In
(PENTECOST SUNDAY MESSAGE)
by R. L. WYSER

TEXT: Ephesians 1:1-5

INTRODUCTION: Many years ago, the prophet Zechariah asked, “For who hath despised the day of small things.” He was trying to encourage the nation as they were rebuilding their temple and having a difficult time. The budget was low, the morale even lower, and it looked like the job would never be finished. The people were discouraged because the whole project seemed small. It just wasn’t the temple that it used to be. They despised it because it seemed like a small thing. We had better be careful not to despise small things. This is a world of little things. The tallest mountain is only a gigantic mass of little things. The sky piercing office buildings are composed of millions of little things. Man’s activities in every field of endeavor are made up of trifles, little things that apparently count for little. If it had not rained the night before Waterloo, Napoleon would have won the battle. Rain was a little thing. It was a little thing that led to the discovery of America. Columbus was about to turn his ships and go back to Europe when a lookout saw seaweed floating near the ship. The lamp swinging in the cathedral furnished the idea of the pendulum and from that idea we have our clocks. Just a little thing. Mankind has grown great and strong, has subdued the earth, the water and the air by a succession of little victories. We are building our lives of little things. Habit is made of countless unnoticed actions and from these we weave our future. It can be truly said that the smallest trifles control our destinies, and I find two letter words to be among the most significant in the New Testament, though they are just little things. One of those words is “so.” For God so loved the world. How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? But the other little two-letter word is used here by Paul. It is the little word “in.” Using this little word as a foundation I want to ask you three questions.

ARE YOU IN?

In John 3, Jesus told Nicodemus that he needed water and spirit birth to get into the kingdom. You must keep that in mind when you consider the Book of Acts, which was a history of the early church and a handbook on apostolic doctrine. Jesus promised the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost. In John 14:15-17, Jesus said, “If you love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever; even the spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.”

In John 14:26, Jesus said “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”

In John 16:7 Jesus said, “it is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.” And then in John 16:13, Jesus said, “Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come.” Jesus promised that the baptism or the birth of the spirit would bring them power.

In Luke 24:49 Jesus said, “And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.”

In Acts 1:4,5 and 8 it is recorded, “And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me, For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth.”

In obedience to the Lord’s command His disciples did tarry in the upper room at Jerusalem for ten days after His ascension until the Day of Pentecost. In Acts 1:12-14 it is recorded, “Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a sabbath day’s journey. And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room, where abode both Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James. These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.”

Exactly as the Lord had promised the disciples in the upper room one hundred and twenty in number according to Acts 1:15, were all filled with the Holy Ghost on the Day of Pentecost.

In Acts 2:1-4 it is recorded, “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place and suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” God’s wisdom in providing the Holy Ghost and man’s stark necessity for receiving the Holy Ghost are well illustrated in the startling transformation it brought about in the lives of those disciples on the day of Pentecost. Before Pentecost, the disciples, even after three years in the Lord’s holy presence, were weak and afraid, unwilling and unable to witness for Him or to win anyone to Him. Fearing for their lives after Jesus had been executed, they huddled in a locked room, according to John 20:19, for fear of the Jews. A week later they were still in that room behind closed doors according to John 20:26 they were there for fear. In spite of Christ’s appearance to them on these two occasions, the disciples were still discouraged, defeated and afraid and they decided to go back to their fishing business. And even after Jesus came once more to feed and comfort them, their minds were full of questions, according to John 21:21. But immediately upon being filled with the Holy Ghost, Peter and the others stood up boldly to witness and testify, preaching to the Jews at Jerusalem and accusing them of crucifying Jesus Who was Christ, Acts 2:4-36. This sudden transformation brought fear and conviction of sin to the listeners according to Acts 2:37,43. It also brought immediate arrest and persecution to the disciples, Acts 4:1-21.

