I invite you, if you have your
Bible this morning, to turn to the book of 2 Corinthians chapter
5. There's two verses here that
I'd like to read as we get our start here this morning in our
message. 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse
17 and 18. Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
He is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things are become new. And all things are of God, who
hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given
to us the ministry of reconciliation. We read here in our text this
morning that all things are of God in verse 18. The Apostle
Paul has been talking about a man being in Christ, he being a new
creature. And he says that old things are
passed away, behold all things are become new. There has been
a new creation take place in that individual who has been
put into Christ by a sovereign act of God the Father. And then
he says all things are God, meaning all things of this new creation
is of God, that he's the author of the new creation, that he's
the author of the new creature. All things are of God who hath
reconciled us unto himself by Jesus Christ. Isn't it wonderful
to be reconciled to God? Not any longer for there to be
enmity between us and God. For us to be able to say the
war is over and to know that God agrees The war is over. We thank God that he accepted
the sacrifice of his own son on our behalf. We thank God that
he was willing to accept what Jesus done in our room and in
our stead and in our place. He was willing to do it and he
raised him from the dead, gave full proof that he had accepted
what he had accomplished when he was here working out our salvation. And so the Lord has done these
great things. And I like this, and all things
are of God. It's all of God from the beginning
to the end. And then he says, and hath given
to us the ministry of reconciliation. Truly there is a great work to
be done. Ours is a declarative ministry. We're here to tell you what God
has done in Jesus Christ to reconcile poor sinners unto Himself. We
declare unto you that God has sent His Son and that His Son
has come to be the representative of all of those that God had
chosen in the everlasting covenant. We come to tell you that Jesus
Christ is that one anointed and appointed of God to be the Savior. And so we have a ministry here
of reconciliation. We remember the words of the
Apostle Paul in Romans 10 and 1 where he said his heart's desire
and prayer to God for all Israel is that they might be saved.
He had a heart's desire and prayer to God for those of his kinfolk,
among the Jewish people, that they would be converted, that
they would be saved. And we have also this ministry
of reconciliation weighing heavily upon our hearts. We have a burden
for those to whom we preach. We preach as a dying man to Dying
men, we preach this morning not knowing whether we will ever
preach again. We preach what we believe God
has laid upon our heart because we desire your reconciliation
to God through the death of His Son. We desire that you would
experience a work of grace in your heart. We're faced with
three difficulties as we labor for the souls of men seeking
to bring them to the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. I recognize
that while we have the burden, we ought to have the burden,
and while we have the desire, and surely the desire is upon
all of us, if we have experienced the grace of God, if we have
truly been brought out of our sin and brought into a saving
relationship with Christ, Truly, we want to see others converted.
We want to see others saved. But we know that there's a point
to which we cannot go beyond. We know that there's a line drawn
and we cannot cross that line. Paul said that our sufficiency
is of God, who hath made us able ministers of the new covenant.
We recognize then that there is a line, and we face some difficulties,
and I'd like to mention here at the outset this morning three
of these when we're laboring for the souls of men. And the
first difficulty in conversion is to get a person, to get a
sinner, a son of Adam, someone who was born of a woman, to get
them really, really, truly lost. The difficulty is to get men
and women, boys and girls, to get them to understand and to
see their lost condition. To get them to see that they
are alienated from God for the one of faith and love in the
Lord Jesus Christ. The hardest thing in the world
is to find a sinner who is really lost. I'm talking about a dead
dog sinner. I'm talking about somebody that
truly feels in their own heart convinced by Holy Spirit conviction
that they are lost. It's like looking for the proverbial
needle in the haystack to find somebody whom God has stripped
and brought down until they feel that they truly are lost. In
the years that I've been preaching, I've met a few people whom God
had really gotten lost. I met a few of them and thank
be unto God that those that really get lost, they do get found. They are saved. The Lord does
save those that really get lost. That is to say people who knew
that they were lost, People that were so thoroughly and completely
lost that no system of works, no law, no code of morality could
do them any good. And they knew that, that there
was no hope for them apart from the intervention of the grace
of God in their life. Now there are many people who
will admit that they're weak and that they're in need of some
help. There are even some who will
admit that they're sinful and that they're in need of some
mercy, that they do have a problem. There are people that will admit
that. But there are very few people in this world who will
acknowledge that they're totally and justly lost under the wrath
of God in need of the salvation of our God by pure sovereign
grace alone. Very, very few people that know
that. So we're driven to the conclusion
that only the Holy Spirit of God can produce a lost sinner. Only the Spirit of God can do
that. So we're helpless ourselves in bringing you to where you
can really feel your need of the Lord. Now I'm convinced,
regardless of what I hear in theological discussions, I'm
convinced. My friend, that people do not
really understand their condition before God. I believe that there
were times under the preaching of the gospel when men and women
were made to cry out, when they were made to cry out unto God
because their condition was described to them and made known to them
by the Spirit of the Lord and they understood their condition
and they had to cry out unto God. They had to wail and mourn
and lament over what they were before God. Not only what they
had done, but what they were before a sovereign and holy God. So I say that we've come to the
conclusion, talking about this first difficulty of getting men
and women lost, that only the Holy Spirit can produce genuine
conviction. So the first thing that must
be done is for the Lord to work in the hearts of sinners. Well,
cry. The word goes out in Isaiah 40.
