We take the victory of the world
to Him. Save us that we may find His holy bosom. You may be seated. I'll never forget one time asking
Brother Bill Clark to sing a solo when he came here one time. And
you know how bashful we are, how shy and how self-conscious. Well, that man truly was one
of God's special, special servants. And he said from the bottom of
his heart, I'll never forget it, he said it in that Irish
brogue of his, he said, Oh, I would be happy to sing for my Lord. He's singing now, isn't he? A
thought crossed my mind, if we were to be asked in glory someday
to sing a solo, we would jump to our feet. You know, and not hesitate. Yes! 1 Thessalonians chapter 1, read with me. The first four verses,
Paul and Silas and Timotheus, these three, are writing unto
the Church of the Thessalonians, which is in God the Father and
in the Lord Jesus Christ, Grace be unto you, O and peace from
God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We give thanks to God
always for you all, all of you, making mention of you, all of
you, in our prayers. remembering without ceasing your
work of faith, labor of love, patience of hope in our Lord
Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father, knowing,
brethren, beloved, your election of God." Paul there and Silas and Timothy
are the ones that say, we know you are the elect. See that? We remember your patience, your
faith, your labor of love, knowing, brethren, your election. We know
you're one of the elect. We know you're the elect. Can
a person be saved and not know it? Yes. Now, let me explain. Salvation is called the new birth.
It's called the new birth. Our Lord uses that analogy. He's the one that said it. You
must be born again. You must be born from above.
And like natural birth, like our first birth, it's very similar. It really is very similar. Life
begins before the realization of it. You know, that child is experiencing
life, but they don't know what they're experiencing. Life begins before the realization
of it. You know that? After a while,
you've seen little children. You've seen little babies born,
and they don't, they're alive. They're given every evidence
that they're alive. But they really don't know it until a
little while later. I'm alive. The seed is sown, just like natural
birth. The seed is sown. This is the
Word. God gets all the glory and salvation. That's why we
don't know when God plants this Word. Nobody knows. The preacher doesn't know when
God planted this seed and conceived in them. Just like a woman does
not know at first. She doesn't know until a little
later, until the signs start showing up. But the seed is sown
by the Spirit of God. He's the wind bloweth it where
it listeth. You cannot tell the sound thereof. So is everyone
that is born of the Spirit. You just don't know. We sow seed. The preacher just sows the Word. He knows, the real preacher knows
what God uses. It's the Word. It's not anything
else, but it's the preached Word. But all he does, Brother John,
It throws seed to the wind. And it's up to the Lord to plant
it. But the Lord does. He takes this word, this seed,
this word preached, heard, and he plants it. Where does he plant
it? In the heart. On the head. It goes through
here. But it's only planted when it
goes down here and stops and takes root and begins to break
that old heart, soften it, causes that person to receive it. You
remember our Lord's illustration of the seed, the sower, and some
fell by the wayside on hard ground. No, but prepared ground. The
Lord prepares the heart. And at a given time, he sends
that seed finally, and it touches. And they receive it and believe
it. He gives ears to hear it. Until it does, we just don't
want to hear it. We'll be anxious when it gets
over. Right? But he begins to give
ears to hear it. I mean ears that actually like
what they're hearing. That's not natural. A natural
man doesn't like things of God. He gives eyes to see. He begins to open eyes. How clearly
does a young child see when they open their eyes? You could ask
one of these nurses and they'd tell you, not very well at all. Like that blind man, you remember?
He said, what do you see? After he healed, he said, I see
men walking in trees. I do see. And he touched him
again and he saw clearly. Well, the Lord gives eyes to
see who God is. Never saw before. Gives eyes
to see what we are, what I am. See something of your own sinful
self. And gives eyes to see in the Word. Now this is the glass
we look through. This is how he gives out. This is sight. To see Christ
and our need of Him. And you know, I thought about
this. I'm not contradicting myself, but this is by way of illustration.
