Our scripture reading this morning is from two different passages. First of all, Amos chapter eight. Amos chapter eight. The prophet Amos was raised up by God to bring a word of rebuke to the 10 tribes of Israel at a time when they were very prosperous materially, but spiritually things were very bad. Amos chapter 8. Thus hath the Lord God showed unto me, and behold a basket of summer fruit. And he said, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, a basket of summer fruit. Then said the Lord unto me, the end is come, upon my people of Israel. I will not again pass by them anymore. And the songs of the temple shall be howlings in that day, saith the Lord God. There shall be many dead bodies in every place. They shall cast them forth with silence. Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail, saying, When will the new moon be gone that we may sell corn? And the Sabbath that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small and the shekel great and falsifying the balances by deceit. That we may buy the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of shoes, yea, and sell the refuse of the wheat. The Lord has sworn by the excellency of Jacob, surely I will never forget any of their works. Shall not the land tremble for this and everyone more in that dwelleth therein, and it shall rise up wholly as a flood and it shall be cast out and drowned as by the flood of Egypt. And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord God, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day. And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation, and I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head, and I will make it as the morning of an only sun, and the end thereof as a bitter day. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east. They shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it. In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst. They that swear by the sin of Samaria and say, thy God, O Dan, liveth, and the manor of Beersheba liveth, even they shall fall and never rise up again. So far we read the word of God in Amos chapter 8. Now we turn to Romans chapter 10. Begin to read there at verse 8. Romans 10 verse 8. But what saith it? The word is nigh thee even in thy mouth and in thy heart. That is the word of faith which we believe. that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher, and how shall they preach, except they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things. But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? So then, faith cometh by hearing. and hearing by the word of God. So far we read God's holy word in Romans. Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, are you concerned about the salvation of your children and grandchildren? Of course you say immediately, of course I am. Let me be more specific. Are you concerned about the preaching and the salvation of your children and grandchildren and the children of this church? God uses preaching to save His people. Preaching is the power of God unto salvation in everyone that believes. Romans 10 says faith comes by hearing, and the hearing is the hearing of the Word of God. The question is, will there be preaching for the next generations? in our churches. Currently in the Protestant Reformed churches, there are seven vacant congregations. Six years ago, we had two vacant congregations and four missionaries. We had more ministers than we had congregations. But according to God's determination, 16 men left the active ministry in the Protestant Reformed churches. Two were called to seminary. One was called to be a missionary. But the other 13 left because they were deposed, became emeritus, or left the churches. The result is that seven congregations have no pastor of their own to preach. Approximately 2,500 souls have no pastor. That's 30% of our denomination. Perhaps we're not so alarmed by that here in West Michigan, because when a church becomes vacant, the pulpit is still filled with capable ministers. We have a seminary, professors, students, many emeritus ministers available to preach. So the pulpits get filled, catechism classes get taught, In the Western churches, however, it's quite a different story. Videos and elders reading sermons are a regular event, not only for the three vacant churches, but the many other churches who give their pastor up two weeks at a time to help the vacant churches. And as God can take 16 men out of the active ministry in six years, He obviously can take many more at any time if that's His will. Sometimes God does this as a judgment on His church. I'm not saying that this is, but it can be. We read of that in Amos chapter 8. In this word to the 10 tribes, God promises to send a famine. Now a famine is a dreadful thing. We are able to walk into grocery stores around here with shelves that are loaded, cannot even imagine it. But a famine is a dreadful thing when the rain stops for years. and the crops do not grow. And there is no preventer or water for the animals. And eventually the food runs out. There is nothing to eat. Children cry in their homes because their bellies are empty and their parents have nothing to give them. Eventually they become sick. Eventually they begin to die. First the older ones, than the very young. The famine, however, that God is talking about here is not a famine of bread or of water. It's a famine of the hearing of the words of the Lord. That's what he says in verse 12. A famine of the hearing of the words of the Lord, verse 11. This is a devastation. God said they will wander in verse 12 from sea to sea and from the north even to