What shall I cry? Cry that all flesh is as grass,
and all the glory of man is as the flower of the grass, and
the grass withers, and the flower thereof falleth away. But the
word of the Lord shall endure forever. cry that all flesh is
as grass, and the grass withereth under the blowing of the Spirit
of the Lord. Let me say that only real sinners
seek real grace. Only real sinners. those that
know themselves to have violated the commandments of God, those
who have, as it were, raped God by their disobedience and their
rebellion against God's holy law. Only sinners, only Those
that feel the condemnation of their sins seek the real and
the true grace of God. This is beyond my ability as
a preacher. This is beyond the ability of
the church to produce this kind of conviction in the hearts of
people. Now the second difficulty is
to teach a person the gospel of the grace of God. Well, you
say that I believe if a man was educated and if he had the language,
if he had the ability to put things into words, that he would
surely be able to teach all people the grace of God and teach people
the gospel. There are few people in this
world who've ever heard the gospel in the first place. and fewer
still who ever really learn the gospel. We cannot teach a man,
and let me make this and go on record, let me make this statement
and go on record, I believe it with all my heart, there's no
question that the Bible teaches it, that we cannot teach a man
savingly the gospel. We cannot do that. We don't have
the ability to do it. We cannot teach a man savingly
the gospel. Now we can go through the facts
of Christ's death, his burial, and his resurrection, and we
can say all about it that we can find in the scripture to
say about it, but we cannot teach a man savingly the gospel. Now we can teach him to be a
little Baptist, or a little Methodist, or a little anything you want
to. We can teach them to do that, and to be that. But we cannot
teach them the gospel. Mike told us this morning, he
read out of Matthew 16, where Jesus asked, Simon Peter, whom
do you say that I am? Simon Peter said, Thou art the
Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus said, Blessed art
thou, Simon, son of Barjona, because flesh and blood did not
reveal that unto you. Flesh and blood didn't reveal
that to you. Mama and Papa didn't teach you
that. You didn't come by that by a
school teacher or by some Sunday school teacher. No! But He said,
My Father which is in heaven, He revealed it to you. He made
it known to you. He taught you this. Paul said
in Galatians 1, that he did not receive the gospel from men,
neither, he said, was I taught it. I was not taught the gospel. I'm talking about the holy apostle
Paul. He said, I was not taught the
gospel, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. It was revealed
to him, made known to him by the revelation of the Spirit
of God. That's when he knew the gospel, my friend. And nobody
knows the gospel until it's revealed in their heart. The gospel of
God's grace in Christ comes to lost sinners without any contribution
on their part. Convince them of that. We're
not out to get you to make a contribution when we're preaching the gospel.
Sinners don't understand that. Always thinking that we're trying
to get them to do something. Trying to get them to do something. My friend, you cannot do anything
to save yourself. I'm telling you, salvation is
altogether in the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's in the
hands of God. Salvation is God's work. It's
not a man's work. It's not a human project. It
is God's work. A sinner is not to make any contribution,
but you can't convince him of that. He's always looking for,
wants to add a little something. He wants to do a little something.
He thinks it's his obedience under the law. It's his trying
to do the best he can, as if he had ever done the best he
could. He thinks it's something that he can do. Well, the Bible
teaches that it's the free gift of God from the beginning to
end. Ephesians 2, 8 says, for by grace
are you saved, through faith, and that not of yourself. and that not of yourself, not
of works of righteousness which we have done, not works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us by the
washing of regeneration and the renewal brought about by the
Holy Ghost. I'm telling you, you cannot.