But instead of cowering in fear, these “unlearned and ignorant men,” according to Acts 4:13, boldly dared to fasten the crime of Jesus’ crucifixion on the high priest and the Sanhedrin court and to refuse to stop witnessing for the Lord, Acts 4:10-20, and from that day on they lived by the motto: “We must obey God rather men,” Acts 5:29. These Day of Pentecost Christians were a new thing to the earth. They actually fulfilled the Lord’s almost unbelievable promise that they, humans, with earthly fathers and mothers and sinful carnal natures would do the miracles that Jesus did and even greater, John 14:12. This amazing thing, seeing God manifest Himself within human beings put terror in the hearts of the observers and resulted in three thousand converts that day and five thousand more a few days later, Acts 2:41 and Acts 4:4.

To prove that the Holy Ghost was not just for the immediate disciples of Jesus or the Jews alone, God gave the same gift to the Samaritans at the hands of Peter and John according to Acts 8:14-17, and to the Gentiles at the preaching of Peter, according to Acts 10:44-46. And then to prove that it wasn’t just Peter that was to do the preaching, but he only opened the initial door with the key, we know that Saul received the Holy Ghost at the hands of Ananais, according to Acts 19:17-18. And that the Ephesians received the Holy Ghost on the laying on hands of Paul according to Acts 19:1-7. It was promised to us in Peter’s great sermon on the Day of Pentecost, “you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost for the promise is unto you and to your children and to all that afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call” Acts 2:38-39. Indeed, Jesus commanded His disciples to receive the Holy Ghost, John 20:22. And Paul urged it also, Ephesians 5:18. But some say, “Well, what about the tongues?” And I know this is a controversial thing. And that is an ever recurring question on the fearful lips of thousands who want more power with God but don’t want to speak in those awful tongues. What does the Word of God say about speaking in tongues? The writer of Acts very plainly states that on the Day of Pentecost “they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.” But why was it necessary for them to speak with tongues? Well, who can all the all the whys of God’s mysterious wisdom and love; why be baptized; why lay hands on the sick for their recovery; why anoint with oil; why did the Lord have to die on the cross to save men? It’s not the Christians prerogative to ask God why. It is his duty and privilege to obey. God’s thoughts are above ours and His ways are past finding out. And maybe tongues are because the tongue is the hardest member to tame. Maybe it is because the Lord knew we needed indisputable proof of a personal infilling. Whatever the reason, tongues is a sign.

We notice in Peter’s epistle that he uses a word quite a bit. It is that wonderful, wonderful word “partaker.” We find it in I Peter 4:13, “But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s suffering.” We die with Him in repentance; we are buried with Him in baptism. He was baptized to identify with us as sinners, but we are baptized to identify with Him in His burial and as a sign of identification we take on His name in water baptism.

I Peter 5:1, “and also a partaker of glory.” We can be a partaker of His glory. Christ is the Lord of Glory. How glorious then shall believers one day be when they shall be like Him and partake of His glory in heaven. “Beloved, now we are the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that when he shall appear we will be like Him; and we shall see Him as he is” 1 John 3:2. Jesus says “The glory which thou gavest me I have given them” John 17:22. Though Christ’s essential glory is incommunicable, yet there is a glory which Christ communicate to His people. Having fellowship with Him in His suffering we shall have communion with Him in His glory. When He comes to judge the world, he will come to be glorified in His saints. When he appears then shall we also appear with Him in glory and then shall the poorest believer be more glorious than Solomon in all of His royalty. If we suffer we shall also reign with Him.

And in II Peter 1:4, Peter says “Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature.” We are partakers of His nature. God is a spirit and when we receive His spirit we are receiving Him and we become partakers of His nature. God is holy by nature so when we receive His spirit we are led on and on into holiness. He took what was ours as though it were His; that is, flesh, and gave that which was His as though it were ours. That is, His nature. While He was not that He became, that is man, so that we might become what we were not. That is, like Him. And we are like Him because we are in Him. And what does it mean to be in Him? It means that you have position; that is salvation. It means you have possession; that is, the Holy Ghost. We have His name, we have His power. It means you have privileges. We are children of the king. It means you have protection, that nothing can harm you. And how do you know that you are in Him? You know you are in Him because you will desire His person. You know you are in Him because you will prefer Him. You’ll know that you are in Him because you will always want to please Him. You know that you are in Him because you will always want to praise Him. You know that you are in Him because you want to delight in His presence. You know that you are in Him because you want to follow Him. And so the first question you need to ask yourself is are you in?