the east. They shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord and shall not find it. There will be nothing. And all that we have said about a famine of bread now has to be applied to the spiritual famine of the hearing of the word, because the word is the spiritual food for the souls of God's people. And people become weak and sickly. Verse 13 says, in that day, shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst. And they began to die. Question and Answer 65 of the Heidelberg Catechism tells us the importance of preaching. The Holy Spirit works faith through preaching. We are saved by faith in Jesus Christ. Back in Lord's Day 7, we were reminded that though we've all fallen in Adam and deserve eternal death, those only who are graft into Jesus Christ by faith are saved. They're the only ones. It's through preaching that the spirit gives a saving knowledge of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And by the same gospel, the spirit gives the confidence that we belong to Jesus and his blessings are ours. Preaching. Through the gospel, he feeds the souls of God's people so that they are spiritually strong vigorous, and he gathers this church in the line of continued generations through the preaching. But what if there is not any preaching? What happens? What happens to the church? What happens to the generations? if there is no preaching. So I ask again, are you concerned about the salvation of your children, your grandchildren, the coming generations in the church? This Lord's Day is easily related to the kingdom because Jesus came preaching the gospel of the kingdom. They're inseparably connected. And as we'll see in a few Lord's Days, it is the preaching that opens the kingdom and shuts the kingdom. Preaching does that. The Spirit, giving life, giving faith, through preaching, brings the citizens into the kingdom of Jesus Christ. Where no preaching of the word is, no one is gathered into the kingdom. It's that simple. So this morning, let's consider this Lord's day under the theme, the kingdom gospel preached unto salvation, the kingdom gospel preached unto salvation. We'll notice first of all, the work of the Holy spirit. Secondly, the power of the preaching. And thirdly, the necessity of heralds, the heralds of the gospel, the work of the Holy spirit begins with faith. That's the main topic of this Lord's Day. Question 65, which I failed to read, but let's read that. Since we are then made partakers of Christ and all his benefits by faith only, whence doth this faith proceed? And the answer from the Holy Ghost, who works faith in our hearts by the preaching of the gospel and confirms it by the use of the sacraments. What is faith? Faith is, first of all, a spiritual, living bond that grafts the believer into Jesus Christ, makes a living, real union between Christ and the believer. The Bible uses the figure of a vine to illustrate that. Jesus is the vine, and all of the church are branches, and when they are graft, united to Jesus Christ, they produce leaves and fruit. My wife and I saw a vivid illustration of that in the backyard of the parsonage, as we saw these great vines growing 30 feet up in the air, taking over a tree, and we went outside and found the start of it and cut the bottom, and every leaf of that vine died, every single one. If you are not connected to the vine, which is Jesus Christ, you die. And that connection is faith. We are united to Him, to Christ our King, by that living spiritual bond. That is what connects us. Through this bond flows all the blessings of salvation, the life of Jesus Christ, the grace that we need day after day. The bond can be strong, it can become stronger and more vibrant, or it can shrink and become very weak. So that almost nothing seems to be coming through the connection. Faith is also a power within. It's a connection, it's a living bond, but faith is also a power within the child of God. Faith actively acknowledges the truth of the Bible. It confesses the one only true God who has revealed himself in the Holy Scripture, says, this is our God. It confesses the truth of who we are, sinners worthy of eternal destruction. It confesses the truth of the great salvation that is found only in Jesus Christ. Faith is a certain knowledge. Faith is a hearty confidence, a confidence that everything that the Bible teaches about salvation in Jesus Christ is ours. We belong to Him. We are saved in Jesus. It should be obvious that faith is a belief in someone. Faith is not merely, though it is acknowledging truth, though it is holding on to doctrines, faith is not merely holding on to dogmas. Faith believes in one, in the one that is revealed in Scripture. Scripture gives us to know the one who is behind the Bible, that is God, in Jesus Christ. And faith says, I believe in Him. I believe with a personal, experiential knowledge. I know Jesus. I love Him. That's what faith confesses. That's why the Belgian Confession in Article 22 on faith, I encourage you to read that. Article 22 says that faith embraces Jesus Christ. Faith appropriates Christ and all his benefits. Salvation is by faith. by faith. Ephesians 2 says, we are saved by grace, that's the power, but it's through faith that we are saved. Because that faith unites us to the Savior. All the saving benefits of Jesus our King become ours by faith. We are justified by faith. The blessings of eternal life flow to us continuously through that bond of faith. This is the way God saves his people. This is a reformational truth based on the Bible. We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, no works, no other avenue, in Christ alone, no