Oh, now I see a cleansing way. Wouldn't that be something if
somebody said that after this message? Oh, now I see. That's
what my father-in-law said after he'd been attending, listening
to the gospel for a while, and then finally one day he told
my father, the preacher, now I see. Matthew 15, go over there,
Matthew 15. As said, Brother Bruce Crabtree
preached from Luke 24 on the Lord showing his hands and feet.
And he went over to this chapter, and we read these verses, and
reading it just blessed my heart. Couldn't get it out of my mind,
so I hope I believe it's of the Lord. Matthew 15, verse 29. of Jesus departed from thence,
came nigh unto the Sea of Galilee, and went up into a mountain,
sat down there. Great multitudes came unto him,
having with them those that were lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and
many others, and cast them down at Jesus' feet. And he healed
them, insomuch that the multitude wondered when they saw the dumb
to speak, the maimed to behold, the lame to walk, and the blind
to see. And they glorified the God of
Israel, entitled as Christ the Great Healer. There's only one
healer, you know that? If anybody's healed of anything,
If it's a hangnail, it's the Lord that did it. It's the Lord. Look at Exodus 15, very quickly. We need to know these passages. This is Jehovah Rapha, the Lord
that healeth. Look at Exodus 15. This is what
he said in verse 26 of Exodus 15, God who cannot lie. He said,
If I will diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy
God, and will do that which is right in His sight, and will
give ear to His commandments, and keep all these statutes,
I will put none of these diseases upon them which I have brought
upon the Egyptians. For I am the Lord that healeth
thee. Do you see that? If someone's
healed, it's the Lord that does it. Listen to Deuteronomy 32,
39. He says, See now, even I am he. There is no God, no little g,
no little ruler, no little cause of anything with me. I kill and
I make alive. I wound. That means make sick,
ill. And I heal. That's what he said. And neither is there any that
can deliver out of my hand. If I determine for you to get
sick or ill or die, nobody can stop me. Nothing can stop it. That's what he said. That's both
fearful and comforting. Isn't it? It shall make us fear
the Lord, not things, not diseases, but him who sends them. Did you
read that with me? Did you read those verses with
me? Can there be any doubt in our mind who sends sickness and
who heals them? Plain as a nose on your face,
if you have eyes to see, if you have an understanding, if you
have ears to hear. The world doesn't have that.
Well, our Lord, our God is the only healer. Justice is the only
Lord. He's the only God. He's the only
mediator. He's the only Redeemer. He's
the only way. He's the only truth. He's the
only life. He's the only Savior. He's the
only salvation. He's it. He's the healer. Man,
who is blind, deaf, dumb, sick, Rejects God. Hates God. Brother Chapman preached from
Psalm 2, and one of the best. I've heard that psalm preached
so many times. I've tried it myself. I've never
heard better. Listen to it. And he kept reiterating
that man hates God, and it's true. Because man will give glory
to anything or anyone but God. And glorify anything or anyone
but God. If someone is healed, Man will
give all the glory to doctors, to medicine, to something, to
someone, but God, anything but God. If someone lives a long life,
they give the credit, they give the glory to good living, exercise, right food, anything but God,
who numbered our days and who cannot pass. If we avoid any
kind of tragedy, if man avoids any kind of tragedy, he'll attribute
it to luck, to chance, to fate, to seatbelts or masks. Anything but God. Isn't that right? What a fool man is. How utterly
blind and foolish he is. God's people, God's people give Him all the
glory for everything. Why? They've had their eyes open. They've had their ears open.
Brother Kevin Thacker, back when the fires were raging
in Southern California, remember that? It's burning up everything.
Well, it was in San Diego. And Brother Kevin said he was
outside watching everything around him burn. The fire was raging. Have you ever been around a fire? Have you ever been around a blazing
fire? It's just fearful. Our gods are consuming. Well,
he said that fire was raging. It was coming to his house. Nothing
anybody could do to stop it. He said, I just knew. He said,
oh, my neighbors were losing their houses, were burning up
and all that. He said, suddenly, the wind changed. He said, I saw it. I felt it.
