Good evening. We're going to
open tonight with a hymn we don't sing too often, but since Joy's
here, we're going to sing it. So let's all stand together for
number four in your Spiral Gospel Hymns hymn book. Number four,
Hail Sovereign Love. Hail, sovereign love that first
began the scheme to rescue fallen man. Hail, matchless, free, eternal
grace that gave my soul a hiding place. Against the God who rules
the sky, I fought with hand uplifted high, despised the mention of
His grace, too proud to seek a hiding place. And wrapped in thick Egyptian
night, And fond of darkness more than light, Madly I ran the sinful
race, Secure without a hiding place. But thus the eternal counsel
ran, Almighty love, arrest that man. I felt the arrows of distress
and found I had no hiding place. Indignant justice stood in view,
To Sinai's fiery mount I flew. But justice cried with frowning
face, This mountain is no hiding place. Ere long a heavenly voice
I heard, and mercy's angel form appeared, who led me on with
gentle pace to Jesus Christ, my hiding place. On Him, Almighty, vengeance fell,
That must have sunk a world to hell. He bore it for a chosen
race, ? Thus became their hiding place ? ? A few more rolling
suns at most ? ? Shall land be safe on heaven's coast ? ? There
I shall sing the song of grace to Jesus Christ ? Christ my hiding
place. Please be seated. Number 340 in the big hardback
tendril, number 340. ? Nearer, still nearer ? ? Close
to thy heart ? ? Draw me, my Savior ? ? So precious thou art
? ? Fold me, O fold me ? ? Close to thy breast ? Shelter me safe
in that haven of rest. Shelter me safe in that haven
of rest. Nearer, still nearer, nothing
I bring, not as an offering to Jesus my King. Only my sinful, now contrite
heart, Grant me the cleansing thy blood doth impart. Grant me the cleansing thy blood
doth impart. ? Nearer, still nearer, Lord,
to be Thine ? ? Sin with its follies I gladly resign ? ? All
of its pleasures I gladly resign ? ? Pomp and its pride ? ? Give
me but Jesus, my Lord crucified ? ? Give me but Jesus, my Lord
crucified ? ? Nearer, still nearer ? ? While
life shall last ? ? Till safe in glory ? ? My anchor is cast
? ? Through endless ages ? ? Ever to be ? my Savior, still nearer
to Thee. Nearer, my Savior, still nearer
to Thee. Good evening. I wanted to give
you an update on Cyril Reynolds. He fell in the shower. They had
to take seven stitches in his head, and he fractured his ankle. So they took him to the hospital,
and while he was there, they gave him a heart test, and they
took him and put a pacemaker in. And now he's home, he's having
a difficult time, but he's stable and hopefully the Lord will heal
him. Need to pray for Greg that the
Lord would bring him back to us safe and sound this weekend. And pray for one another. And pray for me as I bring a
message. I said I wasn't going to do this
anymore, but man proposes, but God disposes, and here I am. So be in prayer for me. Father, we thank you for being
gathered here tonight. Father, we thank you that you
called us by your grace. We thank you, Father, for watching
over Cyril and Lenore, for healing his body, Father, bringing him
back to health. We ask especially, Father, you'd
be with Greg and Trish. You bring them back safely to
us. that he might preach the gospel
to us, Father. We desperately need to hear the
gospel, and he does an excellent job of giving it to us. We'd ask that you'd watch over
me, Father. Give me the grace to bring a
gospel message, Father, we ask in Jesus' name, amen. In 2 Timothy
chapter 2 and verse 19, The Lord said, nevertheless,
now that means in spite of. Nevertheless, the foundation
of God standeth sure having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that
are his and let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart
from iniquity. The name of this message is nevertheless. Now, Paul, when he wrote the
letters to Timothy, we know that that's the inspired word of God.
None of it is Paul's opinion. Paul said in chapter three of
first Timothy, I plan to come to you shortly. But these things
are right, that if I tarry long, that you might know how thou
oughtest to behave thyself in the house of the Lord, which
is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the
truth. So there are some things in 1st
and 2nd Timothy that gospel preachers are supposed to do, that gospel
preachers need to keep in mind when they preach and when they're
not preaching. And by extension, they all belong
to us too. There's no such thing as one
particular passage for one particular Christian in the scriptures.