Who is the first person to know that new life has begun? When a child, not at conception,
but when it's really brought forth. Who's the first person
to know? The mother generally is the one
who feels those firsts. Not the sonogram person. What do you call it? But I can't hear you. Whatever
they're called. Sonnies. Not that part. The mother. She
kicks. The mother knows when she has
life within her. Even so, God, in whom we live
and move and have our being, he knows. He's the first one
to know when the life is there. He gives it. Right? He knows
when others don't know. Well, in natural birth, who's
the second person the gentleman finds out? And I don't mean the
father either. But when that child actually
comes out, whoever's attending at the birth, the attending physician,
you know, the child comes out. And if I may say so, preacher
of the gospel, this is, you're looking into the faces of people
time and time again, time and time again, you're preaching.
And a person who's dead, boy, you know that. You know when
they're dead. There's no response. There's
no reaction. Well, it's like preaching to
a dead person. No response. No reaction. No
smiles. No tears. No nothing. Brother Ron Trabant, who's preached
here before, he said that when they first started attending
at 13th Street, and they went there for about ten years, Well,
was it that long? A long time they went there and
they sat on the back row. And Brother Ron said, he said,
I counted every tile in that ceiling. I knew exactly how many
tiles were in the ceiling. Don't you know when the preacher,
the first one to see that head come down? Those eyes pop open. And then he physically moves.
Now he's on the front row. And buddy, his eyes are glued
on the preacher. Best hearer there. I mean, he,
any minute, he right there. You want to see, want to know
somebody's paying attention, Ronnie is. Every time. Preacher. This is life. This word is life, and life responds
to life. That's what it's called, the
savior of life unto life. And the preacher is looking at
faces, and not infallibly, but begin to see when the Lord is
opening some eyes and ears. Yes, I believe a person can be
saved and not know it. I believe they can be one of
God's elect, one whom God has chosen, one whom God has begun
a good work in, one whom God has revealed the gospel to them,
one whom God has given them a new heart and a mind, and yet they
feel so unsure of themselves, which is good. And they're just scared. of whatever, fearful of making
a commitment and later falling away. I believe that. I felt the same way. Or perhaps
they can be waiting on something. A lot of people wait on something.
You know, wait on something spectacular happening. I want lightning to
strike or something. It does not happen that way,
does it? It does not happen that way. How does it happen? How
does one know? Right here, the gospel. Can a
person be saved and not show it? No. Can a person be saved
and not know it, but not show it? No. No, sir. Well, Paul is the one who said
this. Paul and Silas and Timothy said,
Knowing, brethren, beloved, your election of God. We know you're
elect. We know it. The apostle's writing
to the church there who gave great evidence. He doesn't name
anybody in particular, but just the church in general. He said,
we know because you give great evidence that you're one of the
elect of God. Now, look at these verses, these
words, very carefully, all right? Look at it again. Verse 4. Knowing,
brethren, beloved, your election of God. Your election of God. Who does the electing? God. That sounds simple, doesn't it?
The world doesn't believe that. They really don't. The world
doesn't believe that. They believe silly things like
this. God voted for you. The devil votes against you.
You cast a deciding vote. Really, you're the one that does
the electing. Knowing, brethren, your election of God, that you
elected God. No. No. No. I know you want to elect because
you know who does it. I know you want to elect because
you know who does the electing. God. Huh? Who believes election? The elect. Those that are elect hate it, and do everything they can to
disprove it, deny it, renounce it. I know you're elected in
this world. You know who does the electing. And he said over in chapter two
of the second letter, he said, and you love it. You love it,
to be subtle. You love the truth. You don't
just know it. He didn't receive it just word
only, election, but you feel like, hey, he elected me. Why would he do that? Not argue
against it, or that ain't fair, but why would he choose me? That's the only argument. The
only thing believers can't understand is, why me? Knowing your election. And look
at the next thing. knowing your election of God.
Four, our gospel came. Our gospel came. Not unto you in word only, that
is doctrine only or sermon only. But our gospel came unto you.
