplish? Well, for one thing, Whitfield's revivals and also the revivals of Finney and other great men, they made possible our national independence through their unifying influence. The unifying influence of the gospel. So unified our country. that the outcome of all that unity was our national independence. This is election year, and how the Democratic Party is struggling to unify the party. Well, that should be simple. They have all the brains in the country. They've had the greatest political brains, I suppose, for a long time, and yet they're all split up into splinters. You know, the only way you could unify the Democratic Party down in Miami, everyone gets saved. That's the only way you're going to unify this country. That's the only way you're going to make it a force to deal with. Men's wisdom, intelligence, is evidence in the sad state our countries in today. And after Whitfield and others briefed that simple message of the gospel, why Christian colleges and seminaries sprang up. Penn State and Princeton, Columbia, Rutgers and Brown and Dartmouth, these colleges sprang up with the result of those revivals. Those colleges had saved faculties. They were saved. All the teachers were saved, devoted, dedicated Christians. and most of the students were saved. That was the result of the preaching of the simple gospel. The day has come when with all man's wisdom and knowledge and learning, he's pushed God out of the colleges, out of the schools, out of the churches, out of the home, and out of the heart. sons of men. If you don't believe it, ask Brother Lobot's there. And the difficulty he's having now that he didn't have fifteen and twenty years ago to get into the schools, yes, this is the result of our intelligent age, our wise, brilliant age. No room for God. No time for God. That's what intelligence has done. back when the gospel was preached, atheism. But I'll tell you, atheism and communism was not like it is today. Today these things are a monster. Back in those days they were infants. In fact, communism really didn't get stopped until the Bolshevik Revolution. But atheism certainly had nothing by comparison with the power and influence it has today. And some of these very colleges that I've mentioned that sprang up after those revivals are hotbeds of atheism. They're hotbeds of communism, showing that the further they got away from God, the deeper into sin they went. Yes, they've left the simple knowledge of God as seen in Jesus Christ for the wisdom of men, and God said it's a lot of foolishness. And the Bible says that in the latter days knowledge shall increase. Why what knowledge has increased in almost every field today? But as knowledge has increased and increased, the Gospel has decreased. the power of the Spirit of God, not that the Spirit of God is limited, but his ministry is not wanted. It's not welcome today in the coming years. The rise of man's wisdom, wisdom of God, is almost leaving the scene of what a dark and dreadful day is ahead when the church will be gone and the spirit of with it, and the world then will be plunged into darkness the ignorance of God. That's what darkness means. So much for this poor world, with all its wisdom and knowledge and so on, this computerized age, further and further with God, away from God. When Paul went to Athens, he saw the idols everywhere. And that word is two superstitions. I beheld your devotion. I perceive that you're all too superstitious, and that means religious. Idles everywhere. This is your God, and he speaks, but God is not made of stone, of gold or silver. All I saw around here were your idols made of various metals and water. If these are your gods and you're devoted to them, because you made them. Man makes his gods, but the true God makes us the same. We are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus under you. Why, the world of idolatry, they make their idols, make it out of a tree, out of a stone, out of a metal, then they fall down on worship, which they have what they have made. Imagine a man trying to make his gods. God, the living God, makes men. Men can make God. God in his gospel makes men. We are created in Christ Jesus. On to good works. Creation means you've created or brought into existence something that didn't exist before. Man cannot create a thing. He can make something out of material already created. created by God. A carpenter can make furniture, but he's got the wood that God created to make it up. And so it is that God makes up. If we accept Jesus Christ, he'll make us new creatures in Christ. We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus, on to, after we're saved with workmanship. Friend, you can no more call a new planet into existence and fix it in its orbit. You can no more do that than save your soul. That's something you can't do. You have the power to create a world. Call something into being that didn't even exist and put it in its orbit and keep it there. No, you can't do that. It's foolish for you to even think about it. Neither can you save yourself. Creation is of God. Salvation is of God. Salvation is of the Lord. But I'm thankful that God can not only save me, He can keep me in that orbit. Revolving around the sun, not the S-U-N, but the S-U-M, but the S-U-M, Oh, in Christ the Son, yes or yes. I'm not revolving around the literal Son, ninety-three million miles away. All my interests of my life revolve around the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ himself. So Paul enters into Corinth, and he's not long there before he gets into an argument. And what were they wanting to argue about it. Or, of course, they want to argue about their philosophies, the Epicureans, Stoics, and so on. They want to argue about their philosophies. But the Apostle Paul had one message, and that is Jesus and the resurrection. Jesus and the resurrection. After, first of all, attacking their gods, the inability of their gods to do anything for them, praterally they're unintelligent to think that a god of silver gold or a piece of stone could do anything for them after he tries to tell them the negative side that we can't make God's God's got to make us after doing that after reminding them that they're worshipping an unknown God so that's the inscription that was over to the unknown God our God And this God today, friend, the living God, is unknown by many men and women. Right this very hour while we are here at the chapel, there are millions of people across the country sitting in queues in many churches, listening to an eloquent man, a moderate, and he's preaching to them an unknown thought. A God they cannot grasp. A God that's a way out there in space. You can't communicate with him. He's too great and man's too small. In fact, you can't understand him. And there's no need praying to him. I've read that many times recently in some modernistic literature, the prayer's nonsense. Prayer's nonsense. Paul says whom you ignorantly worship. that unknown God, I'm going to declare them unto you. I'm going to declare them unto you. And how did He declare them? Through Jesus Christ, His Son. There is no other way to know God, save through the Lord Jesus Christ. