changing the scriptures, putting
out all manner of special Bibles that are supposed to help people
to understand the scriptures better. Well, believers understand the
scriptures as God has written them. And the natural man will
never understand the scriptures, no matter how much you change
it, to suit his vernacular. and conversation. They want to change the worship
services. They're calling them contemporary
worship services. Today's means to preach yesterday's
gospel. Well, let me ask you to think
about something here. When Adam fell in the Garden
of Eden, God gave him a promise. The seed of woman will bruise
a serpent's head. He gave that promise to Adam. He gave that promise to Abel.
He gave that promise to Enoch. He gave that promise to Abraham. And he gave them the way of worship, sacrifice. And he gave them preaching. Noah
was a preacher of righteousness. He preached to his generation.
And the approach to God remained the same from Adam till God raised
up Moses 2,000 years later. All men came to God the same
way. Resting, believing, embracing
the promise, the promise, the promise, the promise of a Redeemer. Well, the Lord then gave to Moses
to give to the people the pictures and the types of this promised
Messiah. He gave them the Passover. And
they kept it 2,000 years, not changed. The Lord said this to kill a lamb, roast its body,
eat it, and put the blood of the Passover. He ordained the
priesthood, and the priesthood remained 2,000 years. He gave them the tabernacle,
the holy place, the holy of holies, the ark, and the mercy seat,
the day of atonement, the feast days. And this way to come to
God remained the same, based on the promise for 2,000 years,
until our Lord Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem, the promise
himself. And he came. and fulfill that
law that God gave to Israel through Moses. He fulfilled that law
and preached the gospel to the poor. Died on the cross, fulfilling
the sacrifice. He's the priest. Don't need the
priest anymore. He's the mercy seat. We don't
need the mercy seat. He's the Sabbath. He's our wisdom,
righteousness, redemption. and our sanctification. And he gave to us, at that time,
the scriptures. God spake to our fathers through
the prophets. He spake to us by his Son, Jesus
Christ. And he gave the scriptures, the
New Testament scriptures, to the apostles. The doctrines,
the scriptures, the means and the methods go into all the world,
preach the gospel. Please God with the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. If you turn to Ephesians
4, it tells us what our Lord did in reference to putting this gospel forth to
all the people. It says in Ephesians 4, verse
9, now that he ascended, Ephesians 4 and 9, what is it but that
he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?
He came into the world through the virgin's womb. And he that
descended is the same also that ascended far above all heavens,
that he might fulfill all things. And he gave, just like God gave to Adam Abel,
Enoch, Noah, Abraham, the promised, like he gave to Moses, the law,
the types, the shadows. He gave, Christ gave to us, apostles. The gospel was preached by him
and confirmed by those apostles. And they wrote it in the New
Testament. And prophets and evangelists and some pastors and teachers. The Lord gave us that 2,000 years
ago. Pastors and teachers. Why? For
the perfecting of the saints, for the maturity of the saints,
for the growth of the church, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body
of Christ until All of his elect, all of his people, come into
the unity of the faith. That's his means, that's his
method, that's his way. That's the way the gospel is
to be preached. Pastors and teachers. Do we all
come into the unity of the faith to the knowledge of the Son of
God? That's the way we're going to come, to the knowledge of
the Son of God, and to a mature man, and to the measure of the
stature of the fullness of Christ. that we be no more henceforth
children tossed to and fro by whatever comes our way, whatever
changes or methods or ways or contemporary things come our
way. Carried about with every wind of doctrine that people
make up and suppose is true dream, the slight of men, cunning craftiness,
seeking to raise up followers for themselves, they lie in wait
to deceive. But we speak in the truth, in
love, that we may grow up into Christ who's the head in all
things. Well, that's the way when our
Lord Jesus gave this gospel to his apostles
and sent them out. We have the scriptures, the New
Testament scriptures. We have the doctrines. We have
the means. We have the methods of the apostles
and ancient leaders. But it wasn't long until the
whole world, the whole known world, was under the heel of
Roman Catholicism. And it wreaked havoc in all of
the world. The Scripture was shut up in
monasteries. The Scriptures were only in the
Hebrew, the Greek, and the Latin. Shut up in monasteries. And the
people didn't hear the true gospel. It got worse and worse and worse
and worse and worse and worse and worse. Nearly a complete
apostasy. Then about 550 years ago, in
the 1400s, 1500s, God sent a great reformation. an awesome, awesome reformation. He raised up preachers. Not just
one, two or three. He raised up many, many, many
preachers from several countries. In France, in Switzerland, in Holland, in Spain, in England. He sent a great reformation.
