Divisions within the church are addressed by focusing on the remedy found in the cross of Christ, as outlined in 1 Corinthians. The sermon highlights historical examples of division, such as the split of Israel and contentions between key figures like Paul and Barnabas, and even within the early church at Corinth where factions formed around leaders. The core lesson emphasizes that the cross, through its preaching, power, person, and program, offers wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, serving as the ultimate solution to disunity. The application calls for building up, binding together, and beautifying God's people rather than causing division.
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It's a very great joy to be back again at Park of the Palm. When I look into the faces of the audience this morning, there are many, many dear friends that I've known for more than half a century. As a matter of fact, I met some last night, and the first time I met them was fifty-four years ago in Chicago. And it gives one infinite joy to meet these dear friends and have fellowship with them again. There have been a good deal exercise before the Lord, what we should speak about during this week. And after a good deal of prayer and exercise, I decided I'd like to look at the first epistle of the Corinthians and take a little outline off the epistle and go through some of the problems that we find in it.
I don't need to tell you that it's full of problems. There are about eleven of them altogether. But alongside of the problem, There always is a glorious remedy. And I don't want to emphasize the problem, but what I want to do is to look at the glorious remedy that we have on this lovely epistle for these different problems as they arise. I shall read the first paragraph, please, in first Corinthians chapter one. I, Paul, call to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God. and Fasili is our brother, unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, both theirs and ours.
Grace be unto you in 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 has given you by Jesus Christ. that in everything you 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. You 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 onto the fellowship of the Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Now, I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them who are of the house of Chloe, that their contentions among you, Now this I say, that every one of you says, I am of Paul, or I of Apollos, or I of Cephas, or I of Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you, or were you baptized in the name of Paul?
I thank God that I baptized none of you, but Christus and Gage, lest any should say that I had baptized in my own name. And I baptized also the household of Stephanas. Besides, I know not whether I baptize any other. For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. But unto us, who 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 scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Hath not God meant foolish the wisdom of this world, but after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them to believe. For the Jews require a sign. The Greeks seek after wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified. Also the Jews are stumbling blocks. and unto the Gentiles foolishness. But unto them 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, for that not many wise men after the flesh. Not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of this world, To confound the wise. And God has chosen the weak things of the world. To confound the things which are mighty. On the best things of the world. On things which are despised. Of God chosen. Yea. On things which are not. That bring to nothing. The things that are. But no flesh should glory in his presence. But of him. Are ye in Christ Jesus. Who of God. Is made unto his wisdom. Unrighteousness.
on sanctification and redemption, that according it is written, He that glorieth let him glory in the Lord. Let me go about His blessing to the public reading of His word. I think it would be well at the beginning just to point out a few things about the establishment of the church at Corinth and some of the problems connected with it. If we were to turn over to the historical record in the Acts of the Apostles, you would find that it was the third place that Paul preached in when he reached Europe. It was a very dramatic moment when he was praying to God for guidance. Instead of going to the left or to the right, God sent him right to the border of the country where he was.
That is Asia Minor. And there he saw a man of Macedonia saying, Come over and help us. And for the very first time, the Apostle and those that were with him, they crossed the streets and landed in Europe. And first of all, they had the privilege of preaching the gospel in the place called Philippi in Macedonia. Now, after God had wrought in a wonderful way, in Philippi, they came down to Thessalonica. When they arrived there, their backs were bleeding. They had been beaten up in Philippi. And I believe that those wounds that they received there weren't properly healed.
They had to walk about a hundred miles from Philippi until they came to Thessalonica. And there there there were only three weeks. And at the end of that time, God had done a wonderful work in salvation in Thessalonica. And again, a New Testament church had been formed. But again, persecution. They had to leave there. And from Thessalonica, Paul, he went to Athens. And there, on the Acropolis, on the Agora, there he started to preach to those philosophers that we gather together there. There's a beautiful, beautiful outline of a sermon that we find on Acts chapter seventeen preaching to those men.