Even repentance, faith, and good works are gifts of grace, and
the natural man is not able to learn the gospel. Now then, thirdly,
and the third difficulty, and I think it's a great difficulty,
is getting a sinner that is saved to bring them to rest in Jesus
Christ alone. Getting somebody who makes a
profession of faith, just getting them to rest. in Jesus Christ
alone. We must rest entirely upon Christ,
my friend. If we turn to Christ, we must
turn from all else, from all else, from all else. Do you hear
that? Ah, there's so many people who've
made a profession of faith, but you can't get them to rest to
save your life in Christ and in Christ alone. They cannot
accept what He's done on their behalf as being sufficient. They
think that God somehow or other has demanded of them something
that He has not provided for them in His altogether lovely
Son. And I'm telling you, it's all
in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's all in Him. Now, if you
want to go ahead believing that it's something else besides Him,
you'll have to go ahead, and you will unless God teaches you
otherwise. Unless the Lord brings you to
the place where you understand the Gospel and where you understand
how you got saved, then, my friend, you'll never fully trust Christ. We must never go beyond Christ
in our salvation. We rest upon Him. You say, don't
you hope to get better preacher? I thought long ago I would be
better by now, but I'm not any better. I'm not any better. I
thought I would make progress. I thought surely someday I would
just outstrip when I was 16, 17 years old, just getting started
preaching the gospel, that surely someday I'd be a saintly person,
that I would be a holy man. But I'm here to tell you today
that the old flesh is not one be it not one I owed a better
than what it was when I started out. It's no better. And I'm
telling you this morning that we only rest in Christ. We can't
get beyond that. We are not to get beyond it.
If you go out saying, well, I have made some progress, don't you
let me hear it. Because I tell you what, those
people who go around talking about that they have got all
the victory and that they have made such progress, well, they
bother me. They disturbed me. Oh, where
is that man or woman, boy or girl, that will cry out, O wretched
man that I am? The Apostle Paul, after he'd
been in the way for a number of years, after he had trusted
the Lord, after he'd experienced the grace of God in his life,
cried out, O wretched man that I am. And he knew where the victory
is. He said, I thank God through
Jesus Christ my Lord. I will be delivered, but it'll
be through Jesus Christ my Lord. It's not going to be as I get
good enough that I'm going to be able to lay claim to perfection. No, no, no, no. It's in Jesus
Christ our Lord. We cannot get beyond that. Don't
ever go beyond Christ. Rest in Jesus Christ. Christ, anything else is not
worth talking about. We're to live all the days of
our life trusting the same grace and love that first took us in
to the fold. Is that alright? Live out your
days as you receive Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk you in Him,
walk in Him by faith, trusting Him and Him alone. We're chosen,
redeemed, and called, and justified, and sanctified, and kept by the
grace of God alone. And so if I could persuade you,
I would. You know, Paul talked about persuading
some. to continue in the grace of God. And I would persuade you if I
could. And you know, there's not that
much difference in men. No, there isn't. But I'll tell
you this, that if I could persuade you to trust Christ and to trust
Him alone and to rest fully in Him, put all of your weight upon
Him, I would. I would. I would do it if I had
the ability to do it. I would do it, but I cannot.
Only God. You say, Preacher, does the Bible
support all that you've been saying? Does the Bible support
this? Just listen to the Word of God.
I beg you, listen to the Word of God. John 15 and 5b says,
for without me you can do nothing. That's Jesus speaking. He said,
without me, ye can do nothing. You can't do anything without
me. John 15, 16. Ye have not chosen me. Jesus said, you have
not chosen me, but I have chosen you. Sound like that it supports
what we're saying? John 6 and 63 says, it is the
Spirit That quickeneth, that word quickeneth means makes alive. It is the spirit that makes alive
the flesh, profiteth nothing. John 5 and 21 says, for as the
Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them, makes them alive,
even so the Son makes alive whom he will. Whom he will the Son
makes alive, then even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. You have he quickened Ephesians
2 and verse 1. Who were dead? Who were dead? You have he quickened who were
dead. You were dead and he quickened
you. Sound like you were in a bad
state, that you were in an awful state of affairs. John 3 and
27 says, a man can receive nothing except it be given to him, except
it be given to him, except it be given to him from heaven. Ephesians 2 and 8, for by grace
are you saved through faith, that not yourselves, it's the
gift of God. Romans 9 and 16, so then. It
is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God
that showeth mercy. But of God that showeth mercy. Romans 9.21, hath not the potter
power over the clay? Of the same lump to make one
vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor? Hath not the potter
power over the clay? Can't he do with it what he will?
