If you will, take your Bibles
and turn with me to Matthew chapter 9. Matthew, the 9th chapter,
and tonight we'll be looking at two verses here in Matthew
chapter 9, actually one verse, verse 9. Matthew chapter 9 and
verse 9. The title of the message tonight
is, A Call That Cannot Be Refused. A call that cannot be refused. Matthew 9 and verse 9 says, And
as Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a man named Matthew sitting
at the receipt of customs, and he saith unto him, Follow me. And he arose and followed him. Tonight I want to preach on the
effectual call of this disciple Matthew. The effectual call of
this disciple Matthew. And I want us to see how this
is a pattern for all those who are called by the grace of God. All those who are called to life
and faith in Christ. This is our testimony. The same testimony that Matthew
here gives of himself and his call that he received from Christ. The first thing that I noticed
in this passage of Scripture was a general call. A general
call. And if you look at that, the
very first part of this verse, it says, "...and Jesus passed
forth from thence." From where? Well, from Capernaum, from the
place that he just was. If you remember, those people
saw a miracle of the healing of that man who was sick of the
palsy. His friends had let him down,
and Lord Jesus Christ over this man says, Son, be of good cheer,
thy sins be forgiven thee. And they began to murmur and
complain about that statement. And Jesus said, so you know I
have power to forgive sins. He said to the sick of the palsy,
rise, take up your bed and go home. These men saw a miracle. They saw the outward manifestation
of the glory of Jesus Christ in that He had power to forgive
sins. Is that not the gospel? Is that
not the gospel? That Jesus Christ has come to
save sinners? Did He not tell them, I forgive
this man of his sins? And yet, what was their focus?
Was their focus on His forgiveness? No. Their focus was solely on
the miracle that He had performed. Solely on the miracle that He
had performed. Look at that in verse 8, "...and
when the multitude saw the miracle, they marveled and glorified God,
which had given such power unto men." Now friends, the real miracle
was that He forgave the man of his sins. That was the real miracle. The other was just to manifest
that He had the authority to do the first. He manifest that He was the only
God-man mediator. He was the only man who can forgive
sins. In 1 Timothy 2, verse 5, the
Scripture tells us, For there is one Mediator between God and
men, the man Christ Jesus. He is the only Mediator. In other words, no other man
has the authority to forgive sins. Nobody. He is the only one. You know,
when the Jews said that He blasphemed by saying He forgave sins, if
He was only a man, He did. But because Jesus was not just
any man, He was the God-man, the only mediator, He had the
right to forgive sins. All men can and must forgive
injuries done to themselves. You and I, we have to forgive
each other. We should forgive each other. You hurt me, I should
be able to forgive you of trespasses that you've done to me. And you
as believers in Christ should forgive me and others who trespass
against you. But one thing we cannot do is
we cannot forgive a guilty sinner of his sin to God. We cannot
do that. That's not in our authority.
Preachers of the gospel of Christ, are required to preach forgiveness
of sins by the death of Christ. And all who believe on Him, I
can declare to you what the God's Word says about your sins, but
I personally cannot forgive you. I cannot make His forgiveness
effectual to you. And this is the outward call
of the gospel to everybody concerning the forgiveness of sins. But
it does not give us power to forgive. And I want to take this
time because the Roman Church, the Roman Catholic Church, they
are in wholehearted disagreement with what I just said. They believe
that men have the power and the authority to forgive sins. And this is where they'll go.
Go to Matthew chapter 16. I'll take you to the text that
they'll take you to. Matthew chapter 16. Beginning
in verse 17, And Jesus answered and said unto Peter, Blessed
art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed
this unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And 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.
I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and
whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven,
and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."
Peter here, Jesus here tells Peter that he's blessed. Why?
Because he knew who he was. He said, Thou art the Christ.