The wind turned the opposite direction. And that fire went
that way and completely missed our house. Kevin said, the Lord
turned the wind. He saw that. The wind bloweth where
it listeth. Jesus of Nazareth, that man 2,000
years ago, is God our Creator. In Acts 2, Peter was preaching. And he said, Jesus of Nazareth,
a man approved of God by signs and wonders and miracles. He
said, you've seen them. You've heard them. Our Lord Jesus
Christ is God our creator. He proved that. He turned water
to wine, didn't he? You can't do that. He did. He's
the Creator. He's the provider. He provided
food for thousands. He fed thousands upon thousands
constantly. He still does. The food you eat,
do you hear me? The food you eat, Jesus Christ
provides it for you. Yes, he does. He hasn't changed.
He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. He is sovereign.
He was sovereign then. He's sovereign now. He was sovereign
over all principalities and power. He cast out devils. The miracle
that he performed more than any other healing was casting out
devils. Why is that? Because there were
so many. Martin Luther wrote, though this
world with devils filled should threaten to undo us, I will not
fear, for God hath willed his truth to triumph through it. And were it not for the right
man on our side, we'd be taken captive. We were taken captive.
Why did he heal more, cast out more devils than any other miracle?
Look around you. Men, women, and children are
possessed with devils. They name it all sorts of clinical
names. She's bipolar. Every human being
is by nature. She does good one day and does
bad the next. In her right mind one day and
out of her mind the next. That's mankind. Call it what
you will. The God of this world has men
and women captive. So it's a chemical imbalance.
It sure enough is. It's in your blood. It's called
sin. You know, Scripture doesn't call
it anything but that. I'm not being careless or callous. I'm not, people, I'm not. I'm
trying to give glory where it belongs. I'm trying to give the
cause and the fault and the blame where it belongs. and what God
said. Okay? Let's quit listening to
man and listen to the Scriptures. The Lord healed all manner of
sickness, didn't He? All manner. Then and now. He
might use means and He might not. You hear me? All through
the Scriptures, Prophet Elijah healed. The Lord gave him the
power to heal people with the Word. One time he healed Hezekiah
with a mustard plaster. Mustard heal? Come on now. Well, he might use means and
he might not. But we don't give the glory to
the means. And we don't get carried away
with the means. There's only one thing, one means
God uses always for one healing. It's the gospel. He always uses
what I'm doing right now to say, to heal this thing called sin. Never does without this means.
Ever. Nobody's ever been healed of
this thing called sin apart from the preaching of the gospel.
Everything else, he might use a doctor, he might not. He might
use medicine, he might not. Whatever it is, it is the Lord,
and we give Him the glory. Why is it that, you know, a doctor
who... Now here's the thing. Christ is the Lord, and He gives
people their minds and their wills and the skills to do things. He does it, the mind. God made
this brain, this incredible computer called the human brain. And, you know, mentally, yeah. But God's the one that made this
brain. It's a bowl of gray jelly in
your head. And it's amazing, isn't it? But God did that. And God gives
men and women the mind and the will and the skill to do these
things. He directs them. He gives them
the will. He puts the world in their heart
and makes them want to be doctors. And he spent years studying these
things, the books and so forth, and become doctor. And orders
every step, provides every fund for them to get through that
medical school and graduate, and gives them their job, gives
them their practice, and puts them at a certain place at a
certain time, and gives them the ability to operate on one
of God's saints. That's why he raised that man
up. to operate on one of his saints. That's it. All things are for your sake. And he directs the one who made
the hand. We pray all the time, Lord, direct
the hand of the surgeon and so forth. How else can you explain
it when one person is healed, a doctor operates, and they're
healed, they're fine, and the next person dies? Same doctor
operates, same disease, and they die. So where did the doctor
go? It's the Lord. So he sends strong
delusions. Strong delusion. Well, it's evident.
