the gospel. We recall, however, that Paul was concerned, in writing his first letter to them, that some of his readers might not know the Lord at all (1 Cor. 15:34; 16:22). The Acts of the Apostles shows us that some professions of conversion may be spurious and that a person may even have submitted to Christian baptism and yet still be captive to sin (Acts 8:9–24). There is plenty of room for this concern in modern preaching too. It is all too easy to assume that a congregation made up of regular