He raised up preachers out of that Catholicism, out of that
huge apostate mother church. And he took the scriptures out
of the walls of these Latin monasteries. And these men translated the
scriptures from Hebrew and Greek and gave the scriptures to the
common people in their language. You know their names, Wycliffe
and Luther and all these men. They started translating the
scriptures. Many of them died. The Roman Catholic Church murdered
more believing preachers of the gospel of God's grace than you
can imagine. And these men, led of God, powerful
preachers of the gospel, and they translated the scriptures
into the common language of the people. They wrote psalms and
hymns and spiritual songs for the church to sing. Up until
that time, up until Luther wrote that first little hymn book,
the church didn't sing. The choirs chanted in Latin. And now the people began to sing.
One of the first songs they sang was A Mighty Fortress Is Our
God, written in 1500. We have some written before that.
But these men, God led them to destroy ritualistic religion,
works religion, and to restore the gospel. of God's free and
sovereign grace. These men all believed. They
buried on church government, they buried on baptism, they
buried on things of that nature, but they all agreed, I know what
I'm talking about, on the gospel of God's sovereign grace in Christ
Jesus. They restored true worship, individual
freedom of worship. The basis of their Reformation
was the Scriptures alone. We don't take anything to be
true because the church and the pope and the cardinals and these
men said it so, thus saith the Lord. They restored the scriptures
500 years ago. The scriptures alone, the second
foundation of their reformation was grace alone. We say by grace
alone, by the grace of God. Not by law, by the grace of God
we are redeemed. free grace, Christ alone, not
the Church. The Church is not the Savior.
That's what people thought. Christ is the Savior, and faith
alone, and not works. And these men of that great Reformation,
by God's grace, they left us a heritage. They wrote some powerful
things. They wrote four mighty catechisms
in 1415-1600, four mighty confessions of faith. And they're so united,
it's amazing. The 39 Articles of the Church
of England, the Westminster Confession of the Presbyterian, the Heidelberg
Catechism of the Dutch Church, and even the Baptists got in
on it with the London Confession of Faith of 16. And these men left us a heritage.
They left us an example. They left us the truth. They
died for what they believed and left us that heritage. And we
would be foolish, no matter how much pressure is put on us by
whomever. to change our message, our methods,
our music, our means, our manners in getting this gospel out. Be
foolish. These men loved and magnified
the sovereignty of God. You could take any of them and
read his writings, Wingly, Huss, Luther, Calvin, all of those
guilds, all those men, all of that During that time, whether
it came to the Dutch or Presbyterians or the Baptists or the Church
of England, John Newton, Isaac Watts, Bishop Rutherford, Hugh
Latimer, all these men, they believed the same thing. They
believed God was sovereign, absolutely, immutably, infinitely sovereign. Let God be true in every man
alive. They believed His dominion is
an everlasting dominion and His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom
from generation to generation. And all the inhabitants of this
earth are reputed as nothing. And God doeth according to His
will in creation, in providence, in salvation, among the armies
of heaven, among the inhabitants of this earth, and nobody can
stay his hand or say unto him, What doest thou? The Lord our
God reigneth. Do you believe that? I believe
that. They believe that. The apostles
believe that. The prophets believe that. Abraham
believed that. And I don't intend to change
or apologize. He's sovereign. He declares the
end from the beginning. I've spoken it, I'll bring it
to pass. I've written it, I'll do it. They believed and declared
without reservation the utter complete fall of the human race
in one man, Adam. They preached representation.
They preached federal headship. They knew and rejoiced in the
federal headship and representation of two men. Two men. God created two men.