Look, he took that, he took that supplement all his life and now
he's living it. Here's a fellow who, you know,
did healthy living and took all these, ate the right foods and,
you know, abstained from this and abstained from that and he's
living to be 104. Here's a fellow over here, 105, and he took a
shot of whiskey every morning. I'm serious. I've read about
it. What do you attribute to your long life? Whiskey. Come on. What do you attribute? Good living. Come on now. It's the Lord. Give credit where
credit is due. Give the glory where glory. But
no. Man's blind. He's deaf. He's dumb. He's sick. Man's sick. His whole head is
sick. His heart is faint. That's Isaiah 1. The whole head
is sick. Heart is fainting. He can't think
straight. Now, the Lord just healed here
in Matthew 15. The Lord just healed the daughter
of a woman, the daughter who was vexed with the devil. She
came to the Lord. You know that story. You love
that story. The Lord didn't answer her, ignored her. He said, it's
not fit to give the children bread to dogs. And she said,
truth. What a message. And we know the feeling. We've
had sons and daughters. Some in here still have daughters
vexed with the devil. Don't you? And it's grievous. And you know
there's nothing and no one can do anything for them but Jesus
Christ. There's nothing you say. There's
nothing anyone can do. You change their environment,
change this, you put them through all kinds of programs, and nothing
will do it. There's only one. So what do
we do? Like these people, we cast them at His feet. They all brought all these people
and cast them. This woman came crawling, Lord,
please. You're the only one. Don't we,
brother? Lord. Keep coming. Keep crawling. Keep asking. Keep begging. You know what, sister? He healed. He healed that girl. He cast
out that devil. He did! How old was she? I don't know. It doesn't matter,
does it? Was she 40? Was she 50? It doesn't
matter! He healed her. Would it matter? Just as long as he healed her. He just healed this woman. And
it says he made her wholesome. Don't you like the word wholesome?
Wholesome. She was vexed. She's no longer
a sick, captive girl. Wholesome. You know, Mindy and I said this
recently. We mean it. I mean it. If the
Lord saved your daughters or your granddaughters, it would
thrill me, thrill us as much. See, I have two unsaved granddaughters.
I don't know what's going to happen to them. It would thrill me. I wouldn't be more overjoyed
if the Lord saved Isabel and Sophie and saved your children.
If he did, I could praise him to high heaven. I could. I could
say, Lord, blessed be the name of the Lord. Lord, you gave them.
You took them away. Lord, you save them. You can
damn them. They don't deserve to be saved.
My children don't deserve to be saved any more than I do. He's in the saving business.
He's in the healing business. That's what my dad used to always
say. He's in the saving business.
Christ came and said, I must be about the Father's business.
What is it? Saving people. Saving sinners. Vex sinners.
Captive sinners. He's the only one who can. And
He will. Well, look at verse 29. Now,
here's our text. Jesus departed from there. And it came, now, the Sea of
Galilee. Oh, my Lord, don't depart from here. Brothers and sisters,
pray with me. Lord, don't depart from central
grace. Would you please, would you keep
praying, Lord, don't depart from here. And don't let me depart
from here. Lord, don't let my children depart from here. This
is the Balm of Gilead. This is the Pool of Bethesda
where Christ is. Lord, please don't leave. until
you've saved me and mine and us and them." He did. He left and he came nigh unto
the Sea of Galilee, went up into a mountain and sat down there.
Sat down there, expecting somebody. He came nigh the Sea of Galilee.
That Sea of Galilee, you see, was where he once called his
disciples, didn't he? He was always around the Sea
of Galilee. And our Lord is the same yesterday,
today, and forever. And the Lord still comes to the
place where He calls His own. Are you with me? I keep stressing
this all the time. The Lord... You know where you're
going to find the Lord? Where everybody else found Him.
Where His people are. Where His people are gathered.
Where two or three are gathered. That's where you're going to find the
Lord. That's where you're going to hear from Him. That's where you're going to
be healed. That's where your children are going to be healed. See,
in Galilee is where he called his disciples. That's where he
is now. He's back. Mountain. He went up into a mountain. Where
is it? Brother John preached Psalm 2. I've set my king on
my holy hill of what? Zion. What's that? The church.
I don't have to go to church to be saved. Yes, you do. Qualify that. No, I'm not. I'm
not going to do it. I'm tired of apologizing. I ain't
going to do it. God is in His church. That's
where He's found. And someone wants to find and
hear from Him, you have to come to Him. Where is He? A mountain. A mountain. He's
on Mount Zion. You know that? When you leave
this world, you come out of the slime pits. You come out of the
dung heap. He sets you in a high place,
doesn't He? Heavenly places. Among princes. That's where Christ is. He sat
down there. He sat down. It says in verse 30, great multitudes
came unto Him. You know, most people go to church. You know this. You know people. You know lots of people. You
talk to them. You ask them why they go. Have you done that? Why do you go here? Why do you
go there? Oh, you ought to hear the choir. Oh, you ought to hear
the music. Oh, we have such good, you know,
programs for our kids. Oh, this and that and the other. Those who are going to hear from
Christ, those who are going to be healed by Him, they come to
Him. They come to worship Him. And
I know people go for all the wrong reasons at first. I know
that. But when Christ is going to deal with somebody, He'll
bring them to hear His voice. To see His glory. To see Him. To hear Him. To worship Him.