Well, certainly our salvation is in God's hands. Now then,
1 Corinthians 2 and 11 says, Even so the things of God knoweth
no man, but the Spirit of God. The things of God knoweth no
man. The things of God, let that soak
in. The things of God knoweth no
man. For their foolishness, listen
to this, but the natural man receiveth not the things of the
Spirit of God, for their foolishness unto him neither can he know
them. Neither can he know them, he
goes on to say, because they're spirit discerned, spiritually
discerned, understood by somebody who has a Holy Spirit dwelling
in their hearts, the things of God. You see, the man cannot
receive these things. Man is not able. He says they're
foolishness. The natural man, he can't receive
the things of the Spirit of God left to himself. Now in Matthew
11, 27, all things are delivered unto me of my Father. and no
man knoweth the Son." That's what he said. Jesus said, all
things are delivered unto me of my Father and no man knoweth
the Son. Nobody knows him. Now listen
to what else he said, but the Father neither knoweth any man
the Father. No man knows the Father but the
Son. Save the Son. And he to whomsoever
the Son will reveal him." Now there you are, my friend. Now
if those scriptures don't support what I said in opening up this
message this morning, then, my friend, I'm sadly mistaken. Those
scriptures support exactly the statements that we made, talking
about the difficulties of getting men and women, boys and girls
Converted, brought into the family of God. Only God can save a sinner. We trust Christ alone for all
things, for all things are of God. All things are of God. The elect are justified from
eternity. Faith in Christ is the manifestation
of that justification. Christ is all in all. God's people
have been known of the Lord from old eternity. That brings me
to the text that our brother read to us this morning. I want you to turn back with
me, if you will, to Psalms chapter 65. And I want us to look at
one verse here. And that verse is verse 4. How
are we going to get out of this fix? What can we do? Seeing that no man knows the
things of the Spirit of God, seeing that no man knows the
Son but the Father, and no man knows the Father but the Son,
and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him, how are we going
to come to know, how are we going to know the Lord. How are we ever going to get
to know him? Look at verse 4. Blessed, happy, happy is the
man whom thou choosest and callsest to approach unto thee, that he
may dwell in thy courts. We shall be satisfied with the
goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple. Let me say the
source and cause of all of the blessedness that a child of God
has is the Lord, and it is God's elective grace that puts Him
in touch with it. God's choice and election of
His people is not the result of something that they do, but
the cause of everything He does for us in the person of Christ. Did you get that? God's elective
grace is not caused by what we do. God's elective grace is the
cause of everything that He does for us in the person of Jesus
Christ. Now then, blessed, you see why?