But unfortunately, the gospel had very, very little result in that place where intellectualism was the Parliament's thing. And so Paul, he left there, and he came to Corinth. And when he came to Corinth, there he remained for eighteen months. Anyone that will look at the history on the Acts of the Apostles and also what is known at the present time concerning Corinth at that time, it was a wicked ungodly place. As a matter of fact, it had a reputation in all the known world at that time for immorality of every type. It was a seaside place, and practically all the different nations of the world that would come in there.
And the result was that the place was just a cesspool of iniquity. And it was in that place that the apostles started to evangelize. Eighteen months, working with his hands on preaching the gospel. And at the end of that time, a New Testament church had been formed. Now, after that happened again, persecution took place, and he had to leave. He went to Ephesus. again a center at that time of learning. And while he was at Ephesus, three brethren from Corinth came to him with a letter in their hand. We know the names of those three men. There were outstanding individuals in the church at Corinth.
One of them was Stephanus and Archarchus and Fortunatus. Three outstanding brethren became with a letter of inquiry, asking the apostles about certain difficulties and problems that they had a card after he had left. Now, the first question in their letter was in connection with the Christian home. There at Cairns, it was a pagan environment. And anyone who has lived in the pagan environment and knows perfectly well that one of the great problems there is the home. And especially of people who are saved out of that environment to know how the Christian home should be regulated.
So there was some instruction... from the Apostle concerning that. And let me say, beloved friends, this morning, if there's one problem here in the United States, it is the Christian home. It's the object of satanic attack. And I don't need to tell you that the broken home on delinquent children is the problem number one in this country. And that was the first thing that they wrote in their letter. They wanted some instruction from the Apostle, how the Christian home should be conducted. And then they had a second problem. There at Karns there was a pagan temple on the Acropolis. It was dedicated to Aphrodite.
It was a pagan religion. And connected with that religion, there were one thousand prostitutes. That is abandoned women that were connected with that worship. Anyone who has been to India, on the same what happens in the Hindu temple in India, They know the problem. And they had it there at Karn. Anyone who wanted to buy meat, they had to go up to that temple. And meat that had been slaughtered there was offered in sacrifice to an idol, to a demon. And then it was exposed for sale. And the second question that they had was, is it a legitimate thing for a believer, those that are in the local church, to go to that pagan temple and buy that meat and eat it, should they go or should they not?
That may not be relevant to anyone here or in the United States, but in our work in Africa, we had exactly the same thing. I'm not going to go into detail about it, but the problem, the hundred cards, is exactly the problem that we had in connection with paganism in Central Africa. Now, the third difficulty was connection with charismatic. And they wanted to know how these spectacular Pentecostal gifts should be regulated. It's quite evident that they were being abused at all. There was confusion there, probably several talking at the same time, and the one with some instructions from the Apostle Paul, how spiritual gifts, particularly public gifts, how it should be regulated in the local church.
And then the final thing they mentioned in the letter was concerning the connection. those gifts that were offered on the Lord's Day by the Christians, how this money should be spent and how it should be employed. So these are the four questions that they asked in the letter. And when Paul replies, he starts off in chapter seven and he uses a little word that occurs four times. Now concerning the things of which he wrote unto me, chapter seven, and he deals there with the Christian home. And then the second one is, now concerning meat offered and sacrificed to an idol, and he deals with that in chapters eight and nine and ten.
And the third one is, now concerning spirituals, now concerning charismatic, concerning spirituals, and then he deals with that in chapters twelve, thirteen and fourteen. And then as he comes to the end of his letter, he says, now concerning the collection, And he deals with that in chapter sixteen. So these were the four questions and they were dealt with theory Adam from chapter seven through to the end of the epistle. But there were two other matters that they hadn't mentioned at all. And Paul, he heard a report. And he tells us that a female believer called Chloe had informed him that in the church at Corinth there was partyism.
They were divided into four little parties there at Corinth. And the Apostle, when he heard that, he could see the tremendous importance of that, because he could see that if that developed and it came to a head, it would mean a complete destruction of the assembly testimony, and therefore he deals with that first. Now, in chapters one, two, three, and four, he deals with Christian unity. And it's this that I want to look at just for a few minutes this morning. Christian unity. And how it's dealt with. I want to speak more about the remedy rather than the condition. And thank God there's a glorious remedy for any situation of that kind.