And then from then on, they won't go because it's Sunday. They
won't go because they love to be around people. They won't
go because of the music. They'll go for the gospel. They'll
go to hear Christ preached. They won't want anything else
from then on. See Him. You've seen it all. You hear His voice. You don't
need to hear nothing. Spirit of Christ, you don't want
another spirit. Great multitudes came unto Him.
These people came to Him and they had with them, look at verse
30, they brought with them, they had with them lame, blind, dumb,
maimed, many others, cast them down at Jesus' feet. And brothers and sisters, we
have with us today, right in this room, the lame, the blind, the dumb,
the maimed, and many other diseases right here in this room. Don't you love the way Brother
David Edmondson preaches? Don't you? Every time I hear
him, he preaches to the lost. He says, why won't you come to
Christ? Why haven't you called on Christ?
Why don't you? What's keeping you? What does
hinder you? Yes, you. I'm not preaching to hear my
voice this morning. I'm preaching to people. There's some lost
people in here. I had with them the lame. The
lame. In this book, there are many
lame. Over in Matthew 8, listen, it
says he entered a companion and a faint man came up to him and
said, Lord, my servant lieth at home, sick of the palsy. He lieth at home. Why didn't
he come? He can't. He won't. He's at home, lying around. Anybody? Another man, Matthew 9, the next
chapter, says, He brought to him a man sick of the palsy,
lying on the bed. That's when he uncovered the
roof, you know, the roof. And the first thing the Lord
said to that man before He made him walk was, Be of good cheer,
thy sins be forgiven. Oh, man. To hear that said. Lame. You know, lame people can't
walk, can they? They can't walk. Now, here's
what all this represents. This sin sickness. The lame. Man is lame. He can't walk. He won't come to Christ. He won't
come to God. He won't. He wouldn't do it if
he could. He can't. Our Lord said that. People accuse
us of all manner of things, but we're just repeating what our
Lord said. No man can come unto me. Didn't He say that? No man
can come unto me. But what? Except what? The Father
crawling. You see that salvation's up below. That's hyper-Calvinism. No, it's the truth. I know it from experience. I
know it from seeing it. There's nothing unless the Lord
draws somebody. People won't come to God. They
won't come to Christ. They won't walk with God and
God's people. They won't walk in paths of righteousness. They can't. They won't. Someone
says, not me. No, I do whatever I want to do.
I have a free will. I go where I want to and go do
what I want to do. Okay. Come with me to the house
of God. Come on. Let's go to the house
of God. And let's sit down and let's
hear the Word of God. Let's just sit. You're not going
to do anything. You're just going to sit and hear the Word of God
and maybe sing some praises and give Him thanks and just glorify
God. No, I don't want to do that. Why not? Come on now. Come with
me. Nope, not doing it. You can get
people by the county to do anything, don't you, but come to worship
God. This is the greatest proof of man's depravity. It really
is. Let's just come and sit. You
don't have to do anything. This is our reasonable service. The God who made us, the God
who provides for us, deserves thanks and praise. Let's just
sit and hear what He says and give Him thanks. I ain't going
to do that. I'll do anything but that. Tried it. And there's nothing
you can do or say that gets somebody to come here to the church. Nothing. Doesn't matter what happens to
them, how blessed they are, how rich they are, they're not going
to give God the glory. They're blind. They're blind. Look outside. I'm glad we have clear winds
now. Would you look at that? The heavens declare His glory.
The firmament showeth His handiwork. Day after day, others speak.
Night after night, look at the sky, the sun, the moon, the stars. Look at it. The ocean and all
its fullness. The waves that roar. Y'all were
at the beach. We were too. Is there anything
that declares God's glory more than creation? It shows His handiwork. Don't you see His hand? Don't
you see the hand of the mighty Creator, His wisdom, His glory,
His power? The heavens declare His glory.
His eternal power and His Godhood are clearly seen. Clearly seen. Clear as a bright day. But man? No. It just evolved
from soup. No. This brilliant mind that
does surgery and that creates and writes symphonies and plays
music and speaks many languages came from a monkey. Blind, yeah. He's blind. Can't
see. Look, look at this book. Look
at this book. Read this book. Is this the most amazing book
ever written? Isn't this word glorious, wonderful,
wise, and mysterious, and miraculous, and complex, and perfect? Isn't this word more than creation,
Sister Sarah? Isn't this book the most amazing
thing you've ever seen or read or heard in your entire life?