Blessed is the man whom Thou causest to approach unto Thee. Election here in Psalm 65 and
verse 4 is spoken of as being in the present tense. though
it was done before the world began. The reason is because
these great works of grace are known and they're experienced
in time. I said that a believer was justified
in eternity, but his faith in time is a manifestation of what
God chose to do for him in Jesus Christ. And so we experience
the grace of God in time. The Lord comes to us. Thank God
He did not leave us to Himself. Oh, what is man that thou visitest
Him, the Son of Man, that you visit Him? What is man? Oh, man
is the wiggling maggot of the dust. Man is a sinner. Man is
lost and undone. Man has no concept of God. He hates God. He would stick
a butcher knife in God's back if he could get to it. I'm talking
about men and women just like you and I. I'm talking about
folks that come into this world without a work of grace. They
know not the Lord. You see, man, God visits them. Praise be unto God, there is
an experience in time. God's people are called out in
time. God does visit His people. God
does choose and calls. men and women to come near him,
cause them to approach unto him. No one knows his election of
God until he has been effectually called by the Holy Spirit to
life and faith in Jesus Christ. Nobody knows that he's been chosen
until it's manifest, until God gives him the gift of faith,
until he can believe, until he can rejoice, in the finished
work of the Redeemer. Until then, he knows nothing
about the secret work of God in old eternity. But once one
has been brought to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ unreservedly,
once an individual singles out the only beloved and begotten
Son of God as the object of his faith and confidence, then it's
manifested that this individual has been chosen of God. Notice,
if you will, the progression of the grace of God running through
this verse of Scripture. First of all, blessed is the
man whom thou choosest. Well, that, my friend, is election. God hath from the beginning chosen
you, Paul said to the Thessalonians. God hath from the beginning chosen
you to salvation by the sanctification of the Spirit and the belief
of the truth. You have not chosen me. I quoted
that while ago, John 15 and 16. God chose to save some in eternity,
and those whom he chose to save in eternity, he graciously in
time cuts out from the rest of mankind. He graciously cuts them
out. Picture, if you will, a rancher
that rounds up, and at roundup time, he cuts his own cattle
out of the many that are roaming around in the open rain. But
he simply rounds them up at the appointed time. And this is exactly
what God does. He has chosen a people. God will
have a family, my friend. The Holy Spirit will have a temple. And the Son, the blessed Son
of God will have a bride. The Father is going to see to
it. And in time, these people will
be cut out. from the rest of mankind and
they'll become worshippers of the Most High God. They'll become
those that fear the Lord and depart from evil and walk and
talk with the Lord in this line. Next, if you will, He causes
these people to approach unto Him. Now, nobody is going to
draw near the Lord until They are called, effectually, by the
grace of God. A new nature is planted in them. The divine nature of God. A new
principle of grace. And they want to get near the
Lord. They'd like to draw up near the Lord. Thanks be unto
God for every desire that ever comes across the soul of the
son of Adam. That desire that makes him feel
like he wants to get just a little bit closer to the Lord. He just
liked to draw up near the Lord. He liked to be able to talk with
God like Abraham did. Abraham was a friend of God.
And they would talk together. They would visit together. And
Enoch walked with God, you remember. He visited with the Lord. He
wanted to be near the Lord. They went for a walk one day.
And they were walking along and they got so far away from Enoch's
home, the Lord said, just come on and go on home with me, Enoch.
And so he caught him up and he went on into the heavens. I'll
tell you, a desire to walk with God, a desire to be with Him,
a desire to fellowship with Him. Well, this is all caused by the
saving elective grace of God. God's grace and God's election
is what it is. This refers to irresistible saving
grace, the effectual call of God by the Holy Spirit. Election
both precedes and is the source and cause of this call. Look at the next line, that he
may dwell in thy courts. Sinners chosen and called by
the grace of God are caused to dwell, not to visit, But to dwell. Isn't that a wonderful thought?
To dwell. We're going to dwell forevermore
in the courts of the Lord. But to dwell in the courts of
divine worship. Won't it be wonderful? I always
thought I'd like to worship. I'd sometime like to worship
the Lord. Now you say, haven't you ever worshipped? Maybe I
have. Maybe I have. I hope I have.
I want to. But I'm going to tell you what,
we're in for a big surprise when we get to glory. We're going
to find out what true worship is all about. We're going to
be worshiping God for all eternity. I mean all the stops will be
pulled out. I mean we'll be able to worship
God in a glorified body and with a redeemed soul. And we'll be
able to glorify the Lord. Worship! Oh, worship we will! Hallelujah! We'll be able to
worship our blessed God. Okay, so we're going to dwell
in the courts of the Lord. Those who are chosen and called
of God by the grace of God to life and faith in Christ are
kept and preserved by the same grace unto eternal glory and
worship, adoration, and praise for our great God. We're going
to be kept. We're going to be kept. Safe
am I, safe am I in the hollow of His hand. Safe am I. Sheltered o'er, sheltered o'er.
Save for evermore. Praise the Lord. God's people
are saved. They're going to dwell in the
courts of the Lord. More relection is the source
and cause of the everlasting happiness and satisfaction of
God's saints in heaven. Listen to it. We shall be satisfied
with the goodness of our house. We're going to be satisfied.