Read here about the preaching of the cross. Read about the power of the cross. Read about the person upon the cross. And read about the program of the cross. And wherever you find a condition like this in any local company, in any local church, thank God there's a glorious remedy. And I want to emphasize that here this morning. But the first four chapters is concerning the unity of the church. Now, the second thing that he heard was the fact that there was a man in their church fellowship that was living in sin. And sin of such a type that it wouldn't be even mentioned among the pagan people, among the heathen.
Funny terms is what it is. It was a person who was living with a woman that formerly had been the wife of his father. And Paul, he's shocked when he hears that. As a matter of fact, it was against the Levitical law. If you had to turn over to the book of Leviticus, you should find there it was absolutely prohibited anything of the kind. And Roman law, the same. And then as far as public opinion was concerned, Paul was shocked. Why, he said, even the man on the street, if he heard a thing like this in a local church, they would be rightly shocked by the condition. So these are the, this was the second condition that he heard about, a man who was living in sin.
And apparently it had been swept under the rug. No action and discipline had been taken about it at all. And in chapters five and six, he deals with that. And then going on to chapter seven, there we get the Christian home. So what I want to look at, just for a few minutes here this morning, is the opening of this wonderful epistle. And first of all, to speak just a word or two about the problem. Because it is something that we find everywhere today. I don't know what you feel about the divided condition of God's people. I've run into it in different parts of the world. And of this one thing that breaks our hearts today is the fact that in many, many places, God's beloved people are divided.
I don't think it would be profitable to go into detail about it, but it's something that I think that we all know and recognize. And wherever it happens, always, always, it will wreck the testimony. You know, we find it in various situations in the Bible where we find division, where we find separation, where we find people disagreeing with one another, and then a painful, painful experience when they separate and the result is that the test for money is broken down and ruined. Just one example in the Old Testament. You remember in First Kings chapter twelve.
You remember Rehoboam that was the son of Solomon. He started to lay down certain laws on heavy taxation upon the people on a young man, an upstart. His name was Jeroboam. He said, He said, we're not going to take this. And the result was that he left the central shrine in Jerusalem to two tribes, the tribe of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin. And he took ten of the tribes and went up to the northern part of the country, divided the country. And the result was that the Bible has to say that Jeroboam was the man who made Israel to sin. You know, that was the division.
Never has been healed. And it never will be healed. until the Lord Jesus Christ comes back again. Israel divided into two camps. One great object of David when he came upon the throne was to unite the people of God, and he did. And during his reign, and the reign of Solomon, the whole twelve tribes were together. But Jeroboam, the man who made Israel to sin, let's mention six times, he divided the people. And again, it's outlined for us in the Word of God. It's only when Christ comes back again out of the appearing that all the twelve tribes will be united together once again. That is a sad episode in the Old Testament.
We get exactly the same in the New Testament. I've been looking just recently at Acts chapter fifteen. You remember the Apostle Paul and Barnabas? They had been engaged in missionary work. That first great missionary journey in the early chapters in the middle part of the Acts of the Apostles. And we find that after they had seen tremendous blessing on the first missionary journey, they said, let's go again and visit our brethren and see how they do. And then Barnabas said, let's take John Mark. And Paul said, no. He abandoned us. And the word that's used there is very strong.
And these two good men, giants, one the apostle of the Gentiles, and the other man, one of the most gracious, kindly men, whose record is laid down in the Word of God, full of the Holy Ghost on his face, and worried that there was a sharp contention between them, and they part a company. And as far as the Word of God is concerned, they never met again. You know, you think of men of that type, A sharp contention. The word that's used there is a medical, one of Dr. Luke's medical words. The word, it means a person with malaria.