And Jesus said, well, that's blessed. You're blessed if you
know Me, because My Father revealed that to you. And He said to Peter, whose name
was Simon, He said, Thou art called Peter. Little rock. Pebble. Tiny rock. And this word, an, is better
translated, but, upon this rock, pointing to himself. And that
word for rock is massive rock. Mountain rock. Foundational rock. Altogether different from the
little pebble. He said, upon this rock, talking
about Himself, will He build this church. The church's foundation
is not founded upon Peter, but it is founded upon Christ, the
sure foundation of God. And now these keys, and this
is the important part, because they say that these keys, that
Peter has the keys to heaven, he's standing there allowing
men in and out, and he has passed this down to the Pope, so that
the Pope can either allow men in or out of heaven. which is
blasphemy, utter blasphemy. These keys are meaning here the
gospel of Jesus Christ. Those are the keys. The key of
heaven is Christ and His gospel. And these binding and loosing,
This binding and loosing is something that is bound and loosed by the
gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel that we preach is
the gospel that they were given. And the gospel that they were
given loses men from the curse of the law. How else could Paul
and the apostles say that men are dead to the law? How could
they have such authority? Isn't that the rub between the
Jews and what they were talking about? What they were preaching?
Paul was telling us that the law was now passed if we are
in Christ. We are dead to the law. How did
they loose us from the law? The key of the gospel. The gospel
looses us from the law. All believers in Christ are free
from the law of sin and death. And nothing in heaven or earth
can bind us again to that law. Nothing. Nothing. Whatsoever
they loosed. It was unloosed. How? By the
Gospel. The Gospel unloosed us from the
law. And the Gospel bound us. How
did the Gospel bind us? It bound us to faith in Christ
alone. How do I know that salvation
is only by faith in Christ alone? The Gospel key has bound us to
this. God has bound us to this. There
is no other name given among men whereby we must be saved. Only Christ. And so these keys
and this binding and loosing has nothing to do with loosing
or binding the souls or sins of men. Nothing. Nothing. And friends, they hold the Pope
to sit in the place of God. And his priests are given rights
by him to forgive people's sins. which is utter in opposition
to God's Word. 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 4 says,
"...who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called
God." or that is worshipped, so that he as God sitteth in
the temple of God, showing himself that he is God." Friends, that's
the Pope. There's no doubt about that.
He confesses in his own creeds that he is the vicar of Christ,
that he stands in the place of Jesus Christ as a mediator. This is a great evil and blasphemy
for men who oppose the Word of God, where the Word of God says
there is only one mediator between God and men. Friends, I urge
you not to think lightly of that church. That church is a heresy. It is an utter blasphemy. And
all they do is blaspheme the name of Christ. They're anti-Christ. There's no man that can forgive
sins but Christ. And He proved it. You ought to
go to them and say, can they prove it? Jesus Christ told that
man, He said, you get up and you go home. Where's their proof? They have none. No man is given
the authority to forgive sins but Christ, who had it by right
as God. He had that by right. Therefore,
this gospel declaration was manifest to all of them, and yet none of them sought forgiveness
of sins." Is that not amazing? Here he was, he forgave this
man of his sins, and yet they were so in shock and wonder that
he can heal this man that they forgot all about he could forgive
sin. And the Scripture says, "...he
passed from thence." What a sad state. When the Lord Jesus Christ
manifests His Gospel and He passes by. He passed by these people. Why? He had an appointment. He
had an appointment to keep. He had a man named Matthew that
He must meet. He must meet. Jesus had His eyes
set on an object of mercy that He must Himself call. And that
man was a publican, a tax collector named Matthew. In verse 9 he
says, Jesus passed from thence, and this is the first thing I
wanted to see about his call, as opposed to the other call.
This is a particular call. A particular call to a particular
man. He saw a man named Matthew. Very particular, isn't it? He
didn't just see a man, he saw a man named Matthew. Now friends,
this was not the first time that Jesus saw Matthew. This wasn't
the first time He had laid His eyes on Matthew. You see, Jesus
Christ had laid His eyes on Matthew before the world began. He already had His eye, His loving
eye, set on this man before all the world was created. You know,
Matthew means gift of God. The name Matthew means gift of
God. And all the other portions of Scripture, they refer to him
as Levi. But Matthew here refers to himself
as that name. Matthew. The gift of God. The
gift of God. And he truly was a gift of God
from God the Father to God the Son. God the Father gave Matthew
to God the Son in that covenant of eternal grace. Our Lord saw
this man in the Lamb's book of life before the foundation of
the world. And in this book of election,
God the Father in eternity, according to sovereign grace,
chose him for Himself. In an eternal covenant, He gave
him to the Savior to be His Redeemer and surety. Believer in Christ,
let us mark the beauty of this covenant. Don't let this escape
your eye because you've heard it. Friends, this is altogether
lovely that God has chosen a people. If there was no election, there
is no salvation. Election is unto salvation. This covenant was free from our
works, our merit, our worth, and our goodness, but is one
of free grace and love of the eternal God. Flip over to 2 Samuel
chapter 5. Here we have the psalmist, the man after God's own heart,
on his deathbed. And death's dew lies cold on
his brow, his hands are now clammy, and he is ready to depart. He's
saying his last words. And these are his last words.