HOW FAR ARE YOU IN?

In Numbers 32:1-7, Now the children of Reuben and the children of Gad had a very great multitude of cattle: and when they saw the land of Jazer, and the land of Gilead, that, behold, the place was a place for cattle; the children of Gad and the children of Reuben came and spake unto Moses, and to Eleazar the priest, and unto the princes of the congregation saying, Ataroth, and Dibon, and Jazer, and Nimrah, and Heshbon, and Elealeh, and Shebam, and Nebo, and Beon, even the country which the Lord smote before the congregation of Israel, is a land for cattle and thy servants have cattle: Wherefore, said they, If we have found grace in thy sight, let this land be given unto thy servants for a possession, and bring us not over Jordan. And Moses said unto the children of Gad and to the children of Reuben, Shall your brethren go to war, and shall ye sit here? And wherefore discourage ye the heart of the children of Israel from going over into the land which the Lord hath given them?

This is the story of Gad and Reuben asking to settle on the line in the Promised Land. In one regard you can’t blame the tribes of Gad and Reuben for asking to settle on the line of the Promised Land. Their journey had been one of conflict. They had seen the rise of Moses. They had seen the plagues. They had been involved in the exodus. They had seen the Red Sea depart. They had been to the bitter waters of Marah and seen them made sweet. They had been in the wilderness and wandered for forty years and now they had accumulated a few things and this land was already conquered and there was no conflict left and so they said, let we will just live on the line. And this is so often the prayer of the people of God. You know there is a sin. It is not spelled out one hundred percent in the Bible, but it is a great sin. It is the sin of discouraging. There is nothing on this earth as beautiful as a consistent life. A life entirely dedicated to the Lord, devoted to one great object and guided by one great principle. Consistency tells the world and the church that there is something to God after all. But on the other hand, one of the greatest hindrances is inconsistency. There was great inconsistency in the request of these two tribes. They ought to have valued God’s promises and have wished to settle within the borders of the Promised Land but the rich pastures of the territories already won were a great temptation to them and Moses saw at once the effect that this example would have upon the hearts of the brethren. It would discourage them. This is the way it is with those who ought to be living for the next world as if that were truly their home and yet they set their affections on things below. There is no very great measure of joy in a halfhearted Christian life. Many so-called Christians have just enough religion to make them miserable. They can no longer enjoy the world and they have not entered into the joy of the Lord and there they stand. Deprived of the leeks and the onions and the garlics of Egypt and without the milk and honey and the finest of the wheat of Canaan. That is a wretched place to be in. The way out is simple. Absolute surrender to God, and then your joy will be fulfilled. There is but one way to find that fullness of joy and that is a surrendered life. A will and a life completely surrendered to the God of love will bring joy under all circumstances and is an encouragement.

There is an interesting little book of satire entitled How to Become a Bishop Without Being Religious. The thesis of this book is that to get ahead in the ministry one doesn’t have to be really religious, he just has to look pious. Interestingly enough, this is old hat. Church people have been doing this for years. Any number of ways have been devised to indicate church members and church involvement without really being committed to the Lord Jesus Christ, the head of the church. Some do it with their presence. They make sure that they are at church for everything. But sometimes this very activism hides real confrontation with the Lord. They often are too busy for a devotional life. Some do it with their payments. Being generous in gifts to the church is considered by many to cover a multitude of sins. Some people have even been known to tithe, thinking that this excused them from any other obligation to the Lord or the church. Some do it with their pretense. The book referred to mentions the stained glass voice. We have learned certain facial expression, certain phrases, certain postures that seem to indicate real piousity. But often these are pretense. Underneath the person still has a heart untouched and a spirit unmoved. What the Lord demands of us is real commitment. Giving our lives to Him completely and unreservedly in faith.