And anybody who's had malaria or seen a person with malaria that can understand perfectly the meaning of the word contention. First of all, you get very cold and you shake all over. And then there's a crisis. And then your temperature starts to go up. and it'll hit about a hundred and five or a hundred and six. And when that happens, then you start to talk nonsense. I've seen that happen many, many times. A sharp contention between Paul and Barnabas. And they part company. One man goes to Cyprus and the other man goes into that great missionary journey where he had Timothy with him in evangelizing.
You know, he could bring it on a little further. As far as church history is concerned, there have been three great revivals. In the sixteenth century, there was that revival that we called the Reformation. You think of a man like Martin Luther. I have the greatest honor and respect for that dear man. I know that many critical things have been said about him. He was rather crude. He had rather a rough time. But he recovered some great truth that had been lost. for many, many centuries. And one was the gospel. Justification by faith. He recovered that. He gave the German people an open Bible, translated the whole Bible into German that is one of the official translations at the present time.
And then he believed in the priesthood of all believers, although he didn't practice it. But he taught that every believer has the right to come into the presence of God without any human mediator except the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Thank God for Martin Luther. I take off my hat to him. But there was another man involved in the Reformation in Switzerland. His name was Ulrich Zwingli, an outstanding servant of God. And Martin Luther, he never really understood the great facts concerning the Lord's Supper. Church of Rome. where he had been brought up, they called it transubstantiation.
That is, that when the priest elevates the host and gives the blessing, it is no longer bread, but it is the actual real body of Christ himself. That is transubstantiation. Now, Martin Luther, he left that word, and the word that he used was con-substantiation. Instead of transubstantiation, he called it con- substantiation. And he said that with the bread, under the bread and over the bread was the actual body of Christ. But actually it's tweedledy and tweedledum. And as far as Martin Luther was concerned, he never really understood the great facts concerning the simplicity of sitting down at the table with the bread and cup before.
But Ulrich Zwingli did. And he took a long journey to Germany. on sitting at a table in the castle of Marburg, the two men had a conversation. Before the start of the discussion, Martin Luther took a piece of chalk out of his pocket and he wrote on the green-based tablecloth before him, this is my body. Now he says, Wingly, I don't want any argument from you. He said, this is what I believe. And he said, I don't want you to argue the point. He said, this is my body. And it is just as plain as it could possibly be. Zwingli was a gracious man. He said, my dear brother Martin, the Bible says, I am the true vine.
And it also said, I am the bread of life. And the Lord said, I am the door. It said, these are metaphorical expressions. And it said, when it said, the bread, this is my body, it was a picture of the material body of Christ. But it just represented it. Martin Luther lost his temper and he shuddered at the top of his voice. He says, Zwingli, you're trying to twist the word of God. And when Zwingli, when he heard the attitude that Martin Luther was taking, he went around the table, he put out his hand. He says, my dear brother Martin, give me your hand. At least we're brothers in Christ. He said, I'm going back to Switzerland.
And Martin Luther put his two hands behind his back and he shuddered at the top of his voice. Zwingli, he said, you're no brother of mine. And the two men parted. They never met again. And from that table and from that discussion in Marburg, in Germany, there came the Lutheran churches of Germany and Scandinavia and the other parts of the world. And from that table, there came the Presbyterian churches of Switzerland and Scotland and the rest of the world. You know, that kind of thing that has happened so often. I was reading a little while ago by John Wesley and George Whitfield.
Here again, a tremendous revival, what we call the evangelical revival of the eighteenth century. Thank God for John Wesley. Thank God for George Whitfield. Two of the two giants, great men of God. God used both of them. But, you know, they parted company. One was an Armenian and the other was a hyper-Calvinist. And when it came to the point, they started to say unkind things about each other. They parted company and they never met again. I want to bring it on a little bit further. In January this year, Dr. Harry Aronside's book on the history of Brethren has been republished.
I was reading it again. And there's an incident there in that book. And, you know, it's heartbreaking when you think of it. If there are two men that have had more influence on my life as a young believer than others, one was John Nelson Darby and the other was George Mueller. Both of these men, they taught the Word of God and they recovered tremendous truths. I believe that John Nelson Darby was the man that recovered the great truth of the imminent return of the Lord Jesus. on the difference between the Perusia and the Apocalypse and the Epiphany. He was a scholar and an outstanding man. And today anyone who sits down and reads the Word of God would have no doubt at all that there is a tremendous difference between the rapture and the appearing.