other Savior. That's our confession today. By faith, we appropriate all the blessings of salvation. Now remember, appropriate does not mean that we're sitting here in an unsaved position and we have to reach out and appropriate, reach out and get some blessings that we don't otherwise have, and now we get saved. That's not appropriate. Appropriate means that God works it in us, and by appropriation we say, it's mine. Jesus is not merely Savior, He's my Savior. That's appropriating. The death of Jesus is not merely a payment for sin, it's a payment for my sin. That's appropriating. That's what faith does. It appropriates. the blessings of Jesus Christ and all his benefits. That's exactly question 65. Since then we are made partakers of Christ and all his benefits by faith only. Faith and salvation therefore are inseparable, inseparable. As Jesus taught in John 3, verse 36, he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, as it already. He that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. It really cannot be said any plainer than that, can it? Those who have faith, have salvation. Those who do not have faith are not saved. This faith is the work of the Spirit. Catechism brings our attention to that immediately. So where does this faith come from? This all important saving faith, whence cometh faith? And the answer is from the Holy Ghost. It is His work, absolutely His work. Faith is all of God. The Belgic Confession, again, Article 22, says the Spirit kindleth in our hearts an upright faith. Kindleth within our hearts an upright faith. And that, of course, Ephesians 2.8 shows again it's a gift of God For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. The whole work of salvation, including faith, is a gift of God. The spirit takes a dead sinner, chosen eternally in Jesus Christ, redeemed in his blood, but dead, No spiritual life there whatsoever. And the Spirit unites that sinner to Jesus Christ by faith. A dead sinner is united to Jesus Christ. He works life and the power of faith in that dead sinner so he becomes alive. And he doesn't merely have a life that, so to speak, his spiritual heart is beating, but he becomes alive in the sense that he becomes active. That, too, is the work of the Spirit. Because Philippians 1.29 says, it is given to you to believe. Even the act of believing is God's gift to us. And the Spirit maintains that faith so that it is never, ever lost. The canons are the confession that explain God's great work of salvation. In the third and fourth head, the third part is about our depravity. The fourth head gets to God's work of his sovereign, irresistible, unconditional grace. And article 14 explains how faith is a gift. I encourage you to read it. I'm not going to read it, but I will summarize it. Faith is a gift, first of all, the canon says, not in the sense that God offers it to you as I might offer you this Psalter. And you say, do you want it? Yes or no, do you want it? That's not how we speak of faith as a gift. God saying to someone, do you want faith? It's available, I'll give it to you if you want it. No, no. The canons say no. In reality, faith is a gift because it is conferred, breathed, and infused into the sinner. It's a gift in the sense that God is the giver who infuses it into the sinner. All right, but now there's one more thing. Because the next thing you might say is, well, okay, so God gives the sinner this faith, and now does he leave it up to the sinner whether or not to use the faith? And the canons say, no, no. The God who infuses it into the sinner then makes that faith to become active. God works the will and the to do in that sinner. And he believes. Totally a gift, all of God. and yet article 12 of the same canon same third and fourth head reminds us that we are not stocks and blocks we're living and the spirit works in such a way that that dead sinner becomes alive and active living out of God's work So that the canons say specifically, so it can rightly be said that the man repents and believes. It's a marvel. The spirit works in us and the sinner lives out of that so that the sinner now repents and believes. The spirit doesn't repent for you. The spirit doesn't believe for you. You believe. You repent by the work of the Spirit. So notice two things that follow through in all of God's great work of salvation. Two things. First of all, it's all of God. All of God. No one earns the right to have faith. No one contributes anything to his faith. It's God's work. And yet at the same time, and still I'm on the first thing, at the same, God works in such a way that when he works in us, the believer lives out of that actively. All of God, even our sanctification, all of God. Second, God uses means. It is all of God. but he uses means to accomplish his purposes. Since salvation is all of God, he clearly could lift someone who is here, a dead sinner, and simply save him, bring him up to heaven and give him life. And now he can live in the kingdom of heaven forever and ever. God could do that. But God uses the means of preaching. to save his people, preaching the gospel of the kingdom. And I urge you to read the third and fourth head of the canons, article 17, which reminds us that God uses means to keep our natural body alive, food and drink, and so he uses means also with the preaching through the whole of our life. God uses means, and that brings us to the second point of the sermon, preaching. What is preaching? And what's the power of preaching? Well, preaching could be defined this way. Preaching is the authoritative proclamation of the word of God by the church. Preaching is the authoritative