Alton Trueblood says the church ought to be the company of the committed and until it truly is many people still want to know how to be a good church member without being committed. But God wants from us both confession and commitment.

These days we don’t have many like Jabeth saying, “Lord I’m not satisfied with my boundaries, widen my horizons and enlarge my coastline.” Too many comfortable saints today are expanding their physical waistline but not enlarging their spiritual coastline.

Not many Calebs are saying, “Lord I don’t want to retire on a pension, give me this mountain.”

Not many Pauls are saying, “I count not myself to have apprehended. I’m not driving my tent pegs down in these lowlands; my prayer, my aim is higher ground. Lord lift me up and let me stand on higher ground.”

The difference between Paderewski and just anybody pounding on a piano is more than genius. It is devotion and love for the art. It’s time and toil. The difference between a man who knows God and an ordinary Christian is just that, devotion and love and time and toil. It takes time to be holy. Yes, it takes more than that. More than most of us are willing to give. There is a cute story about a little boy who fell out of bed and his mother came running and said, “What happened, what happened? How did you fall out of bed?”

And he said, “Well. I guess I went to sleep too close to where I got in,” and I’m afraid that that happens to many in the church also. They go to sleep too close to where they got in.

I remember a wonderful little illustration that was told of a bishop in India who was approached by a missionary and she said, “Bishop I’ve sought a deeper experience with God all these years and I don’t have it. I’ve read books, I’ve read what to do and all the rules but I’m nowhere yet. Does God have favorites?”

And the old bishop said, “No, my dear, God does not have favorites, but God does have intimates.” Most men are strangers to God today. Some are acquainted with Him but only a few are intimates. Those who have made it their business to know Him. Forgetting the bad behind them they press through the good around them to reach to the best before them and for that they are predestined to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.

There was a young art student whose teacher put him to painting a sunset. He sat on the brow of a hill looking across trying to capture on canvas the glory that filled the west but he spent too much time working on one detail and the old teacher came along and said, “Look the sun is almost down and you’re spending your time putting a roof on a barn.”

The application is clear for all of us. The sun is going down fast to its close, ebbs out life’s little day. What a tragedy to shingle a barn and miss the sunset. To let the bad or even the good keep us from the best. There is nothing wrong with painting the barn but everything is wrong if it makes you miss painting the sunset. God save you from stopping at any lesser goal than to know Him and the power of His resurrection, the fellowship of His suffering, being made conformable to His death.

We can come, and it’s good to come to church and sing and give and all of that, but you can still do that, and be on the outskirts and miss the real picture. You can miss the sunset while you are spending your time shingling the barn. What you really really need to do is you need to get all the way in. Make sure you are way in. Not just a little bit in but all the way in. And that leads us to the third point.

ARE YOU GETTING OTHERS IN?

Jesus said in Acts 1:8, “You shall be my witnesses.”

A famous British lawyer of a former day, Reader Harris, once made the arresting remark, “When I have a poor case in the courts, I prepare an eloquent speech. When I have a good case I simply call the witnesses.” The church is on trial for it’s life today but there is a good case for it, so call the witnesses. What is there about a witness which makes his testimony so impressive?

A witness was there when it happened.
His evidence is more powerful and coercive than the most brilliant and persuasive speech from a barrister who did not witness the occurrence. Being there and seeing for yourself are the chief qualifications of a witness.

A witness is bound to tell the truth.
If he holds anything back he is committing perjury and that is a very serious crime.

