Good morning. Glad to have you
folks with us this morning. Today we're having here at Rescue
Baptist Church a special service in remembrance of our sister
Shirley Reeves, who passed away a couple of weeks back. She and
Lee have been members of this church for almost 30 years, maybe
a little more. Even though they moved away to
Colorado, They have always remained members of this church. So it's
fitting that we would have a special service in her honor this morning.
Thank you for joining us. After the service, we'll have
a time for fellowship. Remembering her in our different
memories, I invite you to join us next door in the fellowship
hall for sandwiches, potato salad, some watermelon, and some pie. I like pie. But this is a service. This is how we're going to remember
our dear sister, by worshiping ours and her savior. So would
you stand with me for a moment, allow me to lead us to the throne
of grace before we sing our opening hymn on page 542. Heavenly Father, Creator of all that is, Sovereign God, We come before you this morning with a great sorrow in our heart. I know, Lord, it's a selfish
sorrow. A sorrow because our sister has
left us, but we'll see her again. A day will come, Lord, when either
you will return to this world, as you have said in your word,
You'll take us as you have surely from this world to be in your
presence, just like the thief that was on the cross. Today
she is with you, Lord. Today she is with you in paradise
and all for those that you have shed your blood. All of those
that you have loved with an everlasting love shall come to know you as
she does right now, this very moment, face to face. Bless us,
Lord, as we sing songs that praise your name. Help us, Lord, to
consider you as our brother Mike reads Scripture without comment
in the Scripture reading. And Lord, I ask, I ask one more
time, if it be your will, if it pleases
you, Lord, to use me for your glory, Give me the words. I have nothing in this flesh.
It has to come from you. And Lord, we know that what comes
from you will be made effectual in the hearts of your people.
So cause your people to be blessed, Lord, with your word today. We
ask in the name of the one who all blessings flow, the name
of your son, the name above all names, Christ Jesus. Amen. Would you remain standing with
me and turn to page 542? Join me in singing, When We All
Get to Heaven, 542. Sing the wondrous love of Jesus
Sing His mercy and His grace In the mansions bright and blessed
Be prepared for us a place when we are While we walk the pilgrim pathways,
passing over stranded skies, But when traveling days are over,
not a shadow, not a sign, When we all give to heaven, what a
day our rejoicing now will be! When we all see Jesus, we'll
sing and shout the victory! Let our sin be true and faithful,
trusting, serving every day. Just one glimpse of Him in glory
will the toils of life repay. When we all give to Him, what
a day of rejoicing there will be. we all Please be seated. Our scripture reading for today
is taken from Psalms 97 verses 1 through 12. Psalm 97. The Lord reigneth. Let the earth
rejoice. Let the multitude of isles be
glad thereof. Clouds and darkness are round
about him. Righteousness and judgment are
the habitation of his throne. A fire goeth before him and burneth
up his enemies round about. His lightnings enlighten the
world. The earth saw and trembled. The hills melted like wax at
the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the Lord of the
whole earth. The heavens declare his righteousness,
and all the people see his glory. Confounded be all they that serve
graven images, that boast themselves of idols, worship him, all ye
gods. Zion heard and was glad, and
the daughters of Judah rejoiced because of thy judgments, O Lord. For thou, Lord, art high above
all the earth. Thou art exalted far above all
gods. Ye that love the Lord hate evil. He preserveth the souls of his
saints. He delivereth them out of the
hand of the wicked. Light is sown for the righteous
and gladness for the upright in heart. Rejoice in the Lord,
ye righteous, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness. And may the Holy Spirit add understanding
and blessing to his word. give thanks at the remembrance
of His holiness. 549, face to face, 549. Jesus Christ Far beyond the starry sky Face
to face in all his glories I shall see him by and by Only faintly
now I see him between but a blessing face-to-face Face to face in all his glory
I shall see him by and by The crooked ways are straight,
And the dark things shall be plain. Face to face I shall behold
Him, Far beyond the starry skies. Face to face in all His glory, Jesus Christ me so Face to face I shall behold Him,
far beyond the starry skies. Face to face in all His glory,
I shall see Him by and by. Once again, this is a worship
service. We're here to worship our Lord.