Although my house, be not so with God. Yet he hath made with
me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure. For
this is all my salvation and all my desire, although he maketh
it not to grow." Now David here on his deathbed
realizes again that he himself and his house are not just. He realizes His kingdom is not
just. He realizes that His family is
not just. He realizes most of all that
He Himself is not just. But a sinner, although my house
be not so with God, although it be not perfect. He said, I don't trust in that.
I don't trust in that. in this house of clay, where
does his trust lie? It lies in the eternal covenant. Although his house was not kept
pure and free from sin, his salvation, his desire was not in his house,
but in Jesus Christ, the promised seed. You see, God made a covenant
with David that the Messiah would come from his line. That's true.
But when David here says, he made a covenant with me, That
word with is very important. It's made as with equals. He
is not saying that He made that with Him, but He made that with
Christ who is His surety. This covenant was made not with
David, but with David's Lord. In Psalm 89 it says, Mercy shall
be built up forever, thy faithfulness shalt thou establish in the very
heavens. I have made a covenant with my chosen. Who's that? Well, that's Christ. It says,
I've sworn unto David my servant, thy seed. It's the seed he made
the covenant with. And this mercy was built up from
everlasting. And God made that covenant with
Christ for His elect people to be their surety, sponsor, and
representative. And so as our Lord saw Matthew
from all eternity, He also saw us who believe on Him. He saw us when? He saw us in
eternity. He saw us in that covenant of
grace when God the Father gave Him the elect. He gave Him us. And He knew us before we ever
knew Him. And as Jesus agreed to be that
surety, therefore Jesus became the servant of God to be our
mediator. to stand between us and the living
God. He, being our sponsor, glorified
God and honored God's law, establishing the righteousness of God for
us. And by His death accomplished
our redemption, which was purposed in the covenant of grace. Hebrews 12, 24 says this, and
to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkling
of blood that speaketh better things than that of Abel. What
did Abel's blood speak? What did Abel's blood cry? It
cried for justice. What does Christ's blood speak?
It cries for pardon, and mercy, and reconciliation. Abel's blood cried for justice,
but Christ cries for peace for Matthew as well as for all those
who are called by the Spirit of God. So he saw this man Matthew.
When? In eternity. In eternity. He saw him in that covenant of
grace and he came to be his mediator. Second of all, he called a man
named Matthew. Notice Matthew was not looking
for Christ. Matthew was going about his daily
routine. He got up that morning, he put
on his robe and his sandals, and he was ready to make some
money. Matthew was ready to make some
money. He was going to go to the tax office. This man was
a publican. And I'll tell you what. The Jews hated Gentiles, but
the only thing they hated worse than a Gentile was a publican.
Because a publican was a Jew working for the Gentiles. And
they hated him most of all. And I'll tell you what, they
had some right to hate him. He was a traitor to his people.
He was considered a traitor. And not only that, these guys
were not of the greatest moral character. They didn't go out
and find the squeaky clean man and say, well, no, you're pretty
honest. Won't you go collect taxes for us? No. They found
the brute men. They found thieves and robbers. This was kind of like an extortionist. They would come to a bridge and
they'd set up a little booth there. And if you wanted to cross
that bridge, you would have to pay a toll. Now, the government
had a number, a set amount that they needed to pay. But guess
what? They always added to that amount. And Matthew, he was a thief,
friend. He was not a kind, gentle man. He was a thief. He was a
brute man. You don't suppose they put a
little pipsqueak at these places, do you? You don't suppose they
put somebody with little horn-rimmed glasses and a notepad. Who would
stop there? Everybody would just pass and
run over him. But no, this man was a brute
man. He was a man out for himself. He was a thief, an outcast, a
traitor. He wasn't looking for Christ.
