Paul is standing here before
a king. I'll never get to preach to a
king. I'll never get to preach to anybody that's of any importance
or power or authority in this world. But Paul got to preach
not only to kings and governors, and here he's preaching to a
king. What an opportunity to preach to a king. And there has been other preachers
through history that's been able to preach to kings. The king
of England always had a chaplain, and they would preach. And every
once in a while, one would tell the king the truth, and the king,
you know, would get upset and give him an opportunity to recant
if they would. And if they didn't, they'd have
to pay the price. But here's Paul standing before
a king. I'll never get to preach to a
king. I'll never get to preach to a senator or a congressman.
So this is an opportunity. And then look what he tells him.
He preaches what God did for him. Tells him how, what a wicked
man he was. What an evil man he was. What
a murdering man he was. And then he says that Christ
did something for me. Christ apprehended me one day.
And then he began to preach who Christ is and what he did. And
so it wouldn't make no difference if you preached before a king
if you didn't tell him the truth. And then he came down to say
that Christ had risen from the dead. And Festus, the governor,
said, Oh, Paul, Paul, all this learning that you had, and all
how educated, you have lost your mind. You need to be in asylum
somewhere." Paul said, no, no, I don't need to be in asylum.
And then he turned to the king and he said to Agrippa, you know
that the things that I'm telling you is true. And Agrippa said
in verse 28, then Agrippa said unto Paul,
almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. How often have
these words been used by preachers and others as touching appeals
to those who are all but persuaded to accept Jesus as their Savior? In fact, there's a psalm called
Almost Persuaded, and they use this to try to get people to
persuade them to accept Jesus. But that's not the meaning of
these words. King Agrippa was not speaking in earnest here.
He's not speaking with Paul all night. You just, oh, you just
try a little harder. You're just almost persuaded.
No, no, Agrippa is speaking here not in earnest. He's being sarcastic. He's saying, do you think with
just a little bit of persuasion you can make me a Christian?
Me? Me? He's half amused and half
angry at Paul's presumption in thinking that he could land him
and make him a Christian? He said, it's a lot harder to
make a believer out of me than you think it is. And a man like
me, let me tell you something about Agrippa. His father was
Herod, the one who heard John, and considered him a holy man,
and turned around and had John's head chopped off. And Agrippa,
his wife, is his half-sister. That's her third husband. She's
the worst kind of a person. And Agrippa is the worst kind
of a person. So these fellas, they may be
in positions of power, but they are as wicked as they come. His wife, he's living in a relationship
with his sister. And so that's what kind of people
they were. And you remember his father was
the first persecutor. He took James and had him put
in jail and had him slain, had him killed. And the Jews rejoiced
so much that he said, well, I'll do another one that way. And
he had Peter put in prison, remember? And the angel came and woke Peter
up and Peter went out. And then later that day, a herald
was standing giving an oration. They said, it's the voice of
our God. It's not the voice of a man. And God smote him, remember,
because he gave not God the glory. So that's the kind of man this
is. But let's look here when there's
some things that we can learn from Agrippa saying, almost,
if you thoughtfully think, you can persuade me to be a Christian.
Do you honestly think that? And look what Paul told him there.
Verse 26. He says, For the king knoweth
of these things before whom I also speak freely. For I am persuaded
that none of these things, these things that I'm preaching to
you about Christ rising from the dead, about what God did
for me in saving me by his grace and obtaining mercy and people
trying to kill me, that none of these things are hidden from
him, for this thing was not done. God didn't do this and slip up
on the human race. He's not trying to get up on
somebody's blind side. Agrippa, believest thou the prophets? I know that thou believest."
Then Agrippa said to Paul, "'Almost persuadest thou me to be a Christian.'"
So let me tell you something here. Now, he believed some things.
Paul said he did. And there's a danger. Here's
a great danger of having a superficial familiarity with gospel truth. Look what he says back up here
in verse 3. He's standing before Agrippa,
and he's answering for himself. He's allowed to speak for himself.