But I want to talk to you this morning about what my sister, my sister-in-law
Shirley, would have wanted you to remember her by. I ask you
to think of this question yourself. What do you want those? Let's
just say you're together with some folks, you have a gathering
of some folks after you've gone from this world. What do you
want them to remember you by? Some may want people to remember
them about how kind they were to the poor. Others may want
you to remember them by how generous they might have been. All of God's people. All of those who have tasted
grace. That's how the scripture puts
it. Tasted grace. You know what it is to taste
grace? Tasting grace is to understand what you deserve. Mercy is not
to receive what you deserve. Grace is to understand what you
deserve and receive exact opposite. Shirley would want you, and I
know this. I've sat with her and talked
about this. She was the one who sat next to me the first time
I heard the gospel preached. She's the one who poked me in
the side with her elbow, Say, look at you. What are you doing? She didn't say it too loudly.
I'm a pastor and a preacher. Look at you, sitting on the edge
of your seat. What's wrong with you? What's
going on? Shirley would want you to remember
that. She would want you to remember
who her savior was. You see, those who have tasted
grace understand the depth of our sin before a
thrice holy God. Now, there's a lot of people
who walk through this world who don't realize that they don't
even know they're sinners. Over 40 years before the Lord
showed me through his word what a sinner truly is. It's not what
we do, it's what we are. You can't help it. You come into
this world, a sinner, and God has chosen to save a certain
people unto himself. Shirley Reeves was one of those.
How do I know that? How do I know that Shirley Reeves
was a saved sinner? Because she believed God's Word. Not just this, not just that. A lot of people believe certain
things of God's Word. She believed it all. There was
almost all the book. There's a few places we understand,
but most of the books she made, she'd be the first to tell you,
I don't understand that, but I believe it. She couldn't understand how
God would manifest himself in the flesh. Why would God do that? Why would God send his only begotten
son to this earth, to this earth full of sin, as righteous a person
as that man is, God the Son? Why do that? Why would God provide
and prepare a body? For His Son. You know, the Holy
Son of God is the eternal Son of God. He's always been the
Son of God. He just didn't have a body. Not
until a little over 2,026 years ago. God prepared Him a body. That's
what it says in Hebrews chapter 9. So that He would come to this
earth and establish a righteousness. Why? Because there's no righteousness
in the people. How dare you, John, tell me that
there's no righteousness in me. I'm not saying that. The Bible
says that. It says that there are none righteous, no, not one.
You don't like what the Bible says? I'm sorry. I didn't like
what it said for many years either. Get up and walk out of it. Show
up once a year to go to church with my mom, just as a gift from
my mom. What foolishness. Shirley would want you to believe
this, or to remember her this way. She believed God. All of His Word. She believed
God when He says, Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. I've talked to her about this
before. We both agree to this point. We can understand why
God hated Esau. He's just a sinner, but what
in the world, how in the world would God love Jacob? You know
the name means usurper. I asked the same question about
myself. Surely you'd ask the same question about yourself.
Why would God love me? I don't want you to celebrate
my life. There's nothing in my life to
celebrate. Except that I believe God. I wonder, do you? Do you believe God? Do you believe
what He says about salvation? It is not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth. You know what that means? It's
not your free will. It's not whatever will you think it is.
It's not your works. It's not the running of your
works. It is of God that showeth mercy. Do you believe that? No. Most don't. I didn't. Surely didn't. She'd be the first
to tell you, oh, no way. That's not the way, that's not
the God I knew growing up. Oh, no, the God I knew growing
up, I could go into a little box and pray, pray with the man
on the other side of the box, and he would tell you, your sins
are absolved. And she would tell you later
on, after she was called out of the darkness that she walked
in, she goes, that was a bunch of hogwash. I call it balonialism. I know it's a made up word, but
it's a good word for it. She believed that Jesus Christ
was her personal Savior, and her desire was for all those
that she loved to be called out of that darkness that we've all
walked in, and into the marvelous light of the Lord Jesus Christ. What is salvation? In the book of John, You know the story of Jonah,
right? That's the story of one of God's people that was told
to go preach. The Lord told him, go preach
over Nineveh. Nineveh was like a Hell's Angel
Bar. It was not a good place to be.