He got up that morning the same reason he got up every morning,
to make his living off of the backs of other men. But Jesus had some other plan
for him. Jesus had some other plan that
day. Do you suppose that he even had
an inkling of what was going to happen to him that day? He
had no clue. He had no clue what would happen
to him that day. But Christ knew. And Christ had
set out to call him by name. Jesus set His eyes from eternity
on him. And now was the appointed time
of his birth. Now was the appointed time of
his salvation. And Jesus would call him and
give him the promise of the covenant. All that God the Father chose
and all that the Son of God redeemed in that covenant, the Spirit
will call out from every country. This is why the Lord commanded
us to go into all the world and preach the gospel, because by
it, He promised to call out His people and give them life, love,
and faith in Christ. Now all God's people, all of
us, when we were born, we were scattered. We weren't born in
the same house, in the same parents, in the same roof. We were scattered.
And God's people are scattered all through this world. We have
no idea where they are. But God does. And I'll tell you
what, God's people are no different than any other man born in this
world. By nature, we're no different.
God's people are born dead in trespasses and sins just like
everybody else. God's elect people are blind
to their condition before God just like everyone else. God's elect people are enslaved
to their sins just like everyone else. They are made of the same fallen
lump of Adam's race, and there is no difference in their nature,
their desires or their thoughts of God. As it is written, there
is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth.
There is none that seeketh after God." Matthew was not looking
for Christ. And I'll tell you this, when
Christ called me, neither was I. I wasn't looking for Him,
and you weren't looking for Him. Now you may have been in church,
and you may have been religious, but you weren't looking for Him.
No man is looking for Him by nature. But friends, Christ set His love
and affection on Matthew and there was nothing to take His
eyes off of him. Can you imagine when he saw that
booth that he set his eyes on him and he walked directly to
him because he had a purpose to call him out? And even so
does Christ with His elect people call them with an effectual,
irresistible call of His Spirit. Look in our text again. Matthew
9, verse 9. Jesus, having set his eyes on
this man, looks at him in his face and he says two words, follow
me. Now what do you suppose happened?
Don't read the next part. What do you suppose happened?
Do you suppose there was a question from Matthew? Were there any
questions? Like, who are you? I mean, that
would be a question that most people... And so my guy comes
up to me and says, follow me. I say, who are you? I don't know
who you are. But that's not what he did, did
he? This man got up and followed
Him. This man got up and followed
Him. He arose and followed Him. This
testifies to all men the irresistible power of the call of Christ to
life and salvation. When the appointed time of love
came for this elect chosen vessel, God commanded him to come. Jesus Christ did not ask him
to follow Him. But He commanded him to follow
Him. And this call always comes by
the Word of God. Always. Never without the Word
of God. Now some believe that men may
be called without the preaching of the gospel. That men may be
called by nature or by dreams or by some emotional stories
or entertainment. But that's not how the irresistible
call comes. It comes by the Word of God. When Christ said, follow me,
whose word was that? Was that not the Word of God?
Of course it was. It was the Word of God. And every
time the Word of God is to a particular person, it is effectual, it is
powerful, powerful. It accomplishes something. In Romans chapter 16, verse 25,
Paul says, to Him that is of power to establish
you according to my gospel and the preaching of Christ." How
is a person established? By the preaching of the gospel.
According to the revelation of the mystery which is kept secret
since the world began, but now is manifest, and by the Scriptures
of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting
God made known to all nations, of the obedience of faith." This
means that God has chosen a people to reveal His mystery to, and
He reveals it by the gospel of Jesus Christ. And when that gospel
comes, when the Spirit of God has an appointed time to meet
a sinner, that gospel will come in absolute power of deity. It will come with a command.
The gospel is not an invitation. The gospel is a command of God. When that command comes to a
man's heart, he can do nothing but follow it. Nothing but follow
it. For God who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give
us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. began to create and God said,
let there be light. Could the light have said no?