And he said, I'm so happy today to be able to speak to you, because
in verse 3, especially because I know thee to be an expert in
all customs and questions which are among the Jews, were I beseech
thee to hear me patiently. He knew that this man had some
knowledge. He knew that this man understood
the customs. And I'll tell you what, and he
used the term Christian. And at that time, it wasn't used
very often. It had only been used one other
time in the Scriptures up to this point. And you look at the
difference between Festus and Agrippa when Paul preached the
resurrection of the Lord. Festus says, Paul, your learnings
done drove you crazy. And he turned around and said
to Ephestus, I said, Agrippa, I don't think it's no great thing
to you to think that God would raise the dead. See, Agrippa
knew about the resurrection. He had heard of it. And he had
a rough notion of what Paul believed as a Christian. But was he any
better for it? No, it made him worse. That's
why when Herod, his father, had heard of Christ, and heard of him, he said, I
want to hear him. I want to meet him. And our Lord
says, you go tell that fox. That's what he called him. And,
oh, beloved, it took away, because he had this superficial knowledge
of these truths, it took away the curiosity of him out of him.
He thought he already knew all that the apostle had to say.
And because he already knew, and that's why Paul said, I know
you know, It stood in his way of apprehending the truths that
he already knew. And how often is people like
that, you can't tell them anything because they already know it.
Because they assume that they've got a superficial knowledge of
it. And I'll tell you what, now listen to me. A superficial knowledge
is the worst enemy, the worst enemy of having an accurate knowledge. The first condition of knowing
anything is to know that we don't know it. You know, the first condition
of knowing something is to know that you don't know it. If you
know it, there ain't no sense telling you. And how many times have our kids
said that, or somebody you've talked to said that, well, I
know it, I know it, I know it. Herman, you say that all the
time. You tell them something and they say, oh, I know it.
And then he found out that he didn't know nothing when God
saved him by His grace. He said, here I am, I'm 77 years
old, I'm a baby. You see, that's the first condition.
And your problem is that you know too much. You know too much. And I'll tell you something,
truth is never really known until it's experienced. Now, ain't
that right? There's two kinds of knowledge.
There's an acquired knowledge. You can get that by reading something
or somebody teaching you something. And then there's experiential
knowledge. That's taking the acquired knowledge
you have and putting it into experience. And you can learn
lots of things in a book. I can read about electricity
in a book, but I don't know how to wire a house. I can get a
book and tell how to tear a pension apart and put it back together,
but I don't know how to tear it in because I don't have the
experience. But I mean, nothing is really known until it's experienced. If you've got to experience being
a sinner, how many preachers will get up and tell folks today,
do you know you're a sinner? You know, God says you're a sinner,
but have you ever experienced being a sinner? Have you ever
experienced electing grace? Have you ever experienced a sovereignty
of God. God didn't need sovereignty coming
to you like He did Paul. A lot of people say they believe
God's sovereign. Have they ever experienced God's
sovereignty when the light above the brightness of the sun came
and put Him on this ground? Have you ever experienced the
power of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ in your
heart when He came and raised you from the dead and quickened
you in your heart and gave you a soul to know Him and want to
know Him and live by His power in you? Have you ever experienced
the power of His blood that cleanses you from sin, His righteousness
which makes you stand before God with some confidence and
boldness? I know that every single one
of you in here today, every single one of you, say you're Calvinist,
say you believe this and you believe that and you believe
the other thing, but I want to know, have you experienced? Or
do you believe it just because this is the place you attend
to preach and preach? Have you ever experienced it?
Have you ever experienced being a sinner? And I tell you, there's nothing
that stands more in the way of coming into contact with gospel
truths than a half-law that you picked up when you sent you as
a child. That's the worst thing that can happen to a person.
You know, from the time they were little, they picked up a little
truth here, a little truth there, and it's half-truth. And then
when you confront it with the whole truth, you hold on to the
half-truth. I always say that Jesus Christ
is the Savior. Oh, I've known that all my life.
But do you know, do you know this? That He may save you and
He may not save you. That He don't have to save you.