So how are we going to get all this? We're going to get it by
God's elective grace. Because He chose us. And we didn't
choose Him. We chose him after he chose us,
but he's the one that started this business. No man is before
God. Remember that. No man is before
God in the matter of the salvation of the soul. God is first. He is the sovereign. He's on
the throne, the house and temple. The house and temple of God in
the Old Testament I think were typical of and representatives
of Christ and heaven. of God's salvation and our everlasting
nearness to and the worship of Him. This is true blessedness,
and this blessedness, according to the Word of God, arises from
and is effectually caused by God's election of His people
unto salvation in Christ before the world began. No wonder David
sang, O the blessedness of the man whom thou choosest and callest
to approach unto thee. No wonder God's election was
so much on the mind and heart of David. It was the fact of
his election, you remember, that made him leap and dance before
the ark of God in 2 Samuel 6 and 21. He said, it was before the
Lord which chose me. He danced before the ark of God.
It was the fact of his election by God into salvation and eternal
life that sustained his heart, rejoiced his soul as he lay upon
his deathbed in 2 Samuel 23. verses 1 through 5, he said,
He hath made with me. He hath made with me, meaning,
He hath made with my covenant head. He hath made with my representative. Now beloved, you say, well, I
don't know whether David knew about Christ or not. Christ wasn't
born until long after David had been here and had expired. But
my friend, if you read Psalm 22, you'll believe that Jesus
had been revealed to David. It's very clear that he knew
about the substitute Jesus Christ, that he knew about Him that was
coming because He was revealed in the Old Testament. He was
revealed and made known to the people of God in the Old Testament.
And He said, He hath made with My covenant head, He has made
with My representative, He has made with Him an everlasting
covenant ordered in all things and sure that make a man happy
when he gets ready to die well praise God it will it'll make
you happy if you know that the Lord has made a covenant with
Christ and if you know that he never failed that he accomplished
he said I come to do thy will oh God he said I come to do thy
will now then He said, this is the will of Him that sent me,
of everyone who sees the Son and believes on Him, shall have
everlasting life, and I'll raise Him up at the last day. That's
what He said. He said, I'll raise Him up at
the last day. And so listen to me. It'd be wonderful when you
come to die if you can say, He, God the Father, hath made with
Christ, my representative, an everlasting covenant. Everlasting
covenant! not going to change, hadn't changed
all the time I've been here hoping in it, and it's not going to
change while my children hope in it, and it's not going to
change while my grandchildren hope in it, it's not going to
change while my great-grandchildren hope in it, it's going to forever
and ever and ever last. Because God has made that with
my representative maturity, everlasting, everlasting covenant of grace
ORDERED in all things, and I like this word. Fact is, I mean, I
just almost printed and put it on the front of this pulpit this
morning, and he said it's SURE. SURE! What do you know about
something being sure? How much sure do you know about
it? Well, I want to tell you what,
this everlasting covenant order in all things, it's sure. It's sure. How do I know that?
I know it because it was made with Christ, it wasn't made with
me. It wasn't made with me. Oh, my friend, we're so fickle
and up and down and sideways, and we're so back and forth. I mean, we are unstable people. Why, if somebody make a covenant
with you, you may make it to next weekend and hold true. You may not. You may not. People are constantly reneging
on covenants, aren't they? Aren't they? Do you know very
much about people being, I mean, people to be willing to lay down
their life for their word? Well, I'm going to tell you what.
I tell you this covenant is sure. It's ordered in all things, and
it's sure. It's sure. So that's how we get
all of this. That's how we get salvation.
That's how we get grace. That's how we get newness of
life. That's how we get hope in the
Lord. It's through the elective saving
grace of our God. Well, that's about half of the
sermon. But the time is gone and we're going to have the Lord's
Supper. So I'm going to stop right here. Maybe if the Lord
allows me some other time, I can take up the rest of it. But I
praise God for His goodness. I praise the Lord for His goodness.
And I trust that the Lord will make these things so plain and
clear to your heart that you'll be able, oh, someday, you'll
be able, if not today, you'll be able someday to say, I truly
do hope in the Lord. I truly do have something. God,
I believe, has crossed my path. I believe what that old preacher
was talking about back there in November, early November of
01. I believe that something happened
in me. I believe God truly has touched
me. I believe He has. I believe I have a hole in the
Lord that's most steadfast and sure, one that reaches within
the veil. I believe I've got one. I believe
I have. Well, I trust that that'll happen. That's what all this
has been about. But we just believe that God
will have to cross your path. The Lord will have to do it.
I can't save you. I cannot save you. Nobody else can save you. But I'm telling you God can.
I'm telling you Christ can save you. He's God and He can save
you. All power is with Him.