God himself prepared a body for two men. He prepared Adam, a
body out of the dust of the earth, breathed into it the breath of
life, and he became our head, our representative. He breathed
on the womb of a virgin, and Christ said, prepare for me a
body. And that first Adam was a living
soul. That second Adam is a quickening
spirit. That first Adam is of the earth
earthy. That second Adam is the Lord from heaven. That first
Adam made me a sinner. Because of his transgression
and evil and sin, he represented me, and he represented me in
a bad fashion. He left me a sinner. That second
Adam made me righteous. By one man's disobedience, we
were made sinners. By one man's righteousness, we
were made righteous. One man's obedient. And in that
first man, I died. And bless your heart, in that
second man, I lived forever. No apologies. No backtracking. No surrendering to any pressure.
By one man's disobedience, the many, many, many, many were made
sinners. By one man's obedience, the many
were made righteous. These people loved and preached
divine election. No apologies. Nobody in that
great reformation doubted the sovereign elective grace of God.
Can you realize that? That's just so. Today a man that
believes election is a heretic, back then a man that didn't was
a heretic. That's right. It is not that
I did choose thee, Lord, that could not be. This heart of mine
would still refuse thee, but thou hast chosen me. My heart
owns none above thee. Oh, for thy rich grace I thirst,
this knowing. If you had not first loved me,
I would never have loved you." That's right. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus, according as he
chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, that
we should be holy and without blame before him in love, having
predestinated us to the adoption of children unto himself by Jesus
Christ. I am bound to give thanks for you,
Paul said to the Thessalonians, beloved of God, because God hath
from the beginning chosen you for salvation. No apologies. If I'm redeemed, it's because
God loved me, chose me, quickened me, revealed Christ to me, called
me, redeemed me, saved me, and kept me, and He'll glorify me. And these men who were themselves
chosen of God, redeemed by Christ, and blessed by the presence and
power of His Holy Spirit, they had no problem with particular
redemption. They had no problem with the
fact that Jesus Christ, our Lord, died for His sheep. In fact,
He said that. He said, I'm the Good Shepherd.
I know my sheep, and they know me. As the Father knows me, so
I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep." And Paul wrote, whom he foreknew, he predestinated
to be conformed in the image of his Son, and whom he predestinated,
he called, and whom he called, he justified, and whom he justified
and glorified. In the next place, they preached
the gospel of Christ and depended upon the Spirit of God to make
it effectual to the heart. They believed in an effectual
call. They believed in an effectual
call. They believed that salvation was not by reasoning, it was
by revelation. that salvation was not by might
or power on the part of men, but by the Spirit of God. They
believed that salvation was a gift, not of works. They believed what
Christ said, no man can come to me except my Father which
sent me draw him. And I raised him up at the last
day. As the scripture saith, they shall be taught of God,
and everyone whom my Father draws and teaches, they will come to
me. It takes the Spirit of God to
blow upon dead bones and make them live. It takes the Spirit
of God to open the heart of Lydia and make her hear. It takes the
Spirit of God to reveal to that thief who Christ is. He said, Lord, you're coming
into a kingdom. The Spirit of God revealed that
to him. Can we make dead bones live? No, God can. Can we give eyes to the blind
so that they will see? No, but God can. Can we make
the deaf to hear and the lame to walk? No, but God can. Can we give repentance to rebels?
No, but God can. Can we reveal the mysteries of
Christ to those who despise him? No. Can we make rebels to be
bond slaves? No. Can we make people willing
in the day of our power? No. But he can. That's what they
believe. They believe there is an effectual
call. I know there's a call of nature. Let's look at this in Romans
1. I know this, and these men of the past knew this. There's
a call. The scripture says, many are
called, but few are chosen. Let me tell you something, this
is really, this amazes me. That's a powerful scripture.
Our Lord used that twice. Many are called, but few are
chosen. That's precious. There's a church
out here on the highway, got written there, many are cold
and few are frozen. What I'm trying to say is the
attitude towards the scripture and towards the truth of God
and the fact of God and the scripture, it's shocking. Shocking. Here in Romans, there's a call,
there's a general call that people hear, They don't hear. They have ears,
but they don't hear. Eyes, but they don't see. Hearts, but they don't understand.
He said to the disciples, blessed are your ears, you hear. Blessed
are your eyes, you see. Your hearts, you understand.