Could the darkness have resisted the light? Absolutely not. How then do men think that they
can resist the call of the Spirit of God when He comes in power? Not any man can resist the command
of Christ when He commands the light of salvation to shine in
the heart of darkness. Matthew's heart was set on his
money, on his wealth, on his job, but when the Word of Christ
came by the effectual power of the Spirit of God, that old man
was subdued and a new heart was created instantly. New heart,
new mind, new life. Immediately. How? By the Word
of God. By the Word of God. Psalm 110
verse 3, Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power,
in the beauty of holiness from the womb of the morning. Believers
in Christ, was this not so with us? Did not your heart leap within
you when you heard the voice of the Son of God? Were you not willing to bow down
before Christ? Were you not willing to worship
Him who is all our righteousness and salvation? Of course we were.
Why? We were made willing. Our will
was changed. Our life was changed. Our heart
was changed. Everything in us was changed.
And Christ became the pinnacle of our life. He was everything
in an instant. He changed our will, He changed
our heart, and He changed our affections to follow Him. Now
why was that so with you and not so with others who heard
the same gospel you heard? When you heard the gospel, I
know you were not by yourself. I know that other people were
around you. How is it that you knew? How
is it that you came to life and the person next to you had no
life and still has no life? How is that? Were you smarter? Were you better? Did you have
an extra ounce of goodness in you that appealed to Christ to
call you above your fellows? Was it because of your will that
you were born again? Were you just willing and then
that generated your spiritual birth? By no means! To believe
such things as doctrines of devils and men, That's all it is. To give glory to our goodness
or our will or our knowledge is to try to share in God's glory. And he said, I will not share
it with you. Let me ask you this. What part
did Lazarus have in his resurrection? What part? You suppose Christ
stood at the door of the tomb and said, well, Lazarus, if you'll
just come on and take the first step, I'll do everything else.
If you'll just decide, make a decision. Don't just lay there, Lazarus.
Make a decision whether you'll let me raise you from the dead
or not. And that's laughable, isn't it?
That's just foolishness. And yet men think of salvation
in that way, that Jesus is waiting for some permission from a dead,
lifeless sinner. You see, the only part Lazarus
had in was the dead part. That's all he had, the dead part.
And that's all we have, is sin and death. That's the only thing
we have. Christ commanded Lazarus to come
forth. And you know what? Lazarus came
forth. Lazarus came forth. And so it
is with the effectual call of the Spirit to sinners. It is
an effectual, powerful call that accomplishes the purpose of God.
God says, so shall my word go forth out of my mouth. It shall
not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which
I please. Every time the gospel is preached,
I tell you, God does with it exactly what He has purposed
to do with it. Some men will hear this gospel
and go away. And some men will believe. It happens every time. Every time. And if a man goes away, make
no mistake about it, God purposed it. This gospel is a saver of life
unto life to some and a saver of death unto death to others.
And God will either save sinners or condemn them by this gospel. Whatever God determines to do,
that's what He'll do. And so, Paul tells us who preach
that we're a saver of life to those who believe and a saver
of death to those who go away. But to give life or hold it is
not ours. I can't give you life. And I can't stop God from giving
you life. God gives it to whom He wills. John says this, "...which were
born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the
will of man, but of God." Salvation is God's salvation. God's call
to life and faith in Christ is not by the will of man, but by
the power of the sovereign Almighty God to give life to whom He wills. Does this message then of God's
sovereign election, redemption in Christ for only the elect,
their irresistible call of the Spirit, does that excuse anybody? Does that excuse sinners? Does
the truth of man's depravity and inability excuse them before
God? Are they going to be able to
say, well, God, You were sovereign. You didn't save me. It's your
fault. I'm sure men would like to do
that. But friends, that is absolutely
not true. They will not be able to blame
God. Because man is absolutely responsible. The gospel commands everyone
everywhere to repent. God has accomplished salvation
by His Son. He has made peace by the blood
of His cross. And we as preachers persuade
men, we beseech men in Christ's stead, be you reconciled to God. Yet if a man will not come, he'll
perish in his own sin and die in his own unbelief. He will never be able to accuse
God from the fires of hell. But he will always remember the
gospel being preached in his ears. He'll always remember that
the gospel message was at his feet, and he refused to believe. Well, as that Scripture said,
they began with one accord to make excuse. Isn't that what
men do every time the gospel is preached? And they don't believe
in Christ, they make excuse. I've got too much to do! I'm
so busy! I can't believe now! I would
have to give up so much! Friends, I don't know who God's
elect are. I only know He's chosen them. I only know He's chosen
them. And I may not know them, but
God knows them who are His, and He will call His just like He
called Matthew. And He will call them the same
way with His irresistible call through the preaching of the
gospel. Now lastly, I wanted to see this man Matthew, his
response to this irresistible call. He followed him. Follow me! Okay. Okay. Simple enough. I'll follow you. To follow Christ, this man left
all to follow Christ. This man who was a thief, a robber,
caught up in this life, sought only the pleasures of this world,
he gladly got up from that table, left all of his money, and followed
Christ. Luke's Gospel tells us this.
