I invite you to pray with me as we begin.

As the rain and the snow come down from heaven

and do not return there but water the ground, causing it to bring forth and sprout, giving

seed to the sower and bread to the eater.

So will my word be that goes forth from my mouth.

It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish that which I have

purposed and succeed in everything that I have designed.

That's our confidence.

We trust the promise that your word never returns empty.

I thank you for this in Jesus name, Amen.

One question that I'm not asking in this message is,

what are the natural things that a preacher can do to increase the natural

knowledge and the natural feeling of his people? I have no interest in that question whatsoever. What I mean by

natural, the natural things that a pastor can do, the natural alterations of the mind and the heart that can happen through preaching.

What I mean by natural is what Paul meant in 1 Corinthians 214, the natural person does not accept

the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him.

And he's not able to understand them because they are spiritually

discerned. So the natural person does not accept the things of the spirit of God. What are they?

The natural person does not accept them, cannot understand them, they are the content of preaching.

Paul had just been referring to what he had imparted through preaching.

The glories of Christ crucified, risen, raining, and all that God is for us in him.

For example, he had just said, the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing but to us who are being saved it is

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