It applies to all of us. When it says, study to show thyself
approved unto God, even though that's addressed to Timothy,
it's also addressed to us. So we want to find out some of
the things that God warns Timothy about, instructs Timothy about,
what to do in certain circumstances, excuse me, before we get to verse
19. So we'll start in 2 Timothy chapter
two and verse one. Therefore thou, my son, Be strong
in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. That's the first rule
for a gospel preacher. That's the first rule for a child
of God. Preach Christ. Look for Christ. His scriptures are written solely
about Christ. And never, ever give an inch
on free grace. Not ever. Now, the first, I guess
you could say the first time that the grace of the Lord Jesus
Christ is mentioned when it was is in Ephesians chapter 1 in
verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places, according as he hath chosen us
in him. before the foundation of the
world that we should be holy and without blame, in love having
predestinated us under the adoption of children by Jesus Christ unto
himself according to the good pleasure of his will, to the
praise of the glory of what? His grace. wherein he hath made
us accepted in the beloved, in whom we have redemption through
his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches
of his grace." So the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ was shown
to us and given to us before the world ever was. God the Father
chose a particular people out of all mankind. He had all of
the names of every child of God who would ever be born, and he
gave them to the Lord Jesus Christ, and he agreed to be our Redeemer. He agreed to pay our debt of
sin. That's the first thing we know
about Christ, is he was gracious before the foundation of the
world. The second thing that we know
is this. In the beginning, God created
the heavens and the earth. John chapter one and verse one. In the beginning was the word.
The word was with God and the word was God. The same was in
the beginning with God. All things were made by him and
without him was not anything made that was made. The Lord
Jesus Christ in grace, knowing the name of every child of God
that would ever live and die. made a place for his children
to live in. He made a place for his children
to be born in and grow up. And he had the grace to make
them be born again, knowing that they were lost in sin. He had
the grace to born us again. He had the grace to lead us through
this life. He had the grace to see us through
the valley of the shadow of death. The Lord Jesus Christ had the
grace to do everything needful for our salvation. Whatever God
demanded, the Lord Jesus Christ provided. So the grace of the Lord Jesus
Christ belongs to us because we are in Him. The Lord Jesus
Christ, by grace, all through the Old Testament, made what
we call progressive revelation about Himself. By the time the
Lord Jesus Christ was born, the Jewish doctors knew almost to
the year, or the month, or the day when He would be born. They knew where He would be born. They knew He would die on the
cross. They knew He was the Son of God. The Scripture says, He came unto
His own, and His own received Him not. But to as many as received
him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, which
were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of
the will of man, but of God. We are born again by the grace
of God. The Lord Jesus Christ had the
grace to take on himself sinful flesh. She shall bring forth
a son. First it said that which is conceived
in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son,
and thou shalt call his name Jesus, because he shall save
his people from their sin. The Lord Jesus Christ in grace
took on himself the likeness of sinful flesh. We can never
ever imagine what that would be like. He came down from heaven
to take on himself the likeness of sinful flesh, to tabernacle
in a human body, to sweat and be tired, and to be hungry, and
to be thirsty, the Lord of glory walked in the dust and the heat
everywhere he went. That's grace. That's grace in
Christ. He had the grace to withstand
being judged and killed by his own. He had the grace to let the Roman
soldiers nail him to a wooden cross. This is the one that could have
called 12 legions of angels. A legion is 60 men, 600 men.
