You know the reality of it is,
is all you can give is what he gives to you. Everything that I know, and it's
not much, but everything I know he's given me to know. And sometimes I just sit in my
seat in my study and he'll open a passage And I just can't, I can't express
how overwhelmed I am that somebody like me could see what I see
in that passage. It just, I invite you this evening to
turn with me to Acts chapter eight. The book of Acts is the account
of the church after the resurrection of Christ, and including the
gift of the Holy Ghost, which our Lord promised he would send
after his resurrection. It was the dawning of a new era. It's the ushering in of the New
Testament. The word New Testament made no
sense to the common man in that day. He knew nothing but the
Old Testament. This was the ushering in of the
New Testament. It's a marked period in time
that is the beginning of the end. The scripture says, once
in the end of the world, not the beginning of it, not in the
middle of it, but once in the end of the world hath he appeared
to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Our Lord had chosen
12 apostles, preserved them to complete his testimony concerning
his son. There was things yet to be written,
things yet to be laid down and preserved in his book. the full
canon of scripture not being completed as of yet. And he said
himself that he chose them and that he lost only one, and he
lost that one that the scriptures might be fulfilled. The book
of Acts is not the beginning of the church. I hear that a
lot, especially early in my ministry, when I thought anybody who understood
Calvinism was saved. I soon learned that wasn't true
even of myself. But what I heard a lot is that
the book of Acts describes the beginning of the church. It's
not the beginning of the church. It's the beginning of the church
in the last days. the church in a greater light
and a more clear revelation. The church in the Old Testament
is pictured as a single body, Israel, a single body, a nation
of men and women chosen of God. He says so time and again. In the New Testament, the church
is still revealed as one body, but now we understand that body
as Christ, and it's made up of all kinds of members, members
of every nation, tribe, tongue, people under heaven. The Old Testament prophesied
of a coming king, a Messiah, a Redeemer, a Savior, a Deliverer. The New Testament boldly declares
that Jesus of Nazareth is the fulfillment of those prophecies. He is the Christ. Our Lord, in
his discourse with the Samaritan woman, began to tell her about
himself. And she began to tell him what
she knew. She said, y'all worship in Jerusalem.
We worship out here in the mountains. You're in there in that city,
we're out here in the hills, in these beautiful mountains.
He said, you don't know what you worship. Have you ever learned that? Boy,
I learned that the hard way. I didn't know what I worshipped.
I thought I did. Well, she said, no, I know Messiah's
coming. I know that. He said, I that
speak unto thee am He. You're conversing with the Christ. Paul told young Timothy, God
hath saved us. Past tense. God hath saved us. And then called us with a holy
calling. No compromise in His name. And he did it not according to
our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Now watch
this. But now is made manifest by the
appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who has abolished death
and has brought life and immortality to life through the gospel. whereunto
I'm appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher of the
Gentiles. This book is the account of the
church and the apostles going out by the commission of a risen
Savior to finish laying the foundation of true faith and to set in order
the local churches which are representative here of the whole
body of Christ. And so when you're reading through
the book of Acts, that's what's going on. That's what's going
on. God has a people. He has a people that belong to
Him. He loves them. They're His. He calls them His sheep, His
elect, His bride, His people. And God's calling his people
today by the means he has ordained. And this was being laid down
example after example after example all through the book of Acts.
The preaching of the gospel, that's the means God has ordained. That's what these men were doing. My text tonight, or title you
might say, is the story of a chosen sinner. It's one of millions,
one of the great multitude of testimonies that we'll hear someday. And this story is my story. As he read those scriptures a
while ago, could you identify with that? Could you put yourself
in a place of that Ethiopian youth? Did you take your place
with Him? He's telling my story. He's telling
your story and the story of every chosen sinner, redeemed by the
blood of Christ, interceded for in glory. Now, I'd like to go
through this story. It's a very simple story. I'd
just like to go through it and point out a few things. And I
want to begin this evening with this great and wonderful declaration
that God has a people. Peter calls them a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
and a peculiar people. And he calls them that, and he
has done that for them that we should show forth the praises
of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. And those people were in time
past not people. We were children of wrath, even
as others. But now we're the people of God.