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. There is one mediator between God and man, meant the man Christ Jesus. And there's no getting to heaven except through the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything else is foolishness. An unknown God, how is God unknown today? His holiness is unknown. Men don't seem to understand the holiness of God. How holy God is We don't have any concept of God's foolishness. The other day I was thinking, of course, maybe I shouldn't think about these things, but you can't have it. That is, about the age in which we live, men and women exposed to themselves. I thought of in the garden, when Adam and Eve sinned against God and their eyes were open. What's the first thing they tried to do? Cover themselves. They sowed fig leaves. Not one fig leaf that you see in some of these pictures. They tried to make an accoutreing of fig leaves. When God approached the garden, that wasn't enough. They fled. They realized how naked they were. They left behind the tree. And when God carried them out, Adam were our God. We heard thy voice walk ye in the garden the cool of the day. We were naked. How did they know it? The holiness of God revealed it to them. And you know how holy this God is in the Old Testament? When God told his people to make an altar, he says, Don't you make steps up to that altar. Make that altar level with the God. If you make steps, you're going to expose yourself. That's how holy this God is. Today, what blandness, exposure of man in his sin and shame before a holy God. As I mentioned about a month ago, I'm not going to be surprised at one of these days he'll find Bible classes being held in nudist colonies. They don't know what the holiness of God is. God is holy. If you don't believe this is the nature of God, you wait until you meet him. And it will be too late. God's politics, he's unknown to many, his holiness. Also, his demands seem to be unknown. His righteousness seems to be unknown. You don't get to heaven by your righteousness. You get to heaven by the righteousness of God which is imputed to you through Jesus Christ. You must have the nature of God. God is unknown as to His love, displayed so fully, so wonderfully, so tenderly at the cross when He gave His only Son. Friend, if you could get to Him by your wisdom and works, God never would have given His Son, and Jesus Christ would have never, never gone through that tragic experience, had man been able to save himself by wisdom and works. tent. God's love in Christ is unknown, and God's grace is unknown. And sad to say, God's judgment doesn't seem to be realized today. The unknown God. Oh, if man could only know God in all his fullness and variety, and how are you going to know this God that Paul is referring to? Are you going to know His holiness, His demands, His righteousness, and His love and His grace and His judgment? The Lord Jesus says, He that hath seen me hath seen the Father. You'll see all these attributes in Jesus Christ. Now when you receive God, then you receive Christ, you receive God in all his fullness. Everything is in him. In Christ dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead body. If you want real wisdom, if you want real knowledge, if you want real understanding, if you want real wealth, if you want real strength, if you want real peace, if you want real joy and happiness, it's all in Jesus Christ. It's not by installments a little here and a little there. When you receive Christ, You receive everything. It's all in Christ. From then on is up to you how much you enjoy it. But when you get saved, you have Christ. He's yours. Like the old lady walked out her back door way off of the stick. She hardly saw anyone. And she saw the sun shining in that beautiful blue heaven. She said, I'm alone. I've got a whole sun to myself. Every Christian can look up to their living God and say, I've got a whole God to myself. I've got a whole Savior to myself. He's a shepherd that has but one sheep, and I'm the sheep. I get all the attention of one. But thank God he's got millions of sheep. But he gives them such attention, he might just as well have one. And that's me. And so you find the apostle, preaching unto them Jesus and the resurrection. And he concludes his message with this. God hath appointed the day, verse thirty-one. God hath appointed the day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man, the Alpha Dane, in that he hath given assurance unto all men that he hath raised him from the dead. he links a future judgment with a past event. What was that past event? The resurrection of Jesus Christ in the dead. Did Jesus Christ rise? He didn't. Then there will be a resurrection. That a judgment. God is linking the resurrection of Jesus Christ with a coming day of judgment. If you can deny or disprove the resurrection of Jesus Christ, then you can deny and disprove a coming judgment day, but you can't disprove it. Just as sure as Christ rose from the dead, just so sure will you be at that judgment if you don't know him, and he'll be your judge then, not the Savior. That day God has appointed a day in which he will judge the world by that man, the man that can be your Savior this once, Here is the certainty of it. God hath appointed. And remember, God keeps his appointments. God hath appointed. And the universality of it. The world. And you know what it says? It doesn't say he's going to judge the church. He's going to judge the world. We know the church will have the judgment seat. But as far as the church's judgment for sin is concerned, that's past. That