And there are 60 leaders of 10. That's 660. And there are six centurions. That's six, six, six. Twelve legions of angels in two
seconds could have made this whole earth into a wasteland
wilderness. And He didn't do it. Because
the Lord Jesus Christ would have called the angels There would
have been no elect because the covenant of grace would have
been null and void. He had the grace to lay down
on that wooden cross and let those Roman soldiers nail him
to the cross. And when they raised him up between
heaven and hell and left him there to die, we, every child
of God, was in him. That's the eternal union. Only
grace can do that. We were in Him. We were crucified
with Christ. Nevertheless, we live. Yet not
us, but Christ will live within us. And the life that we now
live, we live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me
and gave Hisself for me. He believed that God, His Father,
would raise Him from the dead. That's the faith of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And they buried Him in another
man's tomb. And when the Lord Jesus Christ
was raised from the dead, He took that linen napkin that was
wrapped around His face, folded it, and set it aside. And when
He walked through the door of that tomb, we came with Him. We were raised from the dead
with the Lord Jesus Christ because we are in union with Him. That's pure grace. And our sins
were left behind like that linen napkin, gone forever. Gone forever because we were
justified in Christ. And that's not the end of the
grace of Christ. He's going to come back for me.
The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout. with
the trump of God and the voice of the archangel, and the dead
in Christ shall rise first. I can't even imagine that, but
it's going to happen. Then we which are alive and remain
shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the
Lord in the air. And by grace, so shall we ever
be with the Lord. Wherefore, comfort ye one another
with these words. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,
never, ever give an inch on it. Be strong in the grace of the
Lord. Now, the grace of the Lord Jesus
Christ is not confined to heavenly things. Here, look around you. If grace is the gift of God,
we have a brand new church building. The gift of God. We've got a
reconditioned nursery over there with a huge refrigerator in it. Gift of God. I have a wife that
I've loved for over 61 years. And she's loved me in spite of
myself. Grace, God's grace has done this
for us. We have a son. He's not interested
in the things of the Lord, but a gracious God could make him
willing in the day of his power, and that's what we pray for.
Grace is all the little children running around in this church.
People have no idea what a blessing little children are in a church.
They're the next generation. For some reason, grace churches
usually got old people in it. The old people don't have kids.
But we've got a bunch of little children in this church. Caleb, God has blessed him with
a lovely wife and three beautiful girls. That's the grace of God. Walk outside the door and look
around. Beautiful green grass, the grace
of God. Trees, beautiful trees. If Paul
was here, he'd say a poet, one of your own said, poems are made
by a fool like me, but only God can make a tree. And that's true. The grace of God preserves this
world strictly for the elect, for his children. Because when
the last child of God is born again and called, then it's over
with. The next thing is the fire. So
God has preserved this world for his children. God's grace
never ends. So don't ever compromise grace. Always be strong in the grace
of the Lord Jesus Christ. In verse three, He says, Thou
therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, we know that Christ doesn't
need soldiers. We know that God doesn't need
soldiers. He's nowhere in the whole Scripture
commanded us to go down and overrun a free will church and burn it
to the ground and enslave all them free willers. No, no, no. There are no soldiers because
God has his own army. A lot of people don't even consider
that. But God brought the strongest
country in the world at that time. He defeated them with dead
fish and flies and fleas and frogs and all these things. And then whenever they were after
the children of Israel, God closed up the Red Sea and they all grounded. You really think God needs soldiers? God broke up the foundations
of the great deep and he opened the windows of heaven. And God's
army, water. killed everything on the face
of the earth that drew breath, except for eight people in a
wooden ark and the animals they had in there with them. Noise
is the army of God. What happened? Children of Israel
circled Jericho seven days and never made a sound, never made
a sound. And then all the people blew
the ram horns, gave a great shout, and the walls fell down flat. God did the same thing when the
Syrians had surrounded Jerusalem. And God caused them to hear the
noise of a huge number of horses and chariots when there were
none. And they all fled and they left everything in their tents
and the lepers found it and called everybody out of the city. So God doesn't need soldiers. So why even use that metaphor? For the simple reason that soldiers
follow orders. They do what their commander
tells them ASAP, as soon as possible. They don't question orders. They don't question a higher
