I have many people in this city.

"I have many people in this city."
Acts 18:10
(by Spurgeon)
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.