He left all and followed Him. Isn't that what Peter, James,
and John did with their boats and nets? They had a thriving
fishing business. Matter of fact, the Lord gave
them a nice big catch. What is that? They left it all
and they followed Christ. Now, this is not saying to everyone
that is called by the Spirit that we leave our jobs, our homes,
and our families. But I'll tell you this, if you're
called to Christ, you should be willing to leave every bit
of it. It should be so loose in your hands as if the Master
says to let it go, you should say, gladly, and let it go. If there's anything that interferes
with your worship of Christ, it should be let go. Why? We're
following Him. We're following Him. We're not
to be tied down with these things in this life. And sadly, I'll
tell you this, sadly there is in our day a shortage of preachers
in that sense. There is very few preachers in
this land. It is very sad. I pray the Lord
of the Harvest to send out laborers. And I suggest you pray the same,
because our Master told us to. And there are few that exalt
the name of Christ as the sum and substance of their messages.
But I'll tell you, there are some who profess faith in Christ,
profess to be called by the Spirit, who refuse to leave all and follow
Christ. They refuse to believe His Word
and obey His voice, and they still make their claim that they
believe in Christ and the work of grace is done in their hearts.
I tell you, I don't know a man's relationship with Christ But
I know this, Christ's people will follow Him and they will
forsake all to follow Him. A man that stands out in his
own place and says, well, I've got my roots here, I've got my
family here, I know there's no church here, I know there's no
people here to worship God, but I'm doing okay. I'll do fine. Friends. What has He set above
Christ? He set His roots and His family
above Christ. He should give all to find a
gospel church where Christ is exalted and Christ is preached. God's people will forsake all
and follow Christ. Number two, to follow Christ
is to become a witness. Look at that in verse 10 of our
text. and said, it came to pass, as he sat at meat in the house,
behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and
his disciples." This man Matthew, he knew something
about grace. He knew something about grace.
Why? Because he was gracious. You
could tell he was gracious. This was his house, his home,
and what did he do? He called other sinners and publicans
like Himself and said, hey, come hear what I heard. Come hear
the message from the Master that I heard, and maybe God would
be gracious to you. Paul says this in 1 Timothy 1.15,
this is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. of whom I am chief." Believers, let us be such a witness
of Christ as Matthew was. Let our hearts and minds be toward
those around us that there is none His hand cannot
save. Now, is that not a thrilling
venture? There is none that He cannot
save. There are none too far in sin
that He cannot reach. Let us follow our Savior and
be gracious to others as He was gracious to us. And as this general
call goes out from us as witnesses, He said, I have not come to call
the righteous, but sinners to repentance. You see, those who are sick and
in need of pardon and forgiveness are the ones that Christ came
to save. He came to save the murderers,
the prostitutes, the whores. He came to save the drunkards,
the addicts. He didn't come to save religious
folks. He came to save sinners. And Matthew said, I know that
if He saved me, He can save any one of these publicans and sinners.
And so what did He do? He invited publicans and sinners. Publicans and sinners. This is
the gospel call. Sinners, believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and He will save you. A greater gracious message cannot
be said in this world, then Jesus came to save sinners. And I know this, all that God
the Spirit shall call will come. They will. And Jesus Christ says, "'All
who cometh to Me, I will in no wise cast out.'" That was a gracious message to
me. I can identify with Matthew, can't
you? I can. He saw me in eternity,
He redeemed me in time, He called me at the appointed time of love,
and I follow Him. And that's true with every believer
in Christ. I pray it's been a blessing to
you. Let's stand. We'll be dismissed in prayer.