authority. And that's how we are to act
in respect to the Lord Jesus Christ. When he says something,
we show reasonable service to do it. We do what the Lord tells
us, and His commands are not grievous. Scripture tells us
that. We are more than willing to follow Him. So it's not a
question of soldiers, it's a question of what soldiers do. And it said
to endure hardness. Now, it didn't say to endure
sleeping in a wet, leather, stinky, moldy tent like a soldier, eating
half-cooked food, sleeping on the wet ground, shaving with
cold water. It's not about that at all. So
what is hardness? What is hardness connected to
a gospel preacher? The book of Jude in verse 14
says that God will convince all the ungodly of their ungodly
deeds and the ungodly things they say and their hard speeches. So he's telling Timothy, gospel
preachers, endure. Hard speeches. They endure people
that criticize. They endure people that catch
them at the front door and take all the skin right off of them. They endure people that talk
bad about them. They endure these things because
it's expected of them. Gospel preachers are not just
gospel preachers when they're standing here in this pulpit. You could ask a hundred different
people how they feel about gospel preachers. You could say, oh,
I just love Greg. Ninety-nine of them would tell
you he's just a man. But that's not true. That is
not true because there's a difference in the church. In the Lord Jesus
Christ, we're all the same. In Christ, there is neither Jew
nor Greek. There's neither bond nor free. There's neither male nor female. For you're all one in Christ
Jesus. And if you be Christ, then are
you Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. Galatians
chapter three. But being in Christ and being
in the church are not the same thing. And that's easy enough
to prove. In Christ, there's neither Jew
nor Greek. There is neither bond nor free. There is neither male nor female. In the church, let your women
remain silent. I suffer them not to teach nor
to usurp authority over a man. And because God is gracious,
he gives a reason for that. It's not because women are less
than men. It's not because men are smarter. The reason is this, because Adam
was first formed and then Eve. And the woman being deceived
was in the transgression. It don't change the fact that
things are different in the church than they are in Christ. The church is apart from that. It's difficult to explain without
sounding judgmental, but listen to what I say. Whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall
they call on him in whom they've not believed? And how shall they
believe in him of whom they've not heard? And how shall they
hear without a preacher? And how shall he preach except
he be sent? Gospel preachers are sent by
God. They are an ambassador of Christ. They're a gospel preacher 24
hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year, as long as they
preach. They never have a day off. They're
a gospel preacher no matter where they're at or what they're doing. So don't tell me it only works
while they're in the pulpit. There's only one man in this
church that is sent. One man. Now the rest of the
children of God, all children of God, including the gospel
preacher are all the same in Christ. Romans chapter eight and verse
30. Whom he did foreknow, he also
did predestinate. Every one of us are predestinated
to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be
the firstborn amongst many a brother. were all predestinated, all the
children of God, to be conformed to the image of Christ. Whom
he did predestinate, them he also called. Every child of God
that's ever been and ever will be is called. Whom he called,
them he also justified. Every child of God that will
ever be predestinated and called is justified. Whom he justified,
them he also glorified. That's past tense. We've already
been glorified. I firmly believe that when the
angel of the Lord takes me to heaven, I'm going to open my
eyes and I'm going to be home because I'm there right now to
begin with. I really believe that every child
of God must be born again. But it does not change the fact
that there's only one man in this church that's been sent. And he is to ignore hardness. He is to suffer hardness. He is to bear hardness. That's part of being a gospel
preacher. Now, when I say that there's
only one man in this church that's been sent, I firmly believe that
Caleb is going to be sent. He's not right now. If he really
is sent, God will furnish him a church. But right now. Right now, there's only one man
that's an ambassador for Christ in this church, only one man
that is sent by God, and that's Greg Elmquist. He is due honor
and respect as a man sent from God. And if I don't honor and
respect him, if I talk bad about him, if I talk bad to him, if
I do anything on that order, I need to worry. Because it's
very plain that assault on the king's officer is an assault
on the king. An assault on Greg Elmquist is
an assault on Jesus Christ. And people usually don't even
think about that. How dangerous is it? 2 Kings
2. There was a gospel preacher walking
down the road on his way to Bethel. Now, if ever there was a gospel
preacher, this man was. His name is Elisha. He's the
one that asked for a double blessing, and the Lord gave it to him.