That He don't have to do anything for you. That you're in His hands
to do with you as He pleases. Do you know that in your heart
of hearts, that you are a rebel and that if God don't break your
rebellion, you'll go to hell with both hands raised up in
his face? Huh? Oh, I'll tell you what,
I remember, you know, my mother telling me that Jesus loves me. Your mother may have told you
a lie. You may be an Esau. I hope you
ain't. But that's the thing that's got
to happen to this generation. They got to be, people got to
be confronted with this. You know, you just get these
little picky troops out there and you say, well, I agree with
you. I don't agree with you. Yeah, you can refuse to agree
with me, but you can, you cannot refuse to, to agree with God. And if you refuse to agree with
God, well, then I tell you, I wouldn't be in your shoes for 10,000 worlds
like this. Wouldn't do it. And people say, well, I've got
to hold the truth. Oh, let me ask you this question. Has the
truth got a hold of you? That's what's got, the truth's
got to come to a hold on you. Have you received a love of the
truth? Now, there's a great difference
of believing the truth and having a love for the truth. I mean
an actual love for it. You cherish it. You gotta have
it. You need it. Huh? Oh, have you seen the truth? Is the truth of your helplessness
before Christ taken hold of you? Has the truth of your sinlessness,
your sinfulness taken a hold of you? Has the truth of the
perfections of our Lord Jesus Christ and His glory taken effect
on you? Has the truth of His effectual
work, putting away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, Him by
Himself purging our sins. Him by Himself and His blood
cleansing for sin. Him by Himself satisfying God's
justice. Have you ever had the truth affect
you like that? Huh? Oh, I tell you, has that
truth got a hold of you? That's what God's doing. It's
got to get a hold of you. And inaccurate knowledge, inaccurate
knowledge is the worst enemy to a further understanding in
spiritual matters. I mean, inaccurate knowledge
is the worst enemy. Agrippa, I know you know some
of these things. But Agrippa says, you know, you're
not teaching me nothing new. And that's why he paused it.
Let me tell you something else, beloved, another way. A superficial
knowledge is horrible, and that's what he had, a superficial knowledge.
And another way in which knowledge like Agrippa had is a hindrance. It's a great hindrance. He had
this superficial knowledge. He understood everything Paul
said, and he believed it to a certain extent. But another way in which
knowledge like Agrippa had is a hindrance, it is a knowledge
which has no effect upon his character. They never took the
truth, that Christ was raised from the dead, that Christ was
crucified outside Jerusalem. He knew all these things. And he knew what had happened
to Paul. He knew the message that Paul preached. He knew something
about the Jewish tradition, the prophets. And yet, it never had
no effect upon his character. And beware of a gospel. Beware
of a gospel that don't change you. Huh? Oh, what do we do with our knowledge
of Christ and His gospel? You see, beloved, religion's
just concerned with the outside. Our Lord told the Pharisees,
said, you clean the outside of the cup and the platter, but
it's within that you're a problem. You see, religion's just concerned
with the outside, with an outward profession, with an outward show.
They're satisfied with somebody coming to an altar. They're satisfied
with somebody raising a hand. They're satisfied with somebody
just shedding a tear. They're satisfied with somebody
trying to make a move, but the gospel ain't satisfied with anything
but getting to the heart. That's what the gospel does.
It deals with the heart. And many, many believe the gospel
intellectually. I read several things yesterday
that, you know, this guy, he calls the title of his church
is Sovereign Grace Church up in New Hampshire. And I was reading
some things by it, and he is so smart. Oh, it's unbelievable
how smart he is. But I'll tell you what's the
truth. It's all intellectualism. It's all brain power. He was always showing the error
of some kind of metaphysical, or some kind of mystical, or
some kind of somebody that was saying something that wasn't
true, that didn't agree with this doctrine, or that doctrine,
or another doctrine. But he never talked about Christ
to get to a man's heart. So you can get it in your brain.
But if it does not make a hash breath difference to anything
they ever thought, anything they ever wished or ever did, then
their understanding of the gospel has no effect or influence upon
their wills, then they, beloved, are in the same boat that Agrippa
is. Almost! And to be almost saved is to
be 100% lost. Oh, Agrippa, I know you believe the
prophets. And Albernese, too, but what
good is your knowledge if you live like animals, if you live
according to your lowest, basest self, if you give up to your
pleasure? And there's nothing more impotent
than a firmly held belief, and then utterly neglect the truth
that you say you believe. Nothing more dangerous than that,
nothing more impotent. And then in Agrippa here, who
said, oh, you think you can make me a Christian? Make me a believer? Make me somebody who's a Christian?
In Agrippa, we have an example of a proud man's reaction to
the gospel. He says there, he said, oh, Paul,
almost persuadest thou me? You may do something, but me?