took place at the cross. Therefore now no judgment to them who are in Christ Jesus. Lord, the Romans take one. So God at the point of the day when He will judge the world, all outside of Christ, yes, that is the universality of this coming judgment. Then the basis of it, your words, your thoughts, your deeds done in the body, and your rejection of Jesus Christ. That's the basis of this coming judgment, the rejection of Jesus Christ. You know today, you see criminals, you pretty well know they're criminals. They know they're criminals, but they get off. But if you, an innocent person, never committed a crime like that, would accuse them of that crime after the jury has freed them, they'd put you in jail. But they don't let those criminals go to jail. But let me tell you something. Although those people can go through a trial like that, a mock trial, and come out to say, thank God for American justice, God, in their heart they know they're giving. although the jury said they're not. They know they're getting at God's will. There will not be justice here on earth, but there's a time when there will be justice. That's the day when God will judge the world by Jesus Christ. God will judge all criminals. And friend, the point is this. If you haven't accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior, you may be a deacon or an elder in the church, you may be a church member, a Sunday school teacher, you'll get the same judgment as far as punishment is concerned, banishment from God, as an Angela Davis, and say, don't put me in that class. God will put you in that class. If you've rejected Jesus Christ, Make no mistake about that. There's only one way to heaven. There's only two sides to the door, inside and outside. And you've got to go through that door to go on up in the inside, belong to Christ when it comes and the judgment they make. Yes, this judgment, the certainty of it, the universality of it, the basis of it, your attitude toward Jesus Christ, the administrator of it, that man, the Lord Jesus, the issue of an eternal punishment. What was the result of Paul's sermon on that day in this intellectual city? This city of know-it-all. This city of higher learning. This city with all its philosophies. This city with all its idols and gods. What was their reaction to Paul's simple service? Jesus Christ rose from the dead and he's appointed a day God has when he has judged the world by that same act but it tells you what you might expect some mocked in verse thirty two what would you expect a lot of intellectuals to do with such a simple message mocked and you go to some more bigger universities than colleges and you talk about Jesus Christ and so on that mocked They mocked some of these wise cracks, mocked the simple message. Others procrastinated. Verse thirty-two, they said, Paul will hear you again on this matter. Where do we get up an argument? We'll count it. We'll hear you again. But isn't it nice, it says, but some believed. Some believed. Not many, but their names were given, and they're right here in this chapter. And if you would believe this morning, except the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, friend, God would save you, and he would write down your name in the Lamb's Book of Life. Just as sure as these people's names, written here in the seventeenth of Acts at the close of the chapter, the ones who believe, God will put down your name in the Lamb's Book of Life in heaven. Your very name, if you will believe this morning. received the Lord Jesus Christ. Trust His precious blood, realizing that precious blood has settled the sin question as to your past. Not only has that precious blood settled the past, it has secured the future. I'm not worried about the future. I thank God for every day I live. With the mess this world's in every night, thank God I lived another day in peace and quiet. day. Thank God I've had my hearing another day. Because these days are few. And the future is dark. I wonder, friend, if you know Christ in the light of the world, He's the one who'll give you wisdom. He'll give you knowledge. He'll give you understanding. He'll give you all that you need. Why did the Lord Jesus choose twelve fishermen, not all fishermen, one that politician, tax collector, so on. Why did he choose these men? He didn't choose any professors from the colleges. He chose a few ignorant fishermen. And, of course, the learned crowd of that day said they're unlearned and ignorant men, but they went to the best college in the world. They set out the best professor in the world, the Lord Jesus Christ for three and a half years. And God turned this world almost upside down to this bunch of fishermen because they had within their heart the wisdom of God and the power of God. And their gospel is the wisdom of God. You can't find anything. It'll stand up to any legal argument, the gospel. And it's so just, it's so righteous. God has vindicated himself. He has so cleared his character by the work of Christ that the devil can't even accuse God of any injustice in the plan of salvation or saving a by the sinner. All God's requirements have been met. I wonder, friend, this morning if you've come to Jesus Christ, not as somebody knowing something, but as a nothing, knowing nothing. But that's what you are. Just a nothing, knowing nothing. No strength. No wisdom, no power, no money, just a poor sinner. But I'm going to receive Jesus Christ, and he's the embodiment of all wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. He's yours this morning. What's the price, you say? The price is your pride. That's the price. It'll cost you your pride. just to take your humble place as a poor lost sinner and accept Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. Will you do it right now? Shall we pray? Our Father in heaven, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we commend to thy presence. We ask thy blessing on thy word. We thank thee for all who know the Savior, the simplicity that there is in Christ Jesus. A wavering man, though he be of pool, need not err therein. Thy word declares. Thou art reveal these things not under the wise and the prudent, but unto the bays. May some take the place of a babe this morning. Receive Christ and be saved. We ask it in his worthy and precious name. Amen. Shall we sing a verse or two in closing? of two hundred and forty-three.