A witness is out for a verdict.
Knowing the facts as he does he cannot help being emotionally involved in the trail and passionately concerned to influence the jury accordingly to make their fateful decision.
There were two candidates who were speaking at a political rally and when finished one could help noting the differences between the two speeches. One candidate had spoken brilliantly as an advocate. The second had spoken as a witness. You can note the difference in religion as well. You can be an advocate of Christianity without being a Christian, and you can be an advocate of things religious without experiencing them. You can present all the arguments and make it sound wonderful, but you may be standing outside the true experience of it the whole time. You may be talking about something which you do not really know first hand. Something you’ve never really experienced for yourself. You are an advocate, perhaps even a good advocate, but you were not really a witness. Through abuse and misuse, witnessing has become one of those religious terms on the endangered list. Most people run for cover when they hear it. And that’s really too bad, for it is a legitimate and necessary term used in the Bible. Especially in the New Testament where the word witness and it’s related words appear over two hundred times. Witness terms are used some thirty-nine times in Acts and about thirty-five times in the Pauline epistles. But the most frequent use is in the Gospel of John where witness terms appear about eighty three times. In the first eighteen verses of the first chapter of the Gospel of John we see the word several times where it speaks of John the Baptist as a witness, a witness to the light that was coming into the world.

John 1:7 said, He was not the light but he came to bear witness of the light. The New Testament Greek word for witness is “martus.” One can readily see the word “martyr” in that Greek word “martus.” The implication is that a true witness is something one is convinced enough of to die for. Jesus was a witness in this sense. So was Stephen, the first martyr. And it was Stephen’s witness, his martyrdom, that first attracted Paul to Christianity. Paul would probably never have been won over through an advocate, it took a witness. Not that witnessing can come only through the supreme sacrifice. There would be little witnessing if that were the case; the point is, that a true witness is backed by something in ones character. That something is total commitment which is the gold standard behind the witness. But we must witness. Dr. John McArthur has noted that some Christians are like the Artic River, frozen over at the mouth. They just don’t say anything.

A woman in a Midwestern town some years ago took an unusual method for testifying about her faith in the Lord. Her friends, for the most part, were lukewarm and indifferent, surface Christians one might call them. One day when she knew they would be passing by she stood before a wooden Indian in front of the cigar store and spoke to the Indian about the Lord. When her friends ridiculed her for creating such a scene, she gave this defense, “I would rather be a real Christian and talk religion to a wooden Indian than be a wooden Christian who never talked religion to anyone.”

Luigi Tarisio was found dead one morning with scarce a comfort in his home but with two hundred and forty six exquisite violins, which he had been collecting all of his life, crammed into an attic, and the best in the bottom drawer of an old rickety bureau. In his very devotion to the violin, he robbed the world of all that music all the time he treasured them. Others before him had done the same; so that when the greatest of his collection, the Stradivarius, was first played it had had 147 speechless years. Yet how many of the Lord’s people are like old Trisio. In our very love of the church we fail to give the glad tidings to the world in our real zeal for the truth we forget to publish it. When shall we all learn that the good news needs not just to be cherished but needs to be told? All people need to hear it.

At a meeting in the city of Nankin in China, a Chinaman arose and began to cry for mercy with groans and tears when at length he found utterance he prayed, “O God, forgive me, I have been a dummy Christian. When I was converted the devil came to me and said, there are preachers to do the preaching you need not bother about it. I listened to the devil’s lie and all of those years I have been a dummy Christian living in ease while souls have been lost.”

Suppose I said, “The other day I went by my friend’s house and it was on fire and I don’t think he knew it, even though he was inside it. And he must have been asleep and I thought about telling my friend his house was on fire, but I then I wondered what would he think. He might get embarrassed or what if I should get all sooty and what would my friends who don’t believe in fires think? Besides, isn’t that a fireman’s job?” Any similarity between what I’ve just said and witnessing for the Lord is absolutely intentional.