Our gospel. Would you turn with me quickly
to Galatians 1, just back a few pages to Galatians chapter 1. This is very important. Galatians
1. Now, everyone in here has been
here before. And you've heard time and again
us preach the gospel. You've heard us declare what
the world is saying. You hear them. You turn, you
can't help but hear. Turn on your radio or look at
the newspaper or whatever. The world, this is what the gospel
what people think the gospel is. And whether they're Catholic,
Methodist, Baptist, it doesn't matter. Every one of them, without
exception, says this is the gospel. God loves you. God loves everybody. Jesus died to pay for everybody's
sins. And you must accept him. It's
your faith. You must make the decision. You
must let him save you. You must let him be Lord of your
life. You must exercise your free will
and accept Jesus as your personal Savior. That's the gospel. No,
it is not. That's another gospel. Number
one, none of that is so. None of that is scriptural. Nowhere
in God's word does it say he loves every single person. Nowhere.
On the contrary. Many, many places it says that
he hates certain people. People, not their sins, but sinners
themselves. We're going to look at that in
depth one of these days. All those verses. Nowhere does it say Jesus Christ
died for every human being. Nowhere. He himself said, I lay
down my life for the sheep. The sheep. Nowhere does it say a man has
a free will. Much to the contrary, it says,
not of him that willeth, but of him that runneth. Nowhere does it say you must
accept him. Nowhere does it say that in all
of God's word. But it does say that God's people
are accepted. They're the ones accepted. That
it's Christ who must do the accepting. That it's up to him to accept
or reject. Paul said in Galatians 1, verse,
read with me, verses I marvel that you are so soon removed
from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another
gospel, which is not another." He said another gospel. There
is another out there, but it's not the gospel he said. It's
not the gospel. And let me ask you, what good
news is it? Think about this. Be a rational,
reasonable thinking human being, okay? Think with me a minute. And yet he might send you to
hell someday anyway. What good news is God's love? Is it good news to you I stand
up here and tell you God loves you, but he might send you to
hell anyway? Is that good news to you? That's
what gospel means. Is that good news to you? Of
course it's not. That's the reason people don't
give a flip for it. Everywhere everybody's telling
people that God loves them. And people treat that like you
might as well say, Bed light. It means nothing. That's not good news. God loves
me. That's not good news. Unless
it's sovereign effectual love now. Unless it's eternal love. Unless it's love that actually
saves me. That whoever he loves, he saves. Like he said in Jeremiah
31.3. I have loved you with an everlasting
love. Therefore, with loving kindness,
I have drawn you." Everyone he loves, he's saved. Now, if you
tell me God loves me, no, no, that's good news. That's gospel
indeed. Let me ask you now, think as
a reasonable, rational human being, an adult now, think with
me. If Jesus Christ died for my sins and paid for all my sins,
and yet God is going to send me to hell someday to pay for
my sins. What good news is the blood of
Jesus Christ? You tell me he paid for my sins,
but he didn't really pay for them? What good news is that? This is not even gospel. It's
another, which is not another. That's what Paul said. It's not
another. It's not even the gospel at all. And especially if you
tell me if I exercise my free will. Folks, an old sinner who
really knows himself realizes, I can't do anything. I'm not
sufficient to think one good thought, let alone choose God.
You put evil, you put sin and goodness and holiness in front
of me, and by nature, every time I'll choose evil. And if you're
honest, you'll think the same thing. Here's the NASCAR race. Here's worship of God. Here's the Christian monks. Here's
worship. Where are you going to choose?
By nature. Here's whatever you like. Here's
worship of God. You've never seen. Where are
you going to choose? Tell me to exercise my free will?
That's not good news. But if you tell me thy people
shall be willing in the day of thy power? Blessed is the man
whom thou choosest and causest to approach unto thee, the man
whom thou givest a new heart to delight in these things."