But flesh and blood didn't reveal it to you. My Father did. There's
an effectual call of the Spirit. Look at Romans 1 verse 18. The
wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness
and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness,
because that which may be known of God is manifest in them or
to them. God has showed it to them. How
did he show it to them? For the invisible things of him
from the creation of the world are clearly seen. being understood
by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead,
so they're without excuse. People who see the stars and
the moon and the sun and creation and the birth of a child, they've
got to be impressed that there's a mighty power, there's a supernatural
power, there's someone, somewhere, and that's the way they look
at it. And then there's a call of conscience. Turn over here
to Romans 2. There's a law written on the
heart that when people do evil things, their conscience bothers
them. In Romans 2, verse 14, when the
Gentiles, who are not familiar with the law, they don't have
a law, they do by nature the things contained in the law.
These having not the law are law unto themselves, which shall
the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience
also bearing witness, and the thoughts, meanwhile, accusing
or else excusing them. In the day when God shall judge
the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel." There
is a general call. Creation. Heavens declare the
glory of God, but it doesn't declare His goodness. Scriptures
have to do that. And the law written on the heart
declares what's right and wrong, but doesn't declare how to put
away wrong and how to establish holiness. And then men read the
Bible. Look at John 5. The Bible is
another general call. These religious fellows in John
chapter 5, look right here, verse 39. Christ said, in John 5, verse 39, search the
scriptures. In them you think you have eternal
life, but there they which testify of me. And you won't come to
me that you might have life. They had the scriptures. That
woman at the well knew a Messiah was coming. And when the wise men came from
the east, they asked these Jewish scholars, where is the Messiah
to be born? They said in Bethlehem. They
had those things. They searched the Scriptures.
They thought in the Scriptures they had life depending on what
they did. But they wouldn't come to Him. But you came to Him. And I tell you why, because God
opened your heart. God gave you an effectual call.
God gave you a call greater than nature. A call greater than conscience. A call greater than words on
paper. Power of the Spirit. God with the gospel of Christ. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. Knowing, brethren, beloved, your
election of God, our gospel came not to you in word only, in conscience
only, in creation only. It came to you in power, in the
Holy Ghost and much assurance. Look at 1 Corinthians 2 for a
moment. 1 Corinthians 2, verses 9 and 10. 1 Corinthians 2, verse
9. As it is written in 1 Corinthians
2, 9, I have not seen, ye have not heard, neither have entered
the heart of man that thinks God has prepared for them that
love him. That's not talking about heaven. Oh, let's talk
about redemption. Christ said to the disciples,
I go to prepare a place for you and you for the place. And nobody
knows that except those... Listen to the next verse. But
God hath revealed them to us by His Spirit. By the Spirit
searcheth the deep things. Yea, the deep things of God. Effectual call. effectual call,
powerful call. The gospel, the seed of the word. Of his own will begat he us with
the word of truth. We're born not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible seed by the word of God that liveth
and abideth forever. Now I'm going to show you tonight
an effectual call. Turn to Luke 19, that's my text. Here is an effectual call. Here is the Spirit of God revealing
Christ. Knowing Christ doesn't come by
reasoning, it comes by revelation. Listen to this now, verse 1.
And Jesus entered and passed through Jericho and behold there
was a man named Zacchaeus who was chief among the publicans.
He was very rich. The publicans, I told you this
morning, were Jews, Jewish men, who were traitors to the Jewish
people and to serve the Roman cause, the political cause of
the Romans. They collected taxes from the
Jewish people. Jews hated them. The publicans
were always classified with the harlots, publicans and harlots. And that's the way it felt about
this man. Well, look at verse 3. And he sought to see Jesus,
who he was, and could not for the press, because he was little
of stature. And he ran before and climbed
up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was passed that way.
Now, my friends, something interesting is already taking place. This
is not just an ordinary publican. This is a publican that's interested
in knowing who Jesus Christ is. No other publicans were running
around climbing trees and trying to see them, but this man was.
Something interesting was going on. He was curious to see this
wonderful man, Jesus of Nazareth. So being short of stature, he
did something that a very rich, wealthy, powerful man wouldn't
ordinarily do. He climbed up in a tree. Like
the little boys and girls, you know, climbed up in a tree. Here
was this great, wealthy, rich man who's climbed up in a tree.