Only one person could write this blessed book from start to finish. Sixty-six books. Forty-some authors
didn't know each other. Fifteen hundred years it was
accumulated. It all tells the exact same story,
like a tapestry with a zillion threads in it, and you turn it
around and it shows one picture. Who wrote this book? This is
the most amazing thing ever created, God's Word. And the Word was
made flesh. Nope, I don't see it. Nope, that's
just man. That's just the words of man.
Everything is happening exactly like God said it would. Everything
in the past happened because God wrote it before it happened.
Everything now and everything going to come to pass is already
written and man's doing exactly what God said he would do and
say every time. No, don't see it that way. I'm
going to put my trust in Plato, Aristotle, and Facebook. You're blind, man. You're blind. You're an ignorant fool. Dumb. Give God the glory. Quit cursing God. Give God the
glory. Just give God the thanks. Stop
using His name in vain and just say thank you. Come on now, just
say thank you. One time. Ain't gonna do it. You're dumb,
you're stupid, you're blind, you're an ignorant fool. That's
what God calls mankind. You're not supposed to tell people
that. God does. What's wrong with you? You're dead. Mamed. The next thing, they're mamed.
They brought the mame. That means disfigured. Mamed. You ever look in the eyes of
a hardened criminal? A homosexual. It's a predator. Looked like looking in the eyes
of an animal. Seriously. Have you seen that? The eyes
of a rebel child. A young teenager dressed in black
with all this gothic stuff on drugs. It's an animal. Have you
seen that? Hmm. Anger. Hatred. Pride. Look in the eyes of mankind. This is the ugliest thing of
all. Pride. Haughty. Arrogant. Full of himself. He says nothing disfigures man's eyes or disfigures
hands. Hands. These hands that God created. Nothing more clearly reveals
a creator than the hands of man. And man says so ignorant, God
has no hand. Hands, these hands. These hands
were made to glorify God, to create and to do things for the
glory of God. But man uses these hands. They're
disfigured. They only serve self. They only
serve sin. That's what these hands, by nature,
do. Do one thing. Get all the sin
I can get. Mamed. Feet. Feet. Run to mischief. Supposed to
walk in paths of righteousness, but his name is that. Run to
mischief. Can't get there fast enough.
Walk with the world, but not God. And many others, it said. They brought many others with
them. And that's people like the lepers. Leper. Leprosy. What an awful disease leprosy
was. Filthy, wretched, stinking sin. Awful. You couldn't stand to
get near a leper. But people full of leprosy cannot
smell themselves. Cannot. I'm no leper. I'm not
that bad. You just don't know how you stink
to God. God sees it all. Open the roofs and listen. If
you could hear what God hears and you'd say, all together,
fill them. Thank you. But God. Rich in mercy. That was all of
us. Such were some of you. All of
you. But God. They brought them to
Christ and cast them down at His feet. Where is Christ? He was sitting
there on the mountain with His people, His disciples, sitting
there. And they brought them where He was and they cast them
down at His feet. And look at verse 30. He healed
them. He healed them. How did He heal them? With His
Word. With a touch. What you're hearing right now,
verse 31, in so much that the multitude wonder they were amazed
when they saw the dumb to speak. Here's a fellow who once his
mouth was full of cursing and bitterness and taking God's name
in vain. All of a sudden, he's thanking
God. All of a sudden, he's praising God. This man who once gave God
all the glory, who took all the glory for himself, he's giving
God all the glory. Isn't that amazing? Singing these hymns. I was made
to sing when I was a young person, and I'm going to deal more with
that next Sunday. We should make our children sing.
My parents made me sing. And now nobody makes me sing. I'm telling you, I loved, and
I'm ashamed of now, I loved the Rolling Stones. And they're sick. And now I love, I mean this with
all my heart, I love to sing of the Rock of Ages. Clever man. I find myself, thank
God, I'm not thinking about all the time sympathy for the devil,
but thinking about what sympathy God has to me. The rock was cleft
for me. I find myself all the time singing. There was a time I sat under
the gospel. I don't want to sing this song.
Don't make me. Yes, son, hopefully, prayerfully,
maybe someday God will put that in your heart and one day it'll
come out of your heart. Don't make me sing. Oh, please
make me sing. And now, I love to sing. I love to sing. That's the Lord
did that. The Lord did that. Didn't he?
