Let me first thank everyone for everything you've done thus far. You ladies, the food has just been marvelous. Just marvelous. Just wonderful. Thank you so much. I'll go ahead and thank the Whiteheads for the fish that I'm about to eat. I look forward to that.

As you know, Brother Darvin said, we go way back. We've known each other 45 plus years. We were members of the church which my father pastored and we attended a preacher's school. There were about 15 of us weren't there. That was a, wasn't that a highlight in your lifetime? We still gleaned from that moment. It was just invaluable. We had a man, as you know, a very faithful, wise pastor, and he taught us for two years in that class every Saturday morning. Brother Darwin was there and myself, Todd Nybert and John Chapman and Joe Terrell and several others. The oldest student in that school was Darwin's father. Herman. Was he 75 at that time? 75 years old. And I'm sure Brother Darwin has told you his story. He was a Nazarene preacher, wasn't he? Baltz preacher. The Lord saved him. He sat in that class like a little child, just soaking up the truth. It was just wonderful. I have fond memories of your father.

And now, Brother Darvin, he has a picture, and I'm not, I don't want to draw attention to us, I don't want to talk about us, but nevertheless, the Lord's providence is amazing. Amazing. And Darvin has a picture of us, and I was in my 20s, he might have been 30. But he was real thin, and I had a head of hair. That was yesterday, wasn't it? It really was. I've known David Pledger 55 years. You may not know this, but he was a missionary to Mexico for 10 years. He went there in 1966. And some men at 13th Street in 1970 went down there for the first time and met Walter and David. My father took some men. He took me. I was 15 years old. David was 30. Look at us. And never in my wildest dreams would I believe I'd be 70 years old and you're 85 and we're both preaching the gospel together. That's amazing, isn't it? Just amazing. The Lord moves in a mysterious way, a wonderful way.

My dad, let me say this, my dad moved to Rocky Mount when he was around 80 some years ago, 81 or 82, something like that. And he sat under my preaching until he died in 93. And, oh, he sat like Brother Herman did as a little child listening He'd often say, I've never preached like that. He just encouraged me, you know. But I had him preach on the radio while he was there, and every chance I could get to get him to preach. He's still a great preacher in his 80s. He asked me one time, he said, I need to quit. I need to quit. He said, he's having trouble recalling scriptures. and bringing things to mind and putting things into words the way you wanted to, the way you used to as a young man. He said, I'm just going to quit. I said, Dad, no, it's not time yet. He said, I'll let you know. And Brother David, it's not time yet. Jonathan, we'll let him know, won't we, buddy? You've got a lot of years left in you, buddy. That was a blessing. That was a blessing.

Matthew 9, turn with me to Matthew 9. Our pastor told Brother Darvin and I and all of us, and thank you Darvin and Yvonne, my, my, how they've treated us royally. But our pastor told us one time, he said, right at the top of your sermon notes, K-I-S-S. Keep it simple, stupid. Meaning, don't go over people's heads. We're not preaching to giraffes. We're preaching to sheep, right? He said one time, you remember this, Darby? He said, pick you out a 12-year-old boy out there in the congregation. Preach to him. He said, the older ones will get it and the young ones will get something. That's wise, isn't it?

This, I hope, will be very simple. One way of many that you know God wrote this book, along with the wisdom of it, the power of it, the glory of it, the subject of it, is that the Lord says so much in so few words. In one verse here in Matthew 9, verse 9, let's read this with me. There's 32 words, 20 are one-syllable words. And this one verse is the story of my salvation. How the Lord saved me and how he saves all sinners. Verse 9, read with me, Matthew 9, verse 9. As Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a man. named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of customs. And he, the Lord, saith unto him, follow me. And he arose and followed him. Period. One verse. This is Matthew's story. Matthew's salvation. This is my salvation. entitled this, a two-word sermon. You can take just two words in these phrases and tell the story of salvation. It says, Jesus passed. Jesus passed. Who? Who is this? Just a man named Jesus? That's what people call him today. That's what they called him then. Is he just a man? No. This is God manifest in the flesh. A virgin shall conceive and bear a child, a son. Call his name what? Immanuel. God with us. Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. Call his name Wonderful, Counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father. Listen to Isaiah 25. Isaiah 25, it shall be said in that day, lo, this is our God. We've waited for him. He will save us. This is the Lord, Jehovah. We've waited for him. We'll be glad and rejoice in his salvation.

Just before that, it says he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering. cast over all people, the veil that spread over all nations. He'll swallow up death in victory and the Lord God will wipe away all tears from off all faces and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth. That is the guilt of sin which we heard this morning. The Lord has spoken it.

Who is this? Jesus. This is the Lord Jesus. This is God manifesting the blood. When you ever find out who Jesus is, you'll call him Lord. From then on, won't you? Look in our text, right beside the page there, the devils knew who he was. Verse 29, in the previous chapter, they cried out, say, what have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? This is the Lord Jesus, who this is, the Son of God, the Christ, the Messiah, the Redeemer, God manifest in the flesh. That's who this is.

All right, it says in our text, look at verse 9 again, it says Jesus passed, he passed by, he passed by from thence. In verse 1, He was in his city, Capernaum. They called it his city, Scripture does, because he was there so often. He was there for three years off and on, wasn't he? He spent much time there. What a blessed city Capernaum was, wasn't it? That the Lord Jesus Christ would come to that little place, Galilee, where was it? And he would stay there for so long and call out his people from those mountain people, those fishermen and all that. How blessed those people were.