To be a Christian? Huh? Oh my, me? The contempt in his words. Me? He thinks of his dignity. I'm
a king. He thinks of his dignity. And
yet he's nothing but a worm of a man. You see, he was king by
the pleasure of Rome. Rome was the one who let him
have his throne. Huh? He set on a mole hill and
called it his mountain. And you know, when we see somebody
with all this power and this authority, and we see their arrogance,
we see their pride, we see their self-righteousness, and how they
look down on everybody else. That's why he's doing it. Now, me, a gripper, a Christian,
and he used the word Christian here. with contempt by the way
it came into being the first time. This is the second time
the word Christian, look with me over in Acts 11.26 just a minute.
This is the second time the word Christian is used in the scripture. And the first time it was used
was a word of contempt and ridicule. Up until the time they were called
Christians, you know what they were called? Followers of the
way, those who are of this way, those who are Heretics, those
who are of the way of heresy. But here's the first time they
were called Christians, and it was a matter of scorn and contempt
and ridicule with which it was done. And at first, he said here
in verse 26 of Acts 11, and when he had found him, he brought
him unto Antioch, and it came to pass that a whole year they
assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people,
and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch. That's the first place. And you
know what that meant? You know, as a word of contempt
and ridicule, scorn, derision, till believers took it and made
it into a crown of honor. And what they meant now is they
say, yes, I'm a follower of Christ. Yes, I'm identified with His
people. Yes, I believe He's the only God and Savior of men. Yes,
yes, I'm a Christian. And they used to put people on
trial. Are you a Christian? And by that
they meant, do you believe that Jesus Christ Himself was God
manifested in the flesh, that Jesus Christ was crucified as
a man outside Jerusalem, and that He by Himself is the only
one who can save you, that His blood can only cleanse you from
sin? Do you believe that there's no hope for anybody other than
Him? Yes, I do. You know what that's
going to cost you? You know what that's going to
cost you? That's going to cost you your life. It's going to cost you
your life. And oh, beloved, the gospel breaks
against men and their self-importance and their self-satisfaction.
And I tell you, the gospel refuses to let the flesh glory in itself.
It just won't do it. Where's boasting then? It's excluded. Gospel ain't gonna let you stand
up and say you're somebody. Gospel gonna tell you you're
nobody. That you're nothing. You're a zero. That you're a
worm. You're a grasshopper. And you
got no power. You got no rights. You ain't
got nothing. And that Christ has it all. And
if you get anything from God, you're gonna have to come to
Him. You're going to have to bow to Him. You're going to have
to call on Him. You're going to have to trust
Him. And oh, beloved, listen. The
Gospel deals, and I love this, this one thing, that one of the
things that I love about it, I cherish about it. And I cherish
and love those who preach it this way. The Gospel deals with
everyone in exactly the same way. It gives every man on the
topside of God's earth a standing on the same level. And old Dr. Shouting Bryce stands
up, you know, I've got my Ph.D. and I've got my L.L.D. and I've
got my T.H.D. I've got every kind of thing
you can think of. And you mean to tell me, you
mean to tell me I have to stand on the same level as someone
who can't read and can't write? That's exactly what the Gospel
tells you. It ain't that wonderful? Oh my! That was the first thing
they said about John and James when they brought them, Peter
and John, when they brought them into the Sanhedrin, sent them
down in front of all those 70 men, those big, big shots, you
know, with all their doctors and lawyers and all their credentials,
you know. Paul had credentials. And they
stood up there before him and says, These fellas are ignorant! They ain't never learned nothing! And they said, boy, they're the
dumbest bunch I ever seen. What in the world do they think
they're doing? And I heard a preacher yesterday,
he says, boy, I tell you, it's an amazing thing that God hasn't
had anybody hear me. A man with no credentials whatsoever.
And that really impressed me, that fellow said that. Did anybody
listen to me? A man who has no credentials
whatsoever. Huh? And many people are like
Naaman, when he rode up there, you know, to Elisha's house,
rode up there with all of his gold and silver and all of his
clothes and his chariots and all of his entourage with him.
