Act 18:10 For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city.
This should be a great encouragement to try to do good, since God has among the vilest of the vile, the most reprobate, the most debauched and drunken, an elect people who must be saved.
When you take the Word to them, you do so because God has ordained you to be the messenger of life to their souls, and they must receive it, for so the decree of predestination runs. They are as much redeemed by blood as the saints before the eternal throne. They are Christ's property, and yet perhaps they are lovers of the ale house, and haters of holiness. But if Jesus Christ purchased them he will have them. God is not unfaithful to forget the price which his Son has paid. He will not allow his substitution to be in any case an ineffectual, dead thing. Tens of thousands of redeemed ones are not regenerated yet, but regenerated they must be; and this is our comfort when we go forth to them with the quickening Word of God.
No, more, these ungodly ones are prayed for by Christ before the throne. "Neither pray I for these alone," says the great Intercessor, "but for those also who shall believe on me through their word." Poor, ignorant souls, they know nothing about prayer for themselves, but Jesus prays for them. Their names are on his breastplate, and before long they must bow their stubborn knee, breathing the penitential sigh before the throne of grace. The predestinated moment has not struck; but when it comes, they shall obey, for God will have his own; they must, for the Spirit is not to be withstood when he comes forth with fullness of power; they must become the willing servants of the living God.