I mean, he is a gospel preacher. And as he's walking down the
road, scripture said, little children. came out of one of
the villages and heckled him and belittled him and made small
of him and they hollered, go up thou bald head, go up thou
bald head, you know how kids are. And two she bears, two mama
bears came out of the forest and killed 42 of them. So if
I'm going to be mean and disrespect Greg, first thing I'm going to
do is look around and make sure there's no bears around. Now,
I love my wife beyond reason. She's my wife. This is the wife
of the Lord Jesus Christ. If anyone makes fun of my wife,
if anyone belittles my wife, if anyone hurts my wife, they
have taken their life in their hands. And you might as well
think that God is the same way about the bride of the Lord Jesus
Christ. There's going to be hard speeches. But you have to endure them,
even if you're a common everyday Christian. And I don't like using
that term. But even everyone in this room
is told to endure hardness, especially the gospel preacher. Like Paul
said, these are the things that tell you how you ought to behave
in the house of the Lord. And then he goes on to say this,
that a good soldier does not get entangled with the things
of this life. You're not talking about sin.
If he was, he would have said a good soldier don't get entangled
in the things of the world. He didn't say that. He said the
things of this life. So what possible things could
we ever get entangled in about life? Well, you got house notes,
truck notes, car notes, taxes, IRS taxes. You got water bills. You got electric bills. You got
all of these things. You got to worry about your kids
in school. You get entangled with fishing
and hunting. Do not get entangled with these
things and let them interfere with your worship of God. That's
what it says. Do not become entangled in the
things of this life. You can become entangled in the
things of this life in your children. A lot of people put their children
before God, believe it or not. We don't. Christians do not. We have to get our priorities
straight. if we're going to know how to
behave ourselves in the house of the Lord. And then he goes on to tell Timothy
this, and this applies to all of us. Study to show thyself
approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed,
rightly dividing the word of truth. Now, there's not much of that
going on only in gospel churches. I was thinking about this as
I prepared this message. I only know about five gospel
churches. I know the names of their preachers.
There's more than that. I just don't know them. How many
free will churches are there? Thousands and thousands of them. The man across the street, I
witnessed a hymn a long time ago, and I use 2 Timothy 1.9,
I think it is, excuse me, who has saved us and called us with
an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. He said, I'll ask my preacher
about that. And he did. And that preacher
told him, get away from him. Don't talk to him anymore. Don't go around him anymore. Don't have nothing to do with
that heretic. He died about three months ago. So he don't have to worry about
being around me, does he? But his blood, if you can use
that terminology, his blood is on that preacher's hands. All
of the hundreds of thousands of millions of people that they
fool, that they beguile, that they make them think they're
saved. Are you going to heaven or not?
Fill out this question right here. They're all in trouble. Every one of them, and there's
nothing we can do about it, but pray that God and his mercy will
call him out of the heresy that they're in. And then Paul goes
on to tell him to avoid vain jangling. that these things will
cause so much trouble, they'll eat as a canker does. And you know what I'm talking
about. When someone starts a rumor, it never really gets straightened
out. It just goes on and on and on and gets worse and worse and
worse. And I always think about The
Synod of Dort, that was a place where they all gathered together
and went over the scriptures and came up with what they felt
like they were saying and everything. And they called a synod for this
one purpose. Someone said, has God ever created
anything that didn't have a purpose? And they thought about it and
thought about it, talked about it, preached about it, mulled
over it and came back together. And the answer was no. And they said, what about fleas? And they said fleas. So they
went back and thought about it some more, prayed about it some
more and came back and said, God created fleas to keep dogs
busy. That's vain jangling. That's
devoting your time to things that have nothing to do with
the Lord Jesus Christ. And he said, avoid people that
bring in false doctrine. And the doctrine, particular
doctrine that they had brought in was this, the resurrection
is already over. And he said, it overthrows the
faith of some. Now, if you're subject to being
blown around with every wind of strange doctrine, you could
probably believe that. Well, we're just out of luck.