I didn't say that to the apostles, did I? These were a people which had
not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. God has a people. Where'd he get them? Where'd
they come from? Well, the Scriptures tells us
that He chose them in Christ before the foundation of the
world. I know what preachers say, and
I know what a lot of the books say, because I read. But the
Scriptures, and that's the only thing I'm interested in, the
Scriptures, what do the Scriptures say? The Scriptures say He chose
them in Christ before the foundation of the world. They're elect according to the
foreknowledge of God the Father. And if it were not for God's
election of grace, we would have been like Sodom and Gomorrah.
That's what the scripture says. You see, election's not a closed
door. I run into that all the time.
I'll talk to people and we'll, somewhere in the conversation,
an election will come up. Has a way of doing that, don't
it? If salvations of God and those
being saved are the elect of God, you're going to have a hard
time testifying to anybody apart from election. If he died and his death was
particular redemption, then who did he die for? His elect. And if you don't believe in it,
boy, you've really got a problem then. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of who? God's elect. God justified them
and Christ died for them. Who did he die for? His elect. Election's not a closed door
that ungodly preachers make it out to be. Election's an open
door. If it weren't for election, we'd be like Sodom and Gomorrah.
If it weren't for election, we'd have no history. We wouldn't
even be here. God would have burnt this earth
to cinders if it weren't for election. Election's an open door. And
election is the story of this Ethiopian union. It's the story
of all God's people in that it began with the election of God.
Every blessing that comes down from heaven to men and women
is the result, it's the result of And it's according as He hath
chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world. He chose
us in Him and made full provision for us in Him. Every blessing, I'm not talking
about the rain, His rain that falls on the just or the unjust
and the sun that warms the earth. The bread that we eat on our
tables and so on. I'm talking about the eternal
blessings of God. All spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus. I'm talking about that kind of
blessing. Secured us in Christ. Made provision for us. Set his
providence in order to accomplish what he purposed. Spiritual blessings. Provision. for salvation to the Lord. The story of the Ethiopian eunuch
begins in eternity past as his name was lovingly written in
the Lamb's Book of Life. God has a people, a blessed multitude
for whom God made full provision. He predestinated them under the
adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to
the good pleasure of his will. A man's soul was being preserved
in Christ, being preserved by the God of all grace, and provenient
grace was going before him before he even knew what grace was. I looked it up. It never even
dawned on me to look at it before. But I just, I got to think, where
is Ethiopia? Here's a man, he went to Jerusalem
to worship God. And he's an Ethiopian. Now, if
he's the keeper of the queen's treasure, she didn't live here
and he lived a thousand miles away. He lived in the castle
with the queen in charge of her treasure. And so I looked to
see how far it was from where he was to Jerusalem. 1,500 miles. This man went to Jerusalem
to worship. If you live past Bergen, I ain't
driving way over there. I hear it all the time. You're
an hour away. Oh my soul, how far would you
drive to hear the gospel? This man drove 1,500 miles and
he did it in a chariot. In a chariot. This man's soul was being preserved
by the God of all grace and pervenient grace was attending his way.
You see, the eunuch didn't send for Philip. And Philip wasn't seeking the
eunuch. So how did this meeting come
to pass? God arranged it. God arranged
it. That's my story. Is it yours? God arranged a meeting. He arranged
for me to be in a certain place at a certain time. He arranged
for a man over here to go through whatever he's been through. And
then he brings that man over here. I thought about this passage
as I read it. He told Philip, the angel of
the Lord told Philip, go south. That's exactly what he told me.
Huh? Some 18 years ago, go south.
In God's providence, and by God's Spirit, He laid that on my heart. I didn't want to leave here.
I love these people. Why would I want to go anywhere?
I had a preacher here who was preaching the gospel to me every
week. But you see, the Lord intervened.
He had a place to preach. Phil was preaching every day.
And he left, and he began to preach after he left the unit.
But in God's providence, he had a man for this preacher, and
this preacher for a man. Now I'm telling you, as clearly
and as plainly as I know how to tell you, that's how God saved
Sanders. He didn't send for Philip, and
Philip wasn't looking for him. But God intervened in the lives
of both these men when an angel of God was sent down to Philip
telling him to go toward the south in a desert way. Not only that, but he said it's
the way that goes down to Gaza. Go down that way. Boy, there
was really nothing down there. Go down there. And I love this. He arose and went. Boy, when
God's in it, you'll go, won't you? Huh? You'll go. Acts 8, 26 is where this is talked
about. God initiated this confrontation. It was an act of providence.