It was all full of all kinds of different religions. It was
full of all kinds of hatred, all kinds of people doing what
the scriptures describe it as, doing what you think is right. You know, you think about that
for a minute. If we didn't have any laws, if
you didn't have any fear, and we've seen a little bit of this
go on in our country in these last few years. If you had no
fear of any persecution for doing something wrong, people would
just do whatever they want. That's what the scripture's talking
about. People did what they thought was right. If you thought it
was right to kill a neighbor and take his stuff, people did. So Jonah, he didn't like that. He's like, no, I'm not going
to do that. He goes running away. He ran from the Lord. Do you
think God was like, oh, oops. Now what am I going to do? No. Let me tell you something. Surely
knew one thing for sure, and that is the word God means sovereign
ruler of all that is. Not just this, and not just a
little bit of that, not just a little bit of that, but everything.
including the wicked. He's called God because he's
God. Oh, the world loves to use that
word in vain or use that word as somebody who's doing something
but can't finish his job because people won't let him. That's not the God of the Scriptures.
That's not the God of the Bible. The God of the Bible, if He has
purposed it, shall He not do it? If He can't do it, then He's
not God. And we're all wasting our time. What is it? What is salvation? Well, Jonah got on a ship, and
he went out into the sea, and the seas got real boisterous,
and waves crashing on the boat, and everybody was wondering what
was going on with that. And they threw Jonah overboard
when he admitted that he was the one that ran from God. And
the Lord says, the Lord had prepared a fish. There was no accident there.
There we are, that claim that God is sovereign. He prepared
a fish. The fish swallowed up Jonah,
and then the Lord, after Jonah had died in the belly of that
fish, the Lord gave him life again and spit him out on dry
ground, and here's what salvation is. Salvation is of the Lord. It's not something you can earn.
It's not something you can do to receive. It's of the Lord. Period. No ifs, no ands, no buts. He doesn't say salvation is of
the Lord and of man if they would just come down to the front of
the church and say a prayer. He doesn't say salvation is of
the Lord and man if they'll just get in the waters of baptism.
It doesn't say that salvation is of the Lord and man if they'll
show up on Sunday or Saturday or any other day of the month
or the week and worship Him. It says, salvation is of the
Lord. Shirley had no qualm with that.
She knew that if she was left to herself, like all of God's
children do, we know that if we're left to ourselves, we'd
still be in that darkness that we once walked in. Amazing grace. Once I was blind, but now I see. Why do you see? Because God,
He who is sovereign, has shined his light in a new heart. That old heart, that old heart
that Shirley and I both had at one time, that Lee had at one
time, was cut out. That's what circumcision is.
It's cutting away the stone, this old stony heart that used
to say, I'll not have that God rule over me. and giving us a heart that loves
Him because He first loved us. He didn't save me because I made
the decision to love Him. He saved me because I loved Him
because He loved me first. What is salvation? Let me turn
over to Galatians chapter 1 for just a moment. and read for you
what salvation is. Galatians chapter 1. It says in verse 15, But when it pleased God. That's His Word. That's not my interpretation.
That's not my Definition. It's His Word. This is what God
says. And this is what I'm talking
about. When I told you that Shirley believed God, she believed it
all. When it pleased Him who separated me from my mother's
womb and called me by His grace. Over in Romans chapter 9, We
read these words, Therefore hath he mercy on whom
he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. What? What? No! Is John making these
words up? That's his word! You know why
natural men? You know why we run? We run to
whatever religion we think we can come up with. If you think
about that, there's a million different religions. If you go
back to Tennessee and Kentucky, you can drive through some cities
where on every corner of a four-corner intersection has a large, mega
church. I've been there. I've driven
through them. I know it. I'm not just guessing this. I'm
not telling you this second-hand. And there's four Baptist churches
on each corner. Four different Baptist churches.