And he says, you go in there and tell that preacher that I'm
here, that Naaman the general's here. Elijah just said, go out
there and tell him to go dip in Jordan seven times. And if he'll do that, he'll come
clean again. And the scripture says that David
went away in a rage. A rage. You know, that's the
way a lot of folks do. A lot of folks would love to
have a private door to sneak in. and consideration, a private
door to come in because of all of our attainments and our positions. Just don't class me, just don't
class me down there with the ignorant, the poor, and the sinful,
and the low of this world. And that's what they said about
our Lord. He said, this man, in all of her contempt, and all
of their hatred, and all of their enmity, and all of their self-righteousness,
and all of their arrogance, they said, this man receives sinners. This man eats with unworsened
hands. This man is a drunk, god of devil, this man. Well,
I tell you, this is the man that the Scripture says when he appears,
ever I'll see him, even those who pierced him. I'll see him
one of these days. And you know, Scott Richardson
said, if I could find that fellow who pierced his side, he said,
I could tell him what that blood would do for him. Oh, you see,
beloved, we all breathe the same air. We're all subject to the
same diseases. We all come from a common stock.
And here's Naaman, and this is the way people want to be treated.
People wanted Naaman to be treated as a great man who just happened
to be a leper. But Elijah insisted on treating
him as a leper who happened to be a great man. And that makes
a difference. Now, there are some great men
in this world, but there's not a leper among them. There's not
one who isn't a leper. Every single one of them is lepers.
I don't care how powerful they get, what positions they're in.
I don't care what they think of themselves as far as God's
concerned to everyone in Olympus. Wouldn't you agree with that? And the gospel makes it plain
that everyone who is saved, makes it plain here, that everyone
who is saved is saved entirely, absolutely by dependence on another. Ain't that what Paul said? Christ put him down and said,
The God of our fathers hath chosen you, that you should see that
just one, that you should know his will. And all beloved, Paul throwed
his lot in. Christ was his all in all. And people want to have a part
in their salvation, just to have bread. And they get upset if
you tell them they ain't got no part in it. What are you going
to bring to God? You going to bring your faith?
You ain't got none. You going to bring your repentance?
You ain't got any. You going to bring your tears? They got so much sin in them
that God wouldn't have. You'll cry over a movie. And
we'll cry over the cross. Cry over a sad story and won't
cry over your own sin. And oh beloved, people want to
have a partner in salvation. They'd rather suffer. They'd
rather handle snakes. They'd rather drink strict line.
They'd rather come to the front. They'd rather throw away their
cigarettes. They'd rather do anything and
sacrifice anything and do piss than to say, in my hand, in my
hand, in my hand, no price I bring. Oh, Lord Jesus, only to you I
plead. And that's, oh, Lord, right now,
right now, this moment in time, Lord, I come with absolutely
nothing, absolutely nothing but you. You, I'm utterly and absolutely
dependent on you. If you don't save me, I'll perish.
If you don't save me, I'll not be saved. If you don't give me
your righteousness, I won't have one. Right now, right this minute. And oh beloved, the brethren,
brethren of the gospel, there's a declaration that all is done
for us. And not only done for us, but
all will be done in us. And that nothing has to be done
by us. Paul said, if righteousness come
by the law, then Christ is dead in faith. Oh, cursed is everyone
that continues not in all things, but in the book of the law, there
are two of them. You take a drowning man. If you
get to Him and tell the fights out of Him, He'll drown you with
Him. You've got to wait until He gets through fighting. Before
you reach and get a hold of Him, or He'll drag you down, you both
will drown. But you know what God does? He takes the fight
out of you. And then He creases down and
takes you out. He don't throw you a lifeline.
That old song says, You don't throw me in the lifeline. Christ
don't throw you a lifeline. He is life. You need more than a lifeline.
You need life. You need rescued. You need saved. And another thing that stands
in man's way, another thing that stands in
man's way, like you did Agrippa here, is the gospel. absolutely and absolutely insist
upon absolute obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ, absolute obedience
to Him. A gripper thought, what a crazy
idea for me to take down my flag and put up the banner of Christ,
take off my crown and become servant to a Jewish peasant?
to a carpenter? A poor man and a poor man's son? Who was held in contempt by all
the rulers and crucified in weakness? Couldn't even save himself, and
you mean to tell me, Paul, that I've got to bow down and submit
to Him and obey Him and me sitting on the throne? Get off of it?
Yep. Oh, we must bring our wheels
Our ideas, our opinions, to Him, and bring them to His Word, and
bow and submit to His Word. Leave our opinions, our will,
our ideas, forget them, and find out what He says, and bow to
it. And boy, you're talking about true freedom. That's freedom.
Freedom from the world. Free from man's opinions and
traditions. free from fear of man, free from
self-will? Oh, yes, we're Christians. That
means Christ's men. Christ's men. That's who we are.