It wasn't a chance encounter. And then the second thing I see
in this story is a poor sinner unable to do anything for himself.
He was a wealthy man. That's what scripture says. A
wealthy man. He didn't travel alone. He had
an old entourage with him. He had servants with him. He
had provisions with him. He was a wealthy man, but he
couldn't do one thing for himself spiritually. This man was seeking God, seeking
knowledge, seeking to worship by way of the ceremonial law. That's what he was doing. You
think he sat down and he obviously had at least the
scroll of Isaiah to read. You think he sat down and read
that and said, well, I think the way to know God is to go
up to Jerusalem. That ain't why he went to Jerusalem.
He went to Jerusalem because some rabbi who encompasses the
world to make a proselyte like unto himself, said, you need
to go to Jerusalem. And so that's what he did. All
my life I heard, go to church. The problem is, there's nothing
wrong with that. Go down and worship with believers,
come down here, and if you're going to find the Lord, this
is where you're going to find Him. Nothing wrong with that, but
they call everything else on the church. And so did these Jews. And this
man took them at their word and drove 1,500 miles. And they said,
here's the time of year you want to go. You want to go during
the festival. So he went up there and he goes through the Feast
of the Tabernacles and all that. Clear through. All the way through. And he come away as empty as
he was when he went. He had nothing. You know why? Because he's a poor sinner, unable
to do anything for himself. And if you seek the Lord, He'll
show you that. He'll bring you to that point. He went to Jerusalem, attended
the holy days, the feast days, saw the lambs slain, saw the
high priests, saw the altar, saw the labor, saw all these
things. He saw the ceremonies as they
were conducted, and he came away as empty. I've been there, haven't
you? Even as a little child, brought in, sat down, I watched
them take the Lord's table. I watched them do all these things.
I watched them pray. I heard them preach. I saw all
those things. But I went home empty. Empty. He didn't go there because he
thought it was the right thing to do. He went there because
somebody told him to go there. And this world always points
the sinner to the law. I don't care what church it is.
They point you to the law. Here's what you need to do. You
need to get your life in order. Really? How you do that? Huh? You can't get rid of a cold and
you're gonna set your life in order? You need to quit doing this and
start doing that. Always points the sinner to the
law. Do this and live. Set your life
in order. God will bless you. Keep this day. Pay your tithes. Eat this kind of food. Dress
this way. Cut your hair a certain way. This was a sinner. That's what
he discovered. He was a sinner. under the influence
of Satan and anti-Christ religion, shut up to his own vain imaginations,
walking in the vanity of his mind, having his understanding
darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance
that was in him. And see this poor sinner, when
confronted about the Scriptures, what did he say? Philip said,
you understand what you're reading? He was reading out loud. Sinners love when they get a
little religion. They love to do everything out
loud. We're going to pray in restaurants. We'll stop the whole
show so we can pray. I want everybody to hear. This
man was reading the scriptures aloud. And Philip came up beside
him. That's what the Lord told him
to do, wasn't it? Go up there and join yourself to the sheriff.
And my guess is he was about a half a trot. And he's walking
along and he's listening to this guy read. He said, do you understand
what you're reading? He said, yeah. No, that ain't
what he said. He said, how can I except some
man guide me? I need somebody to tell me what
this book says. Huh? You got an inclination to
be a preacher? Let me tell you what a preacher
is. He's somebody that tells men
and women what this book says. And if you don't think that's
a weight that you can't hardly bear, you try it. You try it. Oh, how can I except some man
guide me? A poor sinner. And this is my
story, and it's yours if you've been called of God. This is your
story, brought to see the scriptures as a closed book, brought to
understand that you've been lied to. Yvonne told me the first
time she heard the truth, and it rang clear, she got mad. I've
been lied to. You've been lied to. You've been
used by a man pretending to be an ambassador of God. Here in this church at a helpless
center, reading the book of God, but unaware of what it testified
of. And then the third thing I want
us to see in this story is divine intervention. All those chosen in Christ and
redeemed by his blood shall in God's own time be called by his
grace. Multitudes may sit and listen,
but only God's elect will hear. Now hear. If thou be the Christ, they said,
tell us plainly. He just said, I'm the good shepherd.