proclamation of the Word of God by the church. Let's break that down a bit and say, first of all, the Word of God. The Word of God is the content. This, this Bible, this is the content of the preaching. It's a proclamation of the Word of God. All preaching must be drawn from these pages. That's where it must come from. God's infallible Word. Preaching is not a learned discourse by someone who has an academic degree behind him and now comes with his knowledge. It's not an expert in his field who will explain to you something that is part of his work. The preaching is simply this, setting forth what the Bible teaches. When Paul wrote to the young minister, Timothy, he said, preach the word. That's what you do. Preach the word. And the heart of God's word, of course, is Jesus Christ. The son of God, the savior. Christ who came into the flesh to reveal the father and to do the father's work. And he accomplished both of that, especially in his atoning death on the cross. Christ is the revelation of God. He is the revelation of God. That's why he's called the Word. The Word reveals, Christ reveals. I have come into the world to reveal to you the Father. And the cross is the means that God uses to save His people from their sin and death by redeeming them, by paying for their guilt and their punishment, and giving them eternal life. That's why it is called the gospel of the kingdom. It is good news. That's what gospel means literally in the Greek from which it is taken. The good news is salvation is accomplished. Jesus purchased every one of those given to him. That is to say every citizen of his kingdom have been purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ. Preaching is the Word of God. Preaching is the authoritative proclamation of the Word of God. It has the authority of Christ Himself behind it when it is being drawn from here. That's the starting point. It's being drawn from here. Then it is the word of Christ and has his authority behind it. The authority is not based on the great scholarship of the preacher. We don't say you better listen to the preaching because he's a really smart man. That has nothing to do with it. The authority is not even that he has a title in front of him, like reverend or professor or pastor. The authority is this. He's a herald of the king. He's a messenger sent by the king. What he says, therefore, is not his opinion. It's not what he thinks is a good idea today. It is the word that the king declares through him. We'll talk about that more in the third point. This preaching is authoritative because it is the proclamation of the word by the church. By the church. The actual words he speaks about Christ when the minister preaches, anyone can repeat. Anyone can explain a passage of the Bible. You have the Spirit. You're able to explain the Bible to someone and could say exactly what I might say or any preacher might say from the pulpit. Very true. But the words of the Herald are official declarations of the King. They must be received as true. The message may not be rejected or ignored because they're not the words of a man. They are the words of Christ, the King. The preaching therefore comes and demands repentance whether it's the first time or every Sunday, when it exposes sin and says to the congregation, repent of the sin, it must be heard. When the preaching comes and says, believe on Jesus Christ, that must be obeyed. When it says, worship the one only true God, that must be followed. live unto him in thankful obedience. That's a demand that may not simply be dismissed. Such preaching is the power of God unto salvation. Romans emphasizes that the power of God unto salvation, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. That's verse 13. How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? Obviously you have to believe before you'll call on Jesus. How shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? They know nothing about Him. They've not heard Him speak. And how shall they hear without a preacher? They will not. they must have a preacher. And then verse 17, so faith cometh by hearing, not reading, though God can do that. The scripture is not a dead book, but it's the ordinary way. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God, the word of God. Paul had something similar to say to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 18. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved, it is the power of God. And verse 21, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Preaching. And 1 Peter 1 brings out how exactly preaching is the power of God to save. 1 Peter 1, there in verse 23, says, being born again, so we're talking about regeneration, being born again Not of corruptible seed, like we can plant in our garden, but an incorruptible seed. By the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. Okay, the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. What is that exactly? My sermons will not live and abide forever. He says the same thing in verse 25, but the word of the Lord endureth forever. My sermons will not endure forever. but his word somehow endures forever. And then he says, and this is the word, that word that endures forever, this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. Now what, what first Peter is opening up to us is that there is in preaching an external call and an internal call. The external call is the preaching that you hear with your ears. It's the sermon. The sermon sets forth Jesus Christ. It reveals the sin of all men. It promises eternal life and forgiveness to every believer. And it calls everyone to forsake sin and believe