He tell me that he's going to give me a new heart, that I'm
actually going to love these things? That's good news! Good news! That's gospel indeed. Is that good news to you? your election of God, and our
gospel came. Our gospel! There's another gospel
out there, and the majority of people are believing it. They're of the world, therefore
speak they of the world, and the world hears them. But John
said, we're not of the world. Bless God. Look at verse 11. He says, I didn't receive this gospel
of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of
Jesus Christ. Did you read that article by
Brother Shepard in the Bulletin this morning? Paul got his false gospel at
school. You know, he went to religious school, and that's
where he got his false gospel. But he got the true gospel from
Christ himself. And it's not of man, it's not
about man, it's not concerning man, it's not what man will do
with God. The gospel is not what will you do with Jesus. As I
said, that's not good news to a person who's honest. What did
they do with Jesus, people? What did this world do with Jesus?
He was offered to them. Religious people, good people,
moral people, been to church all their life. What did they
do with Jesus? I mean the Christ of Scripture. He was offered to all men. God
Almighty offered Jesus to all men. What did they do with Him? What did man do? Well, I choose
Jesus. Yeah, He's my King. No! Not one
person said they'd have Him. It sent all the people, God,
killing. That's what man will do by nature. So it's not good news. What will you do with Jesus? But the good news is, we asked
him, will he have me? What will he do with me? And
the good news is to hear him say, like that leper who came
down from the mountain, leper, he's dying of leprosy, like we
are of sin that's going to kill us if God doesn't do something
about it. And that leper came down from the mountain and hid
his knees and said to Christ, he said, Lord, if thou wilt,
if thou wilt, if you will, I can't wear this leprosy away, if you
will, You can make me clean. Well, here's good news. Here's
the gospel of that man. When Christ said, I will, therefore
be thou clean. Here's good news. I'll give unto
them eternal life. Not they earn it, not they accept
it, not they to make that. I give it to them, nobody can
take it back. The gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
Now isn't that good news, John? Why don't you smile on that,
John? Marrying Brethren, Brother John, your election of God. Our only sinners love this gospel. Only the guilty love the sound
of mercy. Only the helpless love that word
grace. Don't you love that word grace?
God is gracious. He's going to do it all. He has
done it all. And he's going to do it all. And when we get to
glory, he's going to lay the topstone on the whole thing with
shouts of grace, grace, saved by grace. Our gospel. And people, I can say, I don't
say this with a moment's hesitation or apology. that if anybody preaches
any other gospel than what I preach, let them go to hell. I don't
say that without, I'm not saying that bragging. I didn't know
the gospel until God revealed it to me. But I can say, and there's this,
and every believer, every believer, Brother Henry, you say the same
thing in your heart. If you really believe this gospel
now, it's our gospel. Paul said it, he said it twice
there in chapter one of Galatians. I'll say it again, if anybody,
I don't care who it is, preach any other gospel. I don't care
how famous he is, I don't care if the whole world is following
him. If it's not our gospel, let him be cursed. Let him go
to hell. He's going to, and all who believe
him. That's not pride. What it is,
is assurance of this gospel. That's what it said. Look at
it. Verse 5, it said, Our gospel came unto you not in word only. You know, there are a lot of
good preachers out there. I mean, elephant fellows that stand up
that can move the crowd, and good talkers. I've heard a couple
of local fellows that pretty, they wax real elephants. And
they're real impressive, and I can see how the crowds would
go to hear them. But this gospel doesn't come
in word only. It doesn't come with persuasible
words of man's wisdom. It doesn't come in doctrine.
It doesn't come in moving sermonette. It doesn't come in moral story.
In word only. But in power. Power. A leading member of a
local assembly said, I say to my preacher every time, he's
such a good preacher, I've never heard better. I say to him every
time, preacher, my toes are hurting. That's his comment to his preacher
when he hits the door. My toes are hurting. You know
what he means by that. He stepped on his toes. Well,
the gospel didn't come to that man. God doesn't shoot arrows at your
feet. God doesn't take a sword to your feet. Where does he hit? heart, out of the heart of the
issues of life. With the heart man believeth
unto life, not the head. God is worshiped in the heart.