He just said, I'm the door. I'm the bread that came down
from heaven. How much clearer can you get? He said, I told
ya. Plainly. But here's your problem. You
believe not because you're not of my sheep. My sheep hear my
voice. Always, always. Always, they hear. He said, I know my sheep. He knew this eunuch before the
eunuch knew him. He knew. He knew exactly when
he was going to call him, exactly how he was going to call him,
exactly what he was going to do, and God in his providence
arranged it, and he did exactly what he purposed to do. All those chosen in Christ, redeemed
by His blood, shall in God's own time be called by His grace.
And multitudes will listen. They'll hear. They'll hear. But they don't hear. Here's what our Lord said to
the twelve. These Pharisees and scribes and
doctors of the law, boy, they were head on collision with Christ. They were doing this and doing
that, trying to entangle Him in His talk and trying to ask
Him, bait Him up with silly questions and all this kind of stuff. But
the disciples was taking it in. They were hearing. They understood
what He was saying. He gave a parable. Those guys
didn't understand what He was talking about, but they did.
And he turned to them and he said, blessed are your ears,
for they hear. And your eyes, for they see.
You're blessed. You're blessed. How come? Because
he blessed you in Christ before the foundation of the world.
And he's gonna keep on blessing you all the way through eternity. God has ordained the means to
save poor sinners from the sins. It begins with the Holy Scriptures. If I can't find it in the Word
of God, it ain't of God. I don't care what it is. I have no other source of information
about God, do you? I've never had a private conversation
with God. God never spoken to me out loud. Never. He always, if He's gonna
speak to me, He does it through His Word. Being inspired of God, this book
is profitable for doctrine, it says, for reproof, rebuke, instruction
in righteousness. We're shut up to the scriptures,
aren't we? And then secondly, we're shut up to the providence
of God. Luck and chance had nothing to
do with this. God told Philip to go down there,
and he put it in the heart of that Ethiopian eunuch to be on
that road at that time. Boy, I sure hope somebody comes
to hear me. They will if it's in the providence of God. They'll
be there. I first went down to Arkansas. We had a little old group. Well,
they had dwindled down to about five. And then when I first went
down, we had about 20 show up. Some of them that had left over
the years because they had no pasture and got disgusted, they
came back. And we met two or three weeks,
and all of a sudden, one morning, I walked in, and that place was
wall to wall. A church over in Texarkana had
split, and half of those people walked out. Almost 80 people. And they said, we don't know
where to go. And somebody said, well, you
need to go over there at Taylor. There's a little church over
there. That's where you need to go. And they went. And they come
through the door that Sunday morning, and I got to preach
to them. God's providence. We're called according to his
purpose. We obtain our inheritance, the
scripture said, being predestinated according to the purpose of him
who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. And chosen sinners are shut up
to the sovereign grace of God. I'll be gracious to whom I will
be gracious. Our part is to be thankful that
he's gracious at all. Not to be angry because he is
only gracious to some. And then thirdly, God has ordained
the salvation of his elect through the preaching of the gospel. I don't know, but I do know this,
I know the scriptures were hand transcribed, and we were looking it up this
afternoon to see what these scrolls were made of, and the early ones
were made of animal skin. So they had special preparation
for animal skins and then a man sat down. He didn't have an ink
pen. He didn't do that. He took that quilt and dipped
it in whatever they had for ink and he sat down there and wrote
on that animal skin. If he made a mistake, they had
to scrap it and start over again. I can't imagine how valuable
a scroll was. Finished, complete, Somebody
had approved it, read it over, and this man had it in his possession. When I first, my conscience began
to bother me, young married man, I wanted to seek the Lord. And
my dad said, well, son, I need to take you up and get you some
clothes. I didn't have any clothes. blue jeans and that. He took
me up and bought me some dress clothes so I wouldn't look out
of place as a too tight shoe. And I went to church. It wasn't clothes that I needed. The most valuable thing I had
that day when I went was this book. This book. The most valuable
thing. He had treasures. And he kept
the Queen's treasures. But the most valuable thing he
had was those scrolls in his hand. They were hand transcribed. But my point is this. How come
this man to have it? How come him to have an interest
in it? I went half my lifetime without
an interest in it. How come all of a sudden I had
an interest in it? Isn't that a God? Don't get upset
if one of your children wants to read the Bible. Be excited. God laid it on his heart. He
began to read. I tell our folks all the time,
they say, well, I don't understand half this stuff. You don't need
to. Get it in your head. Read it. Whether you understand
it or not, read it. Because someday, God may send
you a man to tell you the truth and he'll quote that scripture
and you'll say, I know right where that is and that's exactly
what that scripture means. Isn't that what Paul told Timothy?