in Jesus Christ. This goes out. It can go out into all the world. The canons say, preach it promiscuously. Don't limit it. Preach it. Preach it. But that word, as it is heard by the natural ear, can be rejected and is rejected. by most who hear it. Jesus said, many are called in that sense, externally called, but few are chosen. Few of those who actually hear are the chosen of God. This call therefore is resistible. There is another work that happens under the preaching of the gospel. There's another work. And that's the internal call. And that's the irresistible work of the Holy Spirit. This is the word that's referred to in 1 Peter. The word that is enduring, the word that never fails, the word that lasts forever is the word that comes forth from the mouth of God when he said, let there be light. And there was light. Powerful word. It's the word described in Romans chapter four, verse 10. God who calleth those things that be not as though they were. And we usually think of God saying, let there be light. But that happens in the heart of an elect sinner under the preaching of the God, under the preaching of the word that God says, let there be life. And there is life. And God's word says, let there be faith. And there is faith. That happens under the preaching of the gospel, by the work of the spirit, who, as the catechism says, works faith through the preaching. The preaching is therefore crucial for salvation. The sacraments cannot do this. The sacraments can only confirm by giving us a picture of what the gospel teaches Beautiful pictures pointing us to Christ, His shed blood, eternal life, but they're only pictures that confirm. Here again, the Reformation's issue with the Romanist church. Rome does not set forth preaching as the means of grace by which the Spirit works faith. It's the sacraments that save. It's the sacraments that give grace. That's the important thing. The rest of the questions and answers will develop that. But already here, the catechism makes that plain when it says the Holy Ghost is the one who gives us faith, who works faith in our hearts by the preaching of the gospel, and confirms it by the use of the sacraments. What a marvelous thing is the preaching of the Word. The essence of that preaching, of course, is the gospel. That's the essence of it, the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ. Under the power of the Spirit, preaching saves from sin, strengthens the believer spiritually throughout his life. Preaching instructs. The believer builds him up, directs his life and his thinking toward God, comforts him in his sorrows, rejects the lies that Satan is continually promoting in this world. And this is the preaching, which is the word of the king to his people. The essence, again, is the gospel. But the preaching of the word is broader than merely that. That's the essence, has to be there. Otherwise the rest of it doesn't fit, doesn't follow. But the word of the king addresses his citizens. What do I expect of you as my citizens? What do I expect? I expect you to worship the one true God. I expect you to praise Him with the whole of your life, offering your life as a sacrifice of thanksgiving to God. I expect obedience out of thankfulness." We need preaching, and therefore we need heralds to proclaim the preaching. A preacher is a herald of the king. That's one of the words in the New Testament for preaching and preachers is a herald. And a herald, children, is an official, someone who's selected by the king, put into the office of herald, and the king gives the herald a message, and he goes out and says to the people, this is the word of the king. That's what a herald did in old times, and that's what a preacher is called to do. That's why we stress the lawful call, because it is an official office as a herald, as a minister. As it was true with elders and deacons, as we heard last week, that they have to answer the question, do you believe in your heart? that you are lawfully called lawfully called by God's church and therefore by God himself elders ministers deacons all say yes in fact the minister has to say truly with all my heart i believe that that's romans 10 how shall they preach except they be sent And that sending is done by Jesus himself, but he uses his church to do that, to call a man into a pulpit, to send a man out into the field. The church does that, but that's Jesus through his church. Paul was an apostle. He was also a preacher. He was at pains to remind the people i have been called by jesus christ according to the will of god make no mistake about my position that's my authority someone who is called by jesus christ is then his own representative now a person who's called must believe that he's called He has to answer that question. Do you believe that you are called by God's church and therefore by God himself? And therefore, there is a very direct way of knowing that you are called. First of all, there is the internal call. The work of the Holy Spirit in a person that brings him to the conviction that Christ calls me to the ministry. that I must pursue the gospel ministry. This comes in a variety of ways. It does not come in the same exact way to any two people and ministers that I have ever talked to. For some, it starts off as a desire when one is just a lad, 10 or 12 years old, and begins to think, this is what God is calling me to do. and it never leaves him, all through grade school, high school, college, seminary. This is his desire, this is what God calls him to do. The conviction may come when a man is older, he's gone through life experiences that have directed him to the ministry. It