Some would rather be their own master. How many times my children
would do it. My grandchildren would rather
do it. Some of you would rather do it. You'd rather be your own
master. Enjoy the miseries. of independence
and self-will, to be slaves, to be slaves to our worst, very
worst selves than to bow before our Lord Jesus Christ and find
rest and freedom for our souls. Listen to this old proud man.
Almost, do you think, you can persuade me to be a Christian? Let me tell you this. We learn
that generalities won't do. That speaking in general terms,
ambiguous terms, won't do. But truth must be applied to
you. And that's what Paul did. If
he had just been speaking to everybody and not brought up,
what did he do? He brought it home to Agrippa.
He said, Believest thou? Do you believe? We're not talking
to anybody else. I'm talking to you, Agrippa.
I know you're the king. I know you're sitting there on
the throne. I know you've got your crown, and you've got your
queen sitting by your side. But he laid it right at his feet,
said, Here it is. Do you believe? Do you believe? As long as Paul talked in generalities,
as long as he spoke of his own experience, a group of listeners.
And Paul brought it home. Do you believe this thing wasn't
done in a corner? And men don't mind anybody preaching
until it comes to where it's wrapped directly at them. Then
the preacher's getting rude. Then the preacher's getting personal.
But Nathan, you know what he said to David? David was a king
too. But Nathan sat right in front
of his face and put his finger right between his eyes and says,
David, thou art the man. Thou art the man. Believest thou? Now just, there ain't nobody
here now but just me and you. Do you believe? Nobody here but
me and you. Nobody else in this building
but just me and you. Do you believe? Or are you going to be like a
gripper, get up and walk out of here and say, well, I've come
that close. I've come that close. I got that
close. I'm just getting ready to. And listen, let me close with
this. Here's the soul. Here is a soul so close to the
light, and he walks right back into the darkness. gets up and
walks right back into the house. Agrippa listens, Bernice listens,
Festus listens, and all those that were with them. And what
comes of it? What comes of it? Very impressive sermon. Agrippa and Bernice went their
way. Festus went his way. And none of them knew, and here's
the thing about it, not one of them knew what an incredible
and stupendous moment of time they had just passed through. They just heard the greatest
preacher other than Jesus Christ who ever lived on this earth. And they sat there and listened.
And they ever won, got up and walked away, never paid any more,
never heard him ever again. These three had God turn on the
light before them, never to have it turned on again. Probably
never heard the gospel ever again. And they went away, not knowing
what they had done. and silenced the apostle Paul,
and leaving him in prison. Believest thou? Believest thou? And you may, and I told you all
about a message he preached here, and some of you went and got
it. Goodbye, God. I'll tell you another message
he's got. And I've got it. And I've listened to it lots
of times. Is there deadlines in the Bible? Are there deadlines
in the Bible? Get that message. Download it
and listen to it. There are deadlines. There's
a day that one of these times God's going to just put an X
on you. That's it. You know, people get
smoking, they got this circle, they got a big X over a cigarette.
People just get something, they put it on a t-shirt, put a big
circle around it, put an X in it. You certainly don't want
God to do you that way. Do you? Uh-huh. And what you're
saying, here I am. Here's the way I look at it.
Me, me, Donald Bell, born February the 9th, 1950, to two unbelieving,
ungodly, wretched mother and father who lived their life in
rebellion and in sin and in adultery and drunkenness and fornication.
Me, a Christian? Me, a sinner so vile, so despicable? Me, a rebel that's got such a
stout heart? Me, a man who has a heart so
hard and so Me, with thoughts so horrendous that they frighten
me? Me, a Christian? Yes, yes, yes,
and yes! How can it be? How can it be? By almighty, free, sovereign
grace given to me in Christ. O God, O my Father, in the holy, righteous
name of Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, thank You for this salvation
so full, so free, so complete, so perfect. given to us in Christ,
even before the world began. And I pray that you'd cause this
gospel here today to be effectual. To be effectual. Salvations of
you. Only you can save a sinner. Only
you can give life. Only you can give sight. Only
you can give a hearing ear. And Lord, I'm thankful and happy
and rejoice in that soul. So, Father, if you would be pleased
to save sinners here through your gospel, by your blessed
Son, we'd be ever more thankful. But whether you do or whether
you don't, we're still going to preach the gospel, we're still
going to give you all the glory, and we're still going to submit
ourselves to you. In your blessed name we thank you. Amen. Amen.