God operates on the heart. He's not a podiatrist. He's a
heart specialist. Real power, real saving power,
not a sermon or sermonette, not doctrines of heart-piercing,
convicting, convincing power. Read on. And in the Holy Ghost,
now what does the Holy Ghost do? When the Holy Ghost is present,
when God Almighty sends the Holy Ghost, and He does, yes He does,
Christ said that, Christ is the one who talked about Him more
than anybody else. What did Christ say that the
Holy Spirit would do when he came? That the Father would send
the Holy Spirit to do something. What did he say? He said he'll
lead you and guide you into all truth. He said he'll take the
things of mine and show them unto you. In other words, he'll
take all that Christ is, all that Christ did, all that Christ
is now, all that Christ has done, the person and the work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. What Christ has done, who he
is, prophet, priest, king, mediator, intercessor, all these things,
substitute, covenant head, all the things of Jesus Christ, not
the things of man, what they must do for Jesus. No, he'll
take the things of Christ and show them to you through a true
preacher. All the preachers stand up like
Moses told him, set them on fire. Moses was no good except to hold
the pole. They weren't saved by looking
to Moses, but looking at that serpent on the pole. That's all a preacher's good
for, to lift up Christ. Christ said,
if I'll be lifted up. Not morality, not this, not service,
not The denomination, not the preacher, sir. If I be lifted
up, exalted, extolled, magnified, declared, described, everything about Christ, if I
be lifted up and men say, hey, salvation's in Christ, isn't
it? Yes, it is. That's what the Holy Ghost does. Holy Ghost of... Until God reveals our God, this
gospel to us, Stan, we say wrong things about God. We talk in
gibberish. We say things like, yeah, God's
God if we let Him be God. No, that's foolishness. What
are you, an idiot? And God, the Holy Ghost makes
a man talk in truth, the language of truth. It convinces, our Lord said,
of sin, righteousness, and judgment. People, religion has all but
done away with those three words. Do you hear those three words? Do you hear them here, or wherever
the gospels preach? Our gospel, you hear them a lot.
Sin, that's the issue. It's not the love of God. What's
God going to do with me? I'm a sinner. There's the issue. Righteousness. I've got to be
righteous. I've got to be holy. How? Do you see? I don't see anything. Good! I see Christ. Yes. Now, now you see. Judgment. Now that you've looked, you see
your righteousness. your sins are gone, there is
therefore no condemnation to them that are in Christ. Be ye
healed. This is the much assurance. Look
at verse 5. The elect have much assurance.
I know you are one of the elect. You receive our gospel, not word
only, but in power. The Holy Spirit takes the things
of pride and in much assurance. Now, this is not saying you're
sure and certain, you know you're saved, you're sure for heaven
as if you're already there. No. No. No. That's presumption, that's pride,
that's self-righteousness. What is this much assurance,
then? Much assurance of the gospel. That's why I say it. Every believer
can say, no, this is the gospel. There is no other. This is my
gospel. I believe this. It says our gospel
came to you. Why are you not somewhere else
this morning? You were for a time. How did
you get here? Why are you here now? Well, there's
the door. If you don't like what you're
hearing right now, will you go away? How long have you been
here now, John? How long? Too long to remember. How long? Twenty years? What's your middle name, John?
How old are you? Long time. Been here so long,
there's the door. Why not, John? How'd you get here, John? And you're not going anywhere.
You're going to stay right here. What's been going on here ever
since you've been here? This right here? Same thing? Did you
hear this message when you first came here? 20, 30, however, pretty
much. It's much assurance of this gospel.