may come through a conflict in the church which causes the men of the church especially to see we have an issue here and the preaching of the gospel is the answer that's what the church needs faithful preaching it may come as a growing desire to bring the word to God's people whom you love and you want to comfort them and to instruct them or to go out and be a missionary a desire to teach the Word of God. We do not force people to go into the ministry. There have been men who felt the pressure of family or friends and felt almost compelled to go into the ministry, but didn't have the conviction inside. They were going by what people told them, and so they went and they failed. We can encourage young men We cannot compel them to be ministers of the Word. Thankfully, it's not merely a matter of that internal call. It's the external call as well. After a man is prepared by seminary instruction, examined by the churches as to his qualifications and his convictions and his lifestyle, he is declared a candidate for the Word and sacrament. He receives the call. Now, if he doesn't have the internal call, that's a sham. It isn't real. But if he has the internal call, that is confirmed. That is the call of Jesus Christ. Without any question, He has called you to the ministry of the Word. The church needs preaching. Preaching is the power of God unto salvation. Initially, the Spirit works through preaching to work faith and give life and Throughout our life, he continues to use preaching to strengthen us, to enrich our salvation, and to bring us ultimately to our place in heaven. Preaching is doing all of that. We need preaching. As no one would ever say, well, I'm strong and healthy, and God can keep me alive without any food, so I'm not going to eat anymore. No more meals for me. God will keep me alive. So no one should ever say, I'm a strong and healthy Christian. God can keep me alive. I don't need the preaching. It's folly. You will die. We need preaching. And that's why we must be very seriously concerned about the lack of ministers in the churches. Preachers are a gift from God and he has given us much. We have a seminary with men who devote themselves to instruction. They're faithful to the truth. They defend it against the lie. They develop the doctrines of Holy Scripture. They develop the gifts of young men so that they are able to exegete the scriptures, preach the word, apply that word to the hearts and lives of God's people. For this gift, We must give thanks not only in prayer but by our our lives. And here's where we as churches are falling down. Every fall there is a convocation for seminary, a convocation, a calling together of the churches to support the seminary and an excellent message is given The church building where that is held ought to be packed full of Protestant Reformed members who understand the importance of preaching. It rarely is. And when a graduation ceremony is held, even if there's only one graduate that we really don't even know personally, we ought to be at that graduation ceremony. expressing our gratitude to God for the gift of another candidate for the ministry. On June 13, 2024, Trinity Protestant Reformed Church was barely half full. What are we saying? How important is preaching to you? We can pack covenants, Jim. We can follow our children around as they run, as they play. That's important. What are we saying to our children and to our God about the importance of preaching, of heralds? Think about it. God can take away his word. There were times when Israel had no prophet, no word from God for centuries. In the New Testament, God can withhold preachers. It should be obvious then what our calling is. to pray urgently to the Lord of the harvest to give us laborers, heralds of the King. Confirm that prayer by a zeal for preaching and preachers, enthusiasm for the work of training men for the ministry. And the calling of the men of the congregation is to consider seriously whether God calls you to this office. I am convinced there are men who have the qualifications to be a minister of the word in this church. I'm convinced of it. May God be pleased, may the king of the church be pleased to give us this crucial gift of ministers. Through preaching, the Spirit works faith. By faith, we are saved. Without preaching, we perish. Amen. Father in Heaven, we give thanks to Thee for Thy goodness to the Church, in the gift of Thy Son, and in the saving power of the Spirit through preaching. Thou hast given us, as churches, almost a century of faithful preaching, not without difficulty. not without the need to battle the lie. But nonetheless, thou hast preserved thy word and faithful preaching. Continue to do so. And give to us preachers heralds of the gospel that may continue to proclaim thy glorious truth for the glory of thy name and the salvation of thy church. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Psalter number 280. 280. O my soul, bless thou Jehovah. All within me bless his name. We'll sing the stanzas one and three. One and three of 280. O bestowers of Jehovah, come with me, be my sustenance. As your hope I am for him now. All his mercies to complete. He forgives all life's distractions, heals our sicknesses and pains. He relieves me from destruction, renders love my life's sustain. Oh, to anchor and abundance in this great September fest, we will love thee every hour with our relief. till his love and grace comply. How blessed be the mighty one of his triumph, for he alone has wonders done, and he's in glory at excel. And blessed be his glorious name, long as he The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.