Someone said, “You lived next door to me for years; we shared our dreams, our joys, our tears. A friend to me you were indeed. A friend who helped me when in need. My faith in you was strong and sure. We had such trust that should endure. No spats between us ever rose. Our friends were alike. Also our foes. What sadness then my friend to find, that after all you weren’t so kind. The day my life on earth did end, I found you weren’t a faithful friend. For all those years we spent on earth, you never talked of second birth. You never spoke of my lost soul and of the Christ who’d make me whole. I plead today from hell’s cruel fire and tell you now my last desire. You cannot do a thing for me. No words today my bonds will free, but do not err my friend again, do all you can for souls of men. Plead with them now quite earnestly lest they be cast in hell with me.”

It is so true what we have sung for years and years, “Bring them in, bring them in, bring them in from the fields of sin.”

Some years ago there were two boats that glided past each other on the Mississippi and an aging black man was conversing with a white friend on the deck of one of the boats when suddenly he said with zest, “Look, yonder’s the captain.”

Asked the white friend, “Why are you so enthusiastic while you call my attention to the captain?”

And the grateful black man replied, “Well, sir, years ago as we were going along like this I fell overboard. I couldn’t swim and I began to sink, but the captain rescued me and since that day I just love to point him out.”

When we were still lost in sin the waves of sin all but overwhelmed us, but the captain of our salvation, the Lord Jesus Christ rescued us. Should we not joyously point Him out to others? Of course we should!

I want to include now the personal testimony of Danny Aber, a missionary. In his words, “In 1979 while stationed in Germany serving in the army, I was placed in a room with four other young men. During the next eight months I was successful in ruining these four men’s lives supplying them with drugs and just influencing them for the worst. After my discharge from the army on December 24, 1980, and my coming to the Lord and receiving His wonderful Spirit, I began to pray for these four young men. In June of 1981 I made contact with Phillip, one of the men I helped destroy. He had to see if what I had was real so he drove from South Carolina to Bay City, Texas to see if it was real. And Phillip is still living for God. Five months later, I made contact with Gary who was living in Stockton, California. I flew him to Texas and in his first service God miraculously filled him with His divine spirit and he is still living for God. In 1987, one week prior to leaving for Costa Rica I made contact with Rick who was living in Pacific Beach, California. I flew him to Texas for my last service in my home church and that night Rick also received the wonderful Spirit of the Lord. That was three of the four I asked God to lead me to, but for almost twelve years I was never able to find the fourth man. I knew that Ron was from California, I just didn’t know where. While in Texas mid-September 1991, preparing to make a swing through the Texaco, Arizona and Western Districts, I began to pray for God to lead me to him so I could make things right. Two weeks after I prayed that prayer while on my way to Tucson, Arizona my motor home broke down in Flagstaff, Arizona late at night. I didn’t get mad, I didn’t kick the tires or scream, ‘You sorry piece of junk.’ I simply said, ‘Thank you, devil, five souls.’ I walked into J B’s Restaurant, ordered a cup of coffee and witnessed to the man across the table. I think I ruined his breakfast so I decided to go find four more souls somewhere. I took two steps out the door when the Lord impressed me to look back in. I turned and looked through the window seeing the fourth man I had been looking for for almost twelve years. Walking back in I leaned over the table and asked him if he was Ron Orr. When he looked up tears filled his eyes. Crying he mumbled the words ‘Danny Aber. I was just sitting here thinking about the army and where you were and what you were doing,’ and his head fell to the table and he trembled and he cried and I told him I was a missionary. Ron and his wife, Denise, drove from Flagstaff, Arizona to Bay City, Texas to spend Christmas with us. January 1, 1992, Ron’s wife, Denise, came to the Lord and Ron is under conviction and needs prayer that God can have His way and change another life.”

The question comes, Are you getting others in?

The first question that I asked is, Are you in? You need to answer that. If you are not in you need to get in.

And the second is, How far are you in? You need to get all the way in.

And if you are in, you need to be sure that you are getting others in.

Bible Preaching Resource/Copyright 2000
By Richard L. Wyser. All rights reserved. This material may be used in preaching or teaching or in local church bulletins or hand-outs. No part of this material can be published or reproduced for any other reason. For information, address: Bible Preaching Resource, P. O. Box 846, Addison, IL 60101

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