When God Almighty shows a person Christ, they're taken up with
Christ. They become a Christian. A Christian
is not some goody-two-shoes, oh, now I'm going to quit this
and I'm going to tiptoe around the world and just win everybody
for Jesus. No, it's a person who loves Christ,
who loves to hear about Christ, who loves to worship Christ,
who loves to see Christ in the Scripture. He's all about the
things of Christ, and they're taking up with Him. And they
don't need a big this or that, and they don't need a fancy building,
don't need a fancy preacher, don't need anybody else or anything,
but the preaching of Christ. That's what they come to hear
now. They needed all that before, because Christ didn't capture
their attention. I've married that woman. We lived
in a little old apartment. How many square feet? About 700
square feet. The bathroom, you know how it
is, you walk beside each other to go, we didn't need anything
else, did we? Why, we were taken up with each
other. We could have lived in a mansion. It wouldn't have mattered. We could have lived where we
did. It didn't matter either. So it is with those who come
to know and love Christ. Much assurance. You see that?
assurance of who God is, is there any doubt in your mind, let me
ask you believer, is there any doubt in your mind that God is
God? I mean, any. You doubt yourself,
as you should. Everything about us is better
or worse than God. No, no doubt in my mind. I told Mindy that the other morning.
There is no doubt in my mind whatsoever. Never, ever, one
moment's doubt in my mind about the truth. No, sir. I never stop
and think, well, what if there is any truth told? Never! Maybe at first I did, but not
now. I have much assurance. Not in myself. I'm a greater
sinner than I was in the beginning. But this is why, John, this is
exactly why I know God is merciful. Did you catch that? My assurance
is in Him. I'm a greater sinner now than
then. Is God merciful? I'm assured of it. Did you catch
that? I'm positive. Is salvation by
grace? I'm positive. Is there any doubt? Not one doubt.
Ask Solomon. Ask Lot. Ask the thief on the cross. It's
how you say, by grace. Now, wait a minute, Mr. Thief.
No, you wait a minute. Much assurance, you see. Are
you assured of this gospel? I know you're Ah, boy, don't you love it? Ah,
I love it. Would you give me a couple more
minutes? You're going to enjoy this, I
promise. If you're going to elect, I know you will. I did. I couldn't
refrain. It says, verse 6, you became
followers of us and of the Lord. Verse 5, he said, you know what
manner of men we were among you. You know what manner of men preachers
of the gospel are, don't you, Ron? You know what manner of
man Tom Harden is, don't you? Every one of you. You know what
manner of man Scott Richardson is. Name one, just pull one out of the hat.
You know what manner of men they are. They're not after your money.
No, sir. They're not after your money.
They're not after a name for themselves. They're not after
building a big church. No, sir. You know what manner
of men God's true men are. You know it. That's proof that
God sent them. He said in verse 6, And you became
followers of us and of the Lord. You became followers of. Would
you turn to the book of Ruth? The book of Ruth. Real quickly, the book of Ruth, and prepare to get a blessing. Right before the book of 1 Samuel,
I had to tell myself that. Ruth chapter 1. Peter said this
over in his second letter. He said, There were false prophets among
the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you,
who bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord about them,
and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow
their pernicious ways, by reason of whom the way of truth shall
be evil spoken of." Many shall follow their pernicious or lascivious
or corrupt ways. Many, and you know it so, don't
you? Many people follow. There's a
big following out there in religion. Religion has a big following.
The truth has never had a big following, Brother Charles. There
were eight people when Noah got on the boat. Right? Three people got out of
Sodom. Well, four, three, one died on
the way. The truth has always been in
the minority. And I'm not uplifting us, but the truth. The fact is, most follow, our
Lord called it a broad way that lead to destruction, and many
there be. Broad way religion. But few—straight
is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to life—few there
be that find it. But if by God's grace he leads
them, our gospel comes. Oh, they've found it. And they're
not going anywhere. They're in the way. They're in
the straight and narrow. And they're going to stay there.
And they become followers. They become followers of those
who believe, those who love the truth. They follow the Lamb.