The grace of God is already at work in this man's heart. It
doesn't matter what brings a man under the gospel, whether it's
curiosity, whether it's anger, or whether it's debate, just
so he gets under that gospel. Missionary John Williams, I read
this story many years ago. Missionary John Williams, a man
who gave his life preaching the gospel to the heathen. You know
how he was converted? He talked about what a rebellious
young man he was, what a rebellious fellow he was. Ran around with
the wrong crowd. And there was a meeting going
on in Whitfield's tabernacle, and he and some of his friends
were walking along the street laughing about Those people over
there, those religious people, meeting in Whitfield's Tabernacle,
listening to a preacher. And somebody asked somebody what
time it is. None of them had a watch. And
John Williams said, there's a clock in old man Whitfield's Tabernacle. I'll go in there and see what
time it is. He told this himself. Long, big auditorium, seating
a lot of people. He came in the back door. And
this clock was where ours is, on the wall back there. He came
in the back door, and he saw that clock up there, and so he
turned around and backed down the aisle, watching that clock,
watching that clock. And he was trying to see what
time it was, and his ears were listening to that man preaching.
He reached his heart, and he turned around and sat down and
listened to the gospel. I ran into a man up at Lucasville
Penitentiary, Tom DeJarnit, years and years ago. I believe he came
to know the Lord. We had a program here called
Sermons for Suppertime. Hal Murphy, was that his name,
had a station in Kattlesburg, and he put me on every night
at 6 o'clock, preaching the messages I preach here in the church,
Sermons for Suppertime. They had a wall radio in their
cells at Lucasville that could pick up three stations. One of them was that station
in Katzburg. And this man in jail for his
second murder killed his father when he was a teenager. He sold
me. He did it protecting his mother.
And he married a nurse when he came out of the penitentiary,
and he killed her boyfriend in jail to stay for life. We started
listening to those messages, and he invited me to come up
and preach. And I went up there and preached. I will never forget
the first time I met him. He was a heavyweight boxing champion
in the state of West Virginia. Huge man. I came walking down
the corridor with the chaplain and the prison guard. This is
the maximum security penitentiary at Lucasville. I came walking
down that corridor to where they were meeting, going through all
these different lockups. And this big black man was standing
in front of that door, and I walked up, and he stuck out his hand
and said, you Reverend Mahan? I didn't know whether to say
yes or no, so you know. He said, I've been listening
to you, and I've learned the gospel. And as we talked a little
further, he said, you know, if I wasn't in this penitentiary,
I'd have never heard about Christ. So I'm really glad I'm here.
I've learned the gospel. Remember that, Doc? If I hadn't
been in jail, I wouldn't. I don't care how a man hears,
just so he hears the gospel, or what brings him to here. We've
had people come here for other reasons than just to hear me
preach and wound up listening and wound up saved. Some of them
came just to court girls that go to church here. And I know
they didn't listen to me. But after they got acquainted
with her, they started listening to me. And God saved them. I'm looking at several of them
right now. That's right. Well, Zacchaeus ran ahead and
climbed up a tree. He wanted to see this man. I do too, don't you? See this
man. All right, listen. It says here,
when Jesus came that way, he looked up. You know, this is
a gracious call. It's not only, it's gracious.
He looked up. My, he should even take notice
of a man like Zacchaeus, but Christ came and looked up and
said, He knew him by name. He said, Zacchaeus, make haste
and come down. It's a gracious call. It's a
personal call. He said, I know my sheep. I call
them by name. No mistake about who he called,
and it was a humbling call. He said, Zacchaeus, come down.
There's got to be a coming down before there's a coming up. You
know that? There's got to be a humbling before there can be
an exhortation. There's got to be a stripping. Zacchaeus, make haste and come
down. come down, for today I must abide at your house." It's an
affection call. You know, when I started reading
this in verse 1, look back at verse 1, Jesus entered and passed
through Jericho. He entered, went down the road,
and passed through. He said to Zacchaeus, I'm going
to abide at your house. He not only said he was going
to abide at his house, he said, I must abide at your house. Zacchaeus, come on down. For today, I must. He must need to go through Sinai.