Well, how blessed the city of Louisville, Arkansas is. How blessed. The city of Rocky Mount, Virginia. Do you know where Rocky Mount, Virginia is? Probably not. We didn't either until I went there. But how blessed that city is.

Look with me at Deuteronomy chapter 12, Deuteronomy chapter 12. Our Lord Jesus Christ, it says he went through all the villages and towns and preached the gospel, but this one particular place, Capernaum, he spent a great deal of time there, so much so it was called his city. And he has churches, local churches, not in every city in this world does it. And what a rare thing it is, what a blessed thing it is for the gospel to be in a certain place. This place, is this, is the gospel here because you're more, you're greater in number than any? What's the population of Louisville? 700, 800? Doesn't even have a stoplight, does it? Rocky Mount has got one downtown. You know that the Lord would come to a place like this and establish a church where the gospel is. What a blessed city this is.

Look at chapter 12 and if you want to do a search go through from Deuteronomy 12 all the way through through this book, I think it's 20 some times he talks about the place that he's chosen to put his name there. Look at verse Well, verse 5, unto the place which the Lord your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put his name there, even unto his habitation shall ye seek, and thither shall ye come. Verse 7, there you shall eat before the Lord, and rejoice in all you put your hand to. Turn the page, verse 11. There shall be a place which the Lord your God shall choose to cause to his name to dwell there. That's his glory, that's his honor, that's what we've been hearing about, isn't it? From the preacher. Hither shall you bring your burnt offerings, your sacrifice, your tithe, verse 12. There you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you, your sons, your daughters, your menservants, your maidservants. Verse 14, the place which the Lord shall choose in one of thy tribe, go there, He says. That's a blessed place where His honor, where His glory is. Bring your children. One place in Deuteronomy says, if the place is too far for you, sell out and go there. You've got to be there. You've got to hear the gospel. You've got to feed. Twenty-some time. And this place It's so blessed.

Well, it says he passed from there. He left there. And these men that know something about church history will tell you that a church, a local church has never been in a particular place more than 60 or more years. Isn't that right, Brother Dave? The gospel started, as you know, in Jerusalem, and the church there in Jerusalem, and it was scattered and went all over the world, and churches were raised up everywhere. All those churches in what is now Turkey and all that, seven of them, they're gone. Aren't they? And it moved into Europe, and, you know, Martin Luther, all the reformers and all that, and it moved into the British Isles, and then moved over to this country, How blessed we are. How blessed we are.

But, He passed from there. Don't take this for granted. Don't take this for granted. Pray that the Lord will keep this here. My, my. He passed by. The Lord Jesus Christ.

Look at our text. Matthew 9. He passed forth from Thebes. And He saw a man. He saw it. Our Lord Jesus Christ came into this place where they were collecting tax money. And this man, Matthew, was a publican. They were the most hated people of that day. They were tax collectors that made money off of their people working for the Roman government and extorted money from their own people, and they were hated and despised by everyone.

But it says, our Lord Jesus Christ came to this place, and there were more than one tax collector. This is not the only one. But our Lord Jesus Christ looked upon this man, this certain publican. Out of all those people in that crowd, the Lord looked on him. He focused his eyes on that man. He saw. He looked upon that man, a certain man.

You know, the scripture says, his eyes behold, his eyelids try all the sons of men. He sees everything. He that made the eye, doesn't he see? Yes, he does. He that made the ear, doesn't he hear? Oh, yes, he does. Man can't see God. God sees man, doesn't He? Yes, He does.

Matthew didn't see Him. Matthew wasn't looking for him, was he? You could say he didn't see it coming. Neither did I. But our Lord set his eye upon him. If Matthew did see him, and our Lord, when our Lord was on this earth, multitudes, everyone had heard of this Jesus of Nazareth. You couldn't go anywhere where someone hadn't heard of Jesus of Nazareth. And right there he had been for some time. And everyone had heard of the rabbi, the young teacher, the miracle worker named Jesus. And multitudes flocked to hear him.

And if Matthew had seen him, there was no beauty about him that he should desire him. If Matthew had seen him, there was nothing about him that was interesting to Matthew. He was more interested in his money. But God. You know, I can't preach the gospel, Brother Darwin, without saying, but God. And you, who were dead, Matthew, lost, dead and dying, living for money, sitting there, looking down, and somebody's looking at him. Isn't that something? What about you? What about you?

Was there a day? How many publicans were there? Like those fishermen. How many boats in that harbor in Galilee? How many fishermen? How many boats did the Lord Jesus Christ pass by until he saw Andrew and Simon and James and John and called them? I'm going to talk about that effectual pluck. Sovereign vote. Oh my, how many publicans? But the Lord looked on this man. Has he looked on you in mercy and grace and called you by his power, by his gospel? Has he chosen you? Those that are with him are called, chosen, and boy, they're faithful to his glory.

How many people? The Lord looked on this man. Blessed, sovereign election. There you go again, preacher. That's right. You can't preach the gospel without starting with God's sovereign election. Can't do it. Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God. He put his, he set his eye and his affection on this man named Levi, named Matthew. My, my.

Old Mephibosheth said this, didn't he say? What is thy servant that you should look upon such a dead dog as me? And he looked on Matthew. If you have children and you go to a school event, they're young, that young, whose eye, who are you looking at? Who do you have your eye on? We had one daughter and we have two granddaughters. When we go to a school function and we're looking at that one daughter, our eye of affection, our eye of love. Oh, we have pity and compassion upon the rest, but our love and our affection, and everything we are belongs to that person.

And he looked upon, when it talks about him, he saw a man, he's looking on him with love, with affection. When did he first look upon Matthew? When did he first see Matthew, huh?