All the peoples, all the gods come, got all of his people and
we're left. That means we ain't got a leg
to stand on. And other people say, oh, things
like that will never come in to a gospel church. Have you
forgot flat earth so quickly? That flat-earth heresy that wrecked
churches and ruined families and did so much damage? So heresy
does crop up in a gospel church. Verse 19, nevertheless, in spite
of some not standing strong in the grace of Christ, And some
who will waylay gospel preachers and make fun of them and say
mean things to them and destroy a church when they do it. In
spite of people that will talk about things and gospel about
things that they don't know anything about. In spite of people who
will come into a gospel church and start some kind of a heresy
in spite of all of these things. Nevertheless, the foundation
of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them
that are his. Now a seal is placed on something
to more or less hide what's in it. So if you've got a great
big envelope and it's got a seal on it, then whatever's inside
that envelope is only for the person it's mailed to. The foundation
of God is mailed to us, the children of God. But you can't break the
seal because it's true that the Lord knows them that are His. So you take a really sharp instrument. You take the two-edged sword
of the Word of God, and you kind of wiggle it under that seal,
get it under that seal, and break it loose, fold it open, and you
open the envelope. And now you're gonna find out
what the foundation of God is. So you look inside. And you see
the chief cornerstone, the Lord Jesus Christ. You see the stone
that is tried. You see the stone that the builders
rejected, which has become the head of the corner. You see the
stone that's going to fall on the unbeliever and grind them
to dust. You see the stone that the Israelites
followed through the wilderness and got all their drinking water
from. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. You see the stone that He built
His church on. The fact that He is the Son of
God. The stone that the builders rejected
has become the head of the corner. It's become the capstone. The
foundation of God, I firmly believe, is the covenant of grace. Nothing else will stand except
for that covenant. Nothing else will go on through
eternity except the people that he called and brought into that
covenant. What did the Ethiopian eunuch
say? He saw the cornerstone. He said,
here is water. What does hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, if thou believest
with all thine heart, thou mayest. And what did he say? He said,
I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. That's the foundation
of God. That's the rock that the house
is built on and not on the sand. That's the rock that God built
his church on. Thou art the Christ, the son
of the living God. I say unto thee, thou art Peter,
and upon this rock, I will build my church and the gates of hell
shall not prevail against it. No one, anything can possibly
do in this life. No one, anything they can do
in this church is going to change that. That Jesus Christ is the
Son of God. That God made him to be sin for
us who knew no sin, that we might be made of the righteousness
of God in him. Everything that's ever happened,
everything that ever will happen is for the glory of God and God's
elect. And nothing else matters. I don't care what the circumstances
of our life are, don't get entangled in them. I don't care what anybody
tells you, throw it away. Never give in to anyone on the
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Be thankful for everything. Be thankful because everything
is the gift of God. We don't know how fortunate we
are. Since time began, how many people
do you think died and went to hell? It's not going to be us. You know why? Because God loved
me before the foundation of the world. God claimed, or Jesus
claimed me for his own. He agreed to be my substitute. He was made sin for me. And I
was made the righteousness of God in him. He's done all these
things for me. And that's all that counts. That's
all that counts. Everything else, life, death,
everything doesn't matter. Nothing, nothing, nothing can
ever separate us from the love of God, which is given us in
Christ Jesus. Father, we come before you tonight
needing to know, Father, that you love us. We come before you
tonight, Father, needing to know that Christ died for us, needing
the grace, Father, to believe what you said, to have the grace,
Father, to depend on thee for all things. We thank you, Father,
for all of the blessings that you've given us. And we ask again,
Father, that you'd bring Greg back to us, you'd bring Trish
back to us, you'd watch over us carefully, Father, until we
meet here again. We ask in Jesus' name, amen. Let's stand together. We'll close
with hymn number 334 in your hardback hymnal. 334. Be thou my vision, O Lord of
my heart, Naught be all else to me, save that thou art, Thou
my best thought, by day or by night. Waking or sleeping, Thy
presence my light. Be Thou my wisdom, and Thou my
true word. I ever with thee, and thou with
me, Lord. Thou my great Father, I thy true
Son. Thou in me dwelling, and I with
thee one. Riches I heed not, nor man's
empty praise, Thou my inheritance now and always. Thou and Thou only, first in
my heart. High King of heaven, my treasure
Thou art. High King of heaven, my victory
won! May I reach heaven's joys, O
bright heaven's sun! ? Heart of my own heart, whatever
befall ? ? Still be my vision, O ruler of all ?