He did that. I find myself all the time, a
hymn pops up in my head, in my mind, I find myself singing.
That's wonderful. The dumb sing. The maimed, the
eyes of a predator now pray. He turned the predator into prey.
They turned from evil, they said, they'd become the prey. And lamb,
our Lord, what kind of eyes did our Lord have? Well, first of
all, it was a lamb. You ever looked at a lamb, meek
and mild and gentle? Aren't they lovely? You ever
looked at a wolf? A lamb doves eyes, pure innocent. That's our Lord. I've seen the
change come over people. The thing about the eyes, the
maimed eyes of a person the Lord has healed is when He heals them,
you know, before it was this. And when He heals them, they
won't even lift their eyes. They wouldn't even lift their
eyes. The publican wouldn't even lift his eye. He smiled at his
breasts. Downcast eyes, lowly eyes, hands. Look at him. Look at him. He's
opening his Bible. Look at him. What are you reading
there? Bible. I remember when I worked
for the railroad, Stephen, we'd go out and stay in a motel, you
know, with the guys, and we'd sit around the pool. I remember him saying, what are
you reading? You know, they're drinking beer. What are you reading? I'd have a book by Arthur Pink
or Spurgeon. Really? His hand's opening the Bible.
Look at him. He's serving others. Look at
him. He's helping others. Look at his feet. Look where
his feet are. Under the pew, like on the feather
shaft. Look at him. Lame. Look at him. He's coming to crack. Look, he's
walking with God. Look, he's walking with God's
people. Where are you going dressed like that, bud? Where are you
going? I'm going to the house of God. I'm going to worship
God. Really? You're kidding. No, I ain't kidding. I'm praising the Lord. The blind to see, blind to see. First thing he shows you is a
holy and righteous and just God. He will by no means clear the
guilty. He's not like the God men preach today. He's not like
the God men tell you he is. He's angry with the wicked every
time. You see his wrath clearly revealed from heaven against
some guy. You see God as he truly is, holy and right. You see yourself
as you are. And you know what you say? Oh,
wretched man that I am. Who shall deliver me? And then
you know what you see? Christ hanging on that crown.
You're subject to it. You're delivered. You're salvation.
And you had nothing to do with it. Right there's your awe. Right
there's your only hope. Right there's your only salvation.
Right there's the mercy of God, the love of God, the grace of
God, the salvation of God. That's your only hope of heaven.
Right there, that man hanging on that trunk. See, that's it. That's it. It's not what you see, it's who
you see. It's one thing. This is the means that God uses.
This is the only means God uses. It's the person and work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. It's Christ crucified. What can
wash away my sin? Say it. Nothing but the blood
of Jesus. What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. There is a fountain. filled with blood, drawn from Emmanuel's vein. And
the Lord had that fountain flowing, brother, for anybody unclean. And sinners plunged. What kind
of sinners? Wretched sinners. Lame sinners. Plunged beneath
that flood. You know why? They lose all their Truly, the only thing, if you
hear the gospel, that's it. You see Christ on the cross.
Christ on the cross, you see only seeing him on the cross.
Do you see the holiness of God, the wrath of God, the justice
of God, the love of God, the mercy of God, the grace of God?
The sight of Christ carrying your cross, what was meant for
you, will make you follow him and carry his cross. Only when you hear Him say, open
His mouth and say, Father, forgive them. They know not what they
do. Will that open your mouth to
say, Oh, Father, forgive me. I don't know what I've done. Only when you hear Him say, Thy
sins be forgiven, will it cause you to sing. They're all taken
away. And it says in verse 31, they
glorified the God of Israel. Who could do such a thing? But
the God of Israel. Who's the God of Israel? I'll
tell you who He is. He chose an old, worthless, no
good, rebel, running thief named Jacob. Jacob! I've loved you. Jacob, I've set my affection
on you. Jacob, this is what I'm going
to do for you. I've made a covenant. I will
and you shall. It's a covenant keeping God.
It's a sovereign electing God. Sovereign love. Sovereign mercy.
If He doesn't, they won't do anything. But God, the sovereign,
electing, loving, merciful, gracious God said, I will and you shall
be saved. This is the God of Israel. And
he changed that old boy's name, Jacob, to Israel, Prince. And he never got over it. And you won't either. And you'll
give all the glory to the God of Israel.