It was Garvey that recovered that. It had been lost for over a thousand years, but thank God he recovered it. And as far as George Mueller was concerned, He was the man who taught the Church of God simple faith and trust in God without appeals of any kind for finances. You know, that's something that's being ignored today. I suppose most of us, a lot of our junk mail is appeals for funds. George Mueller taught the Church of God the simple principle of looking to God alone for material supplies. It made a tremendous effect on my mind as a young Christian. And again, let me say that both Darby and Mueller, as far as I'm concerned, are giant, outstanding men.
But there came a rift. And one day, Mr. Darby, he went to the orphan houses in Bristol to have a little talk with George Mueller to reconcile their differences. Mr. Mueller was coming down the steps. And when he saw him standing there, he walked around him. He said, I have no time to talk to you. He said, I have an appointment in ten minutes. And he said, I have no time to talk to you. And he walked around and left him standing there. There was an opportunity there for reconciliation. But it didn't happen. And the result, I don't need to tell you here this morning. Now, as far as I'm concerned, there's one thing I want to do in my life.
I want to give it to three things, whatever is left to me of life. And the first thing is building. And the second thing is binding. And the third thing is beautifying the people of God. My beloved brethren and sisters here this morning, this is the only thing that's worthwhile. There's far, far too many today with a sledgehammer and a crowbar and the wedge trying to divide God's people. And very often it's not doctrine. Very often it's personality. And men with a very stubborn will that simply will not give in. And really, the root of the thing is pride. And I want you to notice that right here, in chapters four and five, here at Corinth, Paul uses a little word four times, and the word is puffed up, puffed up, puffed up.
Four times he uses that word. What does it mean? Well, it is a very graphic meaning. Puffed up. It means inflated. or in the language that people would use today full of hot air, blown up. That was their condition. And Paul, he has to use the word and he uses it full time and at the root of the condition there at Corinth, I'm of Paul, I'm of Apollos, I'm of Cephas and I'm of Christ and these four different groups in the assembly, it was liable to pull the whole thing down and to rank the assembly and emerge in a complete division.
Now one could go on and on speaking about practical things in Christendom today. I can't take time to do it. But beloved friends, let me say this, at the end of my life, if there's one thing that breaks my heart, moving around among God's beloved people, are these sordid divisions that we find everywhere. And let's make up our mind that we're going to give ourselves the building up instead of carrying God. binding together instead of pulling apart and thirdly beautifying God's beloved people. Oh, this is a ministry I believe that all of us should give our minds and hearts to.
So this is the condition here right at the beginning. What is the remedy? What is the remedy for it all? Well, the Apostle Paul here, the very first thing he introduces is the cross of Christ. And he uses four terms connected with it. First of all, the preaching of the cross. And then secondly, the power of the cross. And then the person on the cross, we preach Christ crucified. And then the program of the cross at the end of the chapter. In Christ, we have wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. And these four great words are the product of the cross of Christ.
You know, it gives me infinite joy. to stand up here this morning and preach the cross. The preaching of the cross. Some time ago, I was in San Diego, California. I was at a conference. And there was a young man there who had graduated in the University of California with a PhD in philosophy. He was the other speaker. And he came to me and he said this. He says, let's drop the preaching. I said, what do you mean? Or he said, let's have a dialogue. Let's have a seminar. And he said, let's drop the preaching. You know, preaching is not very popular today. And, beloved friend, I believe that one of the great needs is men who can preach.
Men who are able to lift up Christ and do it in a public way. This is what God has blessed throughout the centuries. The preaching of the crowd. And we don't make any apologies for it. I told this young man, I said, you can do whatever you please. But as far as I'm concerned, I'm going to preach. Preach the gospel. You know, it is being let go in some places today, the preaching of the gospel, the preaching of the cross. And one would love to start in the book of Genesis and go right through the Bible and look at the teaching concerning the cross. In the Pentateuch, there we get the foreshadowing of Calvary. We come down into the book of Psalms and there it is the feelings of Calvary.