Why are there so many different religions? How come they're not
all believing the same God? Because we don't want the same
God. That's why. Some of you have
come out of those churches. You know what I'm talking about. We don't want a God who shines
the light on our wickedness. Anytime you try to take the power
out of God's hand and make it your own, I don't care what you're
doing, when you take the power out of God's hand and you make
it your own, you are changing God's Word into wickedness. It's
called lasciviousness in the Scriptures. Go look it up. Look
that Word up. It's turning the Word of God
into wickedness. Taking the authority and the
power away from Jesus Christ and putting it in the hands of
men. How many churches have you ever
been to that you see that? I've been to a lot. I went searching. This is a long way from where
I used to live. Me and a good friend of mine, a man who's gone
on to be with the Lord, doing what he wanted to do most in
this world, and that was ride his motorcycle to church. Bill
Silva. Oh, rescue's so far away. We
live down here in the hood, in the highlands. We don't want
to go up to rescue. That's just too far away to go
on a Sunday morning. So we'd go to different churches.
And we'd get up and walk out of every one of them. I've been
to probably at least 30 or 40 different Baptist churches down
there in Sacramento. And I've got up and walked out
of every one of them, because they're all about this. They're all about
man. They're all about what man has done to help God. They're
all about what man has done to make a decision for the Lord.
They're all about men. I, I, I. You know, the greatest thing
I hear is this, I turned myself over to the Lord. I made a decision. Well, I can tell you this, Shirley
Reeves never made a decision. John Reeves never made a decision.
Christ made the decision for me. He brought us both on our
knees. You don't need to know why Lee
and Shirley came here. But they didn't come here looking
for God. Am I right, Lee? Am I telling
a lie? I didn't come here looking for
God. But it was a day when the Lord
brought my heart, and the same thing with Lee and Shirley, as
low as He could bring them. What are we going to do with
our kids? My kids are getting out of control. What are we going
to do? Dad, where can I go? There's a little church at Rescue
that preaches the truth. There's a little church at Rescue
that doesn't preach about men, but they preach about Christ.
Christ and Him crucified. That's the message every Sunday. If you go back and you look at
all the different recordings that we have of this church on
Sermon Audio, all the way back to 1999 and before, you're going
to find there's one message that Pastor Gene and John Reeves have
preached from this pulpit, and that is Christ and Him crucified. That's what saves the people
of God. How are you going to call, as it says in Romans chapter
10? Let me just read that for you.
Whosoever, for there is no difference between Jew and Greek, for the
same Lord over all is rich unto all them that call upon Him.
For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be
saved. How then? How then shall they
call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they
believe in Him whom they have not heard? See that sign above
the walkway as you walked in here? If your God is trying,
your preacher is lying. We don't preach about a God who's
trying anything. What our God has purposed, He
shall perform. That's why He sent His Son. Man
couldn't do it. Man can't save themselves. Our blood that has to be shed
for sin is tainted with sin. Even the good that we do, that's
what Paul says, Paul says, the good that I do, I see evil. That's
why we don't come together to worship or to celebrate our life. We don't have any confidence
in what goes on in this flesh. There's nothing in this flesh
I want you to take joy in. If you want to have joy, have
joy in my Savior. The One who died and gave Himself
for me. The One who shed His blood for
His people and they shall be saved. That's what Scripture
says. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me. Isn't that
what it says? Am I lying? What is salvation? It's of the
Lord, that's what. It's when the Lord was pleased,
when it pleased God, that's what salvation is. It's when He says,
I will have mercy. Over in Romans 9, let me quote
that for you again where it says in verse 16, So then it is not
of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God. that showeth mercy. What is this salvation that surely
would want us to know of her? She knew that salvation was of
the Lord. Now, here's the second one. Over in Luke chapter 19,
verses 9 and 10, the Lord's walking down the road, and He sees this
man up in a tree called Zacchaeus, and He says, Zacchaeus, come
down. Come down from that tree, for
today I must abide in thy house. God Almighty saying this. This
is the Creator that is talked about in John chapter 1 verse
1. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God. And
then over in verse 14 it says, and the Word was manifest in
the flesh. This is the Lord Jesus who's telling this man, come
down out of that tree. Today I must abide in your house. Today salvation has come unto
the lost. Shirley knew she was lost. Not before she heard it in the
scriptures. Just like all of God's people,
we think we're just OK. We're not so bad. Oh, we've done
a couple of things that were pretty wild in school. Oh, yeah. But, you know, I never killed
anybody. Not that I know of, anyway. She knew. tasted grace. That's what salvation
is. It's grace. It's God being gracious
to one who is undeserving, unworthy. Well, John, you're talking about
everybody. I know! I said a moment ago, I can understand. We can understand why God hated
Esau. The thing we don't understand
is how does he love Jacob? How does he love John Reeves?