From a child that's known the Holy Scripture. He didn't know
what those scriptures meant from a child, but he knew the scriptures
because his mother and his grandmother read them to him. and they're
able to make thee wise unto salvation. This man had it, and because
God arranged for him to have it, and God gave him an interest
to read it, but he still shut up to a preacher. Holy Ghost, who inspired the
words of this book, moved his apostle to ask four questions
concerning the faith of God's elect. I don't know if you've
ever read these or not, but it begins in Romans chapter 10,
verse 14. It tells you in verse 13, whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord be saved. Boy, I've heard
that scripture quoted a thousand times in religion, but they never
read the rest of it. But he asked four questions after
he makes that statement. Here's the first one. How then
shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? You don't
know God, how you gonna call on God? Why just call him God? It don't
work that way. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord, that's the sovereign Christ, isn't it? There's
just one in whom his name is proclaimed, and that's Christ.
None other name under heaven given among men whereby we must
be saved. Jesus Christ the Lord. He's got
the name of God. He manifests the glory of God. You're going to have to call
on the sovereign Christ, the electing Christ, the eternal
Christ, the Christ of God, God's appointed Son. And here's the second question.
How shall they believe in Him of whom they've not heard? You
think you're going to sit around and figure out who God is? It
ain't going to happen. Here's the third question. How
are you going to hear without a preacher? Preacher, what are
you saying? I ain't saying anything. I'm
quoting the scripture to you. This is what God says. How are
you going to hear without a preacher? Huh? So I just go down to the
seminary and, no. Because here's the fourth thing. How's he going to preach if God
don't send him? Huh? There's a lot to this thing.
It ain't just spitting out some words and somebody back there
intellectually understanding it in their head. God's providence
is in line with this. The Holy Spirit is in line with
it. We're not sufficient of ourselves to think anything of ourselves.
Our sufficiency is of God. I don't know who God's gonna
save, but I know how He's gonna do it, and the rest of it I have
to wait on Him. How should they preach except
they be sinned? Paul said in 1 Corinthians 3,
5, some of them were running around bragging that they were
saved under Paul and I was saved under Apollos and on and on it
goes. Paul said, who is Paul? And who
is Apollos? But ministers by whom you believed,
even as the Lord, now listen, gave to every Every man universally? No. Every
man he's chosen. All his elect. Every man chosen of God in Christ,
he has appointed a man to cross his path with the gospel. Now
he could have revealed himself to the eunuch through the word,
but he didn't. And he could have enlightened
him by the Spirit, but he didn't. Preaching's not about what God
can do, it's about what God will do. Is that right? You read James
chapter one. Of his own will begat he us with
the word of truth. That's what God will do. Now,
he could of these stones raise up children under Abraham, he's
God. But because he's God, he does things his way, he's God. Please God, Paul said by the
foolishness of preaching, to save them but believe. So God
has a people. And those chosen sinners must
be awakened to their sinnerhood, made to know something of their
inabilities, otherwise they're not gonna go to Christ. Convinced
of their sins. And these chosen sinners are
gonna be shut up to the grace of God, the means of God, and
the gospel of God. And then here's the fourth thing.
This story tells us what happens when God does the work in a sinner. Now I'm telling you, this is
my story, it's your story, it's the story of every chosen sinner. And when God does a work in him,
here's what he does, he submits. That's what he does. Over in 1 Thessalonians 1, Paul
said, I know your election of God. Our gospel came not unto
you in word only, but it came in power, and it came in the
Holy Ghost, and you become followers, now listen, of us and the Lord. Ain't that something? This man,
he didn't know Philip from man and the moon. Philip just came
up beside the chariot. He was a stranger to this man. But he spoke something that went
into the heart of that sinner, the Spirit applied that truth
to that sinner, and that sinner submitted to what that man said.