They follow Christ. Ruth, let me tell you a story
about Ruth real quick. Ruth was a heathen woman, born
in a heathen land. She was probably religious, It
didn't matter. She didn't know the living and
true God. She didn't know the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. She didn't know. She married
into a family. By the sovereign grace of God,
she married into a family and somebody knew the Lord. Her name was Naomi. And her and
Ruth were over in somewhere, Moab. away from the true worship. Naomi and Ruth's husbands, they
took them away from the truth. They took them away. And Naomi,
being a godly believing woman that she was, she said, we're
going back to Bethlehem. We're going back to Israel. God's blessing His people there.
That's where the blessing of God is and that's where I'm going.
He told his two daughters, Ruth and the other one, he said, I'm
leaving. You can stay here if you want
to. You can stay here if you want. Here's Ruth's comment. She said in verse 16, Ruth said,
Entreat me not to leave thee, or return from following after
thee. For wherever you go, whither
thou goest, I will go. And where thou lodgest, I will
lodge. Thy people shall be my people,
and thy God my God." She'd already heard some things.
The Lord was preparing her. When was Ruth saved? Huh? Now, she'd have stayed there
with her sister if the Lord hadn't been working on her, wouldn't
she? That was her home, Sam. She wasn't going to have a husband.
She'd never been. She'd have stayed right there. has begun to work in the truth.
And she said, I'm going to go wherever you go, and your God's
going to be my God, and your people my people, and if the
Lord is pleased to save me, wonderful, fine. But I'm going to follow
you. I'm going to follow you. And God Almighty, in mercy and
grace, the scripture says it happened one day. They went back,
they were there in Bethlehem, And they were hungry, and Naomi
sent Ruth out to glean in the field to get them something to
eat. You need something to eat, honey. Both of us do. Go out
and glean. And as Scripture says, and she
just happened. She just happened to land. Now, this was a pretty big place.
There were a lot of barley fields, a lot of fields to glean. You
could go there and you could get and a lot of landowners and
everything. But it says that she just happens
to land in the field that belonged to a fellow named Boaz. Oh, she's lucky. Oh, God in sovereign mercy and
grace took this murdered by a heathen woman and caused her married
into a believing family and caused her to follow her mother-in-law
to the land and said, go out and drink. And she landed in
the only field where she could be redeemed. The only one in
all of Israel. There were men everywhere. There
was but one redeemer. One person who could do anything
for her. His name is Torres. Somebody jump or something. She
just happened to land in that field, and Boaz came riding along,
and I guarantee you, I know she is, she looked up and said, oh,
he's a handsome fella. Ooh, look at him, oh, I'd love
to marry somebody like that. Pssh, you're going to, honey,
you're going to. And she went home with her stuff.
Oh, she could carry her grain. Her mother said, hey, where you
been? She said, I've been cleaning. I think the fella's field was
named Boaz. Bless God, you landed in the
only place where somebody could save us. Our gospel came to you. You. You. Our gospel, where Boaz is. Hallelujah. I know you're elect. I know you're
elect. Gospels not everywhere. Not everywhere. I told you you was going to enjoy
that. I told you. And you became followers. Yes, this is my gospel. These are my people. You can
have all that other stuff. I'm not going anywhere. God saved
me or abandoned me. I'm right here to stay. Can a
person be saved and not know it? Yeah. Yeah. Pray. Pray. Because it's a commitment. It really is. And you doubt yourself
so much. But if you can say, And I'm not
trying to convince anybody that you're saved, but I am trying
to give you some comfort. If you can say, this is my gospel,
these are my people, I am absolutely certain that this is the truth,
and I believe it with all my heart. What else is there? And I know you're one of the
elect. Yes, you are. That's all I believe now, after
years. That's all I believe. Nothing
else. That's all my hope. All right,
may the Lord bless that. All right, let's stand and sing
the closing hymn. How about Don't You Trust Him? It's 252, 252. 252. 252. All right, let's stand. And He will surely give me rest,
I know He is my friend. He will save you. He will save
you. Third verse.