There are four great Psalms that speak of the death of Christ upon the cross. Each one looked at in a different way. And then when we come into the Gospels, there we get the facts of Calvary, the historical facts. In the Gospel According to Matthew, it's the supernatural element. Matthew emphasizes five great miracles that took place at the cross. And then on the Gospel according to Mark, it is the silence of Calvary. The Lord, when he was before the Sanhedrin, he opened not his mouth until he was put on oath. And when he was asked if he was the Son of God, he stood up and he said, I am. And he was condemned.
But Mark speaks of the silent sufferer. Dear Dr. Look, what a beautiful picture he gives of the cross. There we get the sympathy of the cross. And when we come into the Gospel according to John, there we get the Scriptures emphasized. That the Scriptures should be fulfilled, that the Scriptures should be fulfilled four different times in John's account of the cross. He tells us that all the Messianic prophecies concerning the person of Christ, they were fulfilled when Christ bore his head in death upon the cross. So in the Gospels we get the fact. Coming into the Epistles there we get the fragrance of Calvary.
It is a sweet saver that goes up to God. But coming into the book of Revelation, there it is the fruits of Calvary. So that the whole of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, it's all about the cross, the cross, the cross, the cross. And I don't think we need to apologize at all. The preaching of the cross. And then the power of the cross. I would love to use some illustrations here this morning of what we have seen personally in the power of the preaching of the cross. I've spent the most of my life in dark Africa. I went there sixty-two years ago in nineteen twenty-three and spent a good part of my adult life preaching the gospel of the grace of God in African languages and all the power, the power of the cross.
And I could occupy a long time in telling you how the power of the cross, it can reach men's hearts, even in the heart of paganism and the heart of heathen up. Thank God for the preaching of the cross and thank God for the power of the cross. But, oh, the person, we preach Christ crucified. The glorious person of the Redeemer, the one who died upon that cross, was none other than God incarnate, and accepting responsibility for our sins. And when he bowed his head in death upon the cross, he said, it is finished, and he bowed his head, and he gave up the ghost. First of all, the preaching, and then the power, and then the person.
And finally, the product, or the program of the cross. First of all, wisdom. And by the way, that word wisdom, it means that the other three terms are enclosed in it. It's the wisdom of God. That is the gospel. But enclosed in it, we get sanctification, and redemption, and righteousness. And these three great terms are enclosed, just like in a golden casket, in the wisdom of God. It's the wisdom of God and it is the power of God. My beloved friend this morning, if you are here without Christ, oh, I'd like to present Christ to you. I met him sixty-seven years ago. I'm convicted of sin.
I got done at the foot of the cross, realizing that Christ died for me. His substitutionary death, it was for me. His vicarious death, was for me. And after being truly convicted of sin and in true repentance, I cast my all upon Christ for salvation and peace and joy and at my heart. And that happened in nineteen eighteen on the third of May another sixty seven years ago. You know, it gives one such a lot of joy. The glorious remedy for these divisions that we see everywhere today is the cross, the crossword of our Lord Jesus Christ.
May God bless his word in each one of our hearts for his name's day. God shall we pray. Our blessed God and Father, we unitedly lift our hearts to thee with praise and thankfulness for thy word. Our fathers will look abroad today. There's so much that brings sorrow to our hearts. But yet on the other hand, we thank thee for thy word and the glorious remedy that has been provided for every problem and difficulty. Our Father, we do pray that thou will bless thy dear people here this morning. We thank thee for them every one. We thank thee for a dear friend that we've had fellowship with and days gone by.
And, O Lord, we pray thy rich blessing upon them. And if perchance there may be any here this morning still in the dark, any who may be saying, Oh, that I knew where I might find him. We do pray that they may come to the foot of the cross, acknowledging their sins. and accepting Christ the Savior and Lord. Lord, bless thy word we pray as we ask it in the name of the Lord Jesus.