And that's the way it always is. Submission, or maybe a better
word is surrender. He throws up his hands and he
bows down before the King of glory. And if he recognizes you
as the King's servant, he's going to treat you like he does the
King. That's exactly right. He that heareth you, heareth
me. That's what Christ said. Paul said, know you not that
to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants
you are to whom you obey. Don't you know that? Philip took those scrolls out
of the hands of that eunuch. It says he began at the same
place where the man had been reading and preached unto him
Jesus, Acts 8.35. And while they were traveling
along, somewhere as that man was preaching to that eunuch,
I have no idea, it's not recorded the exact words that he said,
but I do know he preached Christ to him. Jesus is the Christ,
that's what he was telling him. And while they were traveling
along, the eunuch spotted a pool or a scream or whatever it was,
and he said, here's water. What does hinder me from being
baptized? Now, if baptism was sprinkling,
he wouldn't have had to look for water. This was a wealthy
man. He had water all over that chariot.
Probably had barrels of it he carried with him. All he had
to do was stop, put his fingers in it, sprinkle it, and go on
his way. Baptism, not sprinkling, it's being buried. He had to
find enough water to be buried. We're not sprinkled, we're buried
with Christ. Isn't that what it says in Romans
6? Buried with him in the likeness
of his death and risen with him. to the likeness of his resurrection. He said, what doth hinder me
from being baptized? He understood the ordinance of
God as this man preached it. And he ready to submit to it. Are there things that hinder
folks from baptism? Many, but not the believer. Nothing gonna stand in his way.
Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 15, those who were baptized for
the dead. And he's not talking about in
proxy of the dead. He's talking about when they
were baptized, they were marked out as martyrs. They're gonna
be murdered for their faith. Is baptism important? Must be. If a man's willing to give his
life for it. Huh? Does a man have to be baptized
to be saved? It depends. If it becomes an
issue, you have to be baptized. Just like that leper. Prophet
said, you go down there and wash them Jordan. He said, now wait
a minute, we got clean rivers in our country. You reckon the
Lord would have cleaned him up in that clean river? He'd have
still been a leper. That river become an issue. And
if baptism becomes an issue, he'll damn your soul over it.
You don't have issues between you and God. You submit to what
God tells you to do. Here's a thief on the cross.
Was he baptized? No. Does that mean I don't have
to be? It depends. If it becomes an
issue between me and God, I better go in the water. What I'm trying to point out
to you is real submission, real bowing, real understanding, real
faith. He understood what that man said
and he started looking right then for water. And as soon as
he found it, down in the water they went. Baptism confesses faith. It tells
their story. Somebody said he's putting on
the uniform of Christ. That's what baptism is. It identifies
us with him. It tells folks where we stand. You see, there's one thing to
work on the ark. Carry that timber, take out an
axe, shape that timber. Talk about the ark. Where you
building? I'm building an ark. That's one
thing to do that. It's another thing to walk up
that ramp into the ark. It says over in Peter, the spirits
in prison were once preached to when once the long-suffering
of God waited in the days of Noah. Now listen, wherein eight
souls were saved by water. Huh? The like figure whereunto even
baptism doth now save us, not the putting away of the filth
of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience to God. I understand what God commands,
and I'm willing to submit to it. The gospel is set before the
world as a picture of our Redeemer in the ark, and all those who
truly believe walked up that ramp into the ark and waited
for God to shut him in. All right, verse 38, and I'll
quit. And he commanded the chariot
to stand still. And they went down both into
the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. And when they were come up out
of the water, The spirit of the Lord caught away Philip. What
he sent him to do was done. And the eunuch saw him no more. Now watch this. And he went his
way rejoicing. Oh, they've got to do a work
in there. I've had all the religion I can
stomach. I played all the games I'm willing
to play. If God doesn't work, this is what follows. And then
you learn that it wasn't you, and it wasn't your ideas, and
it wasn't your planning, it was God's providence. It was his
pervenient grace going before you, saving your soul from who
knows what kind of disaster. and bringing you to that point
where that man comes and speaks to you, and then empowering this
man's words to go home to your heart, and giving you the faith
to believe it. That's a miracle. Oh, they said, what can we do
to work the works of God? He said, this is the work of
God. Have you missed it? This is the
work of God that you believe on Him that sent me. Isn't that
something? Oh, may the Lord be pleased to
use that message tonight and bless our hearts. Thank you so
much for having me.