This is an effectual call. This is not just some fellow
that heard the gospel. going to reason whether he'll
believe it or not. This is one of God's elect. He said, I must,
I must go to your house. I must. And then I must abide
there. And Jack, you know what? Scripture
says here that Zacchaeus made haste and came down and received
Him. Received Him joyfully. He received Him joyfully. A man
may say, well, I'll never come to him. I'll never believe. Of course you won't. But if he
calls, you will. I'll never believe that gospel.
Of course you won't. Not by nature. Nobody ever has.
No preacher ever yet has reasoned a man into heaven. But when the
Spirit of God takes the Word of God and reveals the Son of
God, you'll come. He said, all that my Father giveth
me shall come. And he that cometh out of no
wise cast out. I came down from heaven not to
do my will, I came to do the will of him that sent me. This
is the will of him that sent me, that everyone that seeth
the Son and believes on him, I'll raise him up at the last
day. If the Lord calls, will ye, as
I cast, come down. I must abide at your house. Well,
what's the response? Well, look at verse 7. And when
these religious people saw it, they murmured. They murmured. They didn't understand. Their
religion wouldn't go with this route at all. See, their religion,
their hope for eternal life was to be earned by human works and
by human deeds. And they don't understand free
and sovereign grace for sinners. But believers do. You see, these
people put works first, and then peace, or rest, or heaven. Works first. Earn it. Earn it.
Get what you earn. Works first. Like that other
bulletin board I saw over there on Blackman Avenue that says,
what you sow here is what you'll wear in eternity. I love these
things, you know. What you sow here, reap and wear
in eternity. That's the way they reason. Works
first and then grace. But Zacchaeus listened. He had
grace first. Now listen to his works, verse
8. And Zacchaeus stood and said, Lord, I'm a changed man. Half of my goods I give to the
poor. See, grace came first and then works. And if I've taken
anything by false accusation, I restore it fourfold. See, that's
the way God operates. This fella climbed up in that
tree and he didn't have a very good background, but he's got
a good future because he met the Lord. That's the difference.
That's the difference. That's the difference. I'm going
to give you two things to remember now, and then I'm going to let
you go. Verse 9, don't you listen to
this now, it's about factual call. And Jesus said to him,
this day, what a day, when a man meets the Lord, and God in grace
reveals to his heart the Savior, this day. Salvation, eternal
life, forgiveness, righteousness, peace. He's come to this house, the
house of a sinner. He's come to this house. And
there are two chief reasons for that, given right here in these
two verses. Two chief reasons why salvation
has come to this, of all houses, to this house. And don't ever forget this. Because
for as much as he is a son of Abraham, that's the first trace.
He's a covenant, chosen, elect, son of Abraham. He's a son of
the covenant. He's in the covenant. That's
right. Christ said this day, salvation has come to this house
because This man is the son of Abraham. Well, all those Jewish
fellows were sons of Abraham by heritage, by natural genealogy. But this man was the son of Abraham
by choice, by covenant mercies. Let's return to Galatians 3 just
a moment. Galatians 3 verse 7. Know ye not, Galatians 3, 7,
that they which are of faith, they are the children of Abraham,
sons of Abraham? Verse 16. Now to Abraham and
his seed were the promises made, and he saith not to seeds as
of many, but one, to Christ that I see, which is Christ. Verse
29. And if you be Christ, you're
Abraham's seed. This man belonged to Christ.
He's Abraham's seed. And I err according to promise.
That's the first reason. When salvation came to this house,
it's because he's a covenant son of Abraham, chosen in Christ
before the world began. Here's the second reason, verse
14. Christ said, verse 9, He said,
This day salvation's come to this house, real, eternal salvation,
because he's a son of Abraham. And secondly, because the Son
of Man The Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man, has come into this
world to seek and to save that lost son, lost sheep, and lost
corn. He's come to save him. God determined to save him,
and Christ saved him. Christ came to save him. And
that's the reason salvation comes to this house. And that's what they preach back
yonder. And I can't change it and don't
want to, because the only hope we have is the mercy of God,
the grace of God. I'm saved tonight because God
gave me to Christ before the world began in an everlasting
covenant. David said, God has made with
me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure. But I
tell you who fulfilled it, the Son of Man came. to fulfill that
covenant, to give us that salvation. That's right. That's our gospel.
That's the effectual gospel.