What has John ever done to deserve it? Nothing! The only thing I
deserve of God is His wrath. I was lost. Lost in sin. Shirley would tell you the same
thing. I was lost. What is salvation? It's to know
that you are lost. Thirdly, salvation is to see the glory
of God in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me read that
for you over in 2 Corinthians. Let me read that for you over
here in 2 Corinthians chapter 4. For we preach not ourselves.
You want to know if you're hearing the truth in a religious organization? Count how many times you hear
the man in the pulpit say, I, I. Paul, in his letter to the Corinthians,
tells us right here, he says, for we preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus'
sake. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness. You see who's getting the glory
here? It's not saying, for when you
made your decision. It's not saying, for when you
got in the waters of baptism, It's not saying, for when you
came down to the front and prayed your prayer, for God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, have shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. Salvation is to see the glory
of God in the face of His Son, the Lord Jesus. Moses cried out
to the Lord, show me Thy glory, he said. Show me Thy glory. And the Lord said, okay, I'll
show it to you. And he put him in the cleft of
the rock. He took him and he put him in a hole in the rock
where he'd be protected by that rock. He hideth my soul in the cleft
of the rock in a dry, thirsty land. And then he passed by. And after he had passed by, Moses
saw the glory of God in his son, the Lord Jesus. When we sat here
in this pew, and I wasn't here when Shirley was here, But I
know I've talked to her about this. When He shined the glory
of His Son, the light of the glory of His Son, in the face
of the Lord Jesus Christ, we both thought this. And I've
heard her say it. That made more sense to anything
I've ever heard any man of any pulpit ever say. Finally, For the first time,
I'm hearing about somebody who deserves to have the title God. Instead of hearing about somebody
who's waiting for me to do this and waiting for me to do that,
and if I don't do that after I'm saved, if I don't do this
after I'm saved, if this doesn't happen, if I don't get that feeling
of euphoric stuff. No, she heard about a God who
has purposed his salvation every bit of it. In the parable
of the wedding feast, we studied this Friday night. In the parable
of the wedding feast, the Lord said, the king who sent his messengers
out to find people to bring them into the wedding feast, he said,
go, tell them, everything is ready. What is salvation? It's to see
the glory of God and the face of His Son, the Lord Jesus. Here's
one more for you, a fourth. I'll just give you a couple more
and it'll be quick. We'll be done here in a couple
of minutes. Salvation is to be in the Kingdom
of God. Listen to these words from Galatians,
or no, Colossians, I'm sorry. Let me turn over to Colossians
chapter 1 for just a second and read a verse over there for you.
Colossians chapter 1. Salvation is to be in the kingdom
of God. Listen to this in verse 13. Whom
hath delivered us from the power of darkness and
hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son. That's the Lord. That's not us
making our decision. Again, this is the Lord. Did
you notice that everything that I pointed you to in Scriptures
does one thing? It points us to Christ Jesus. It points us to what He has done.
It points us to the results of Him saving His people. Translating us. into the power
and the kingdom of His dear Son. Bowing to our new Master. That's what that means. Being
translated into the kingdom of God is bowing to Him. Not bowing to our own desires,
not bowing to our own will, but bowing to Him as sovereign over
all that is. I was recently in a motorcycle
accident. Some of you know. God put that
deer in front of my bike. Which really brings me to question
this, because I prayed about it before I bought the bike.
I really did. And I'm still not sure why, but whatever it is,
I still know he's Lord. I still know he's God. I still
know that he's my God. Why? Because he keeps me, that's
why. He doesn't let the old imagination of John Reeves rear its ugly
head up and take over. I still bow to him. I bow to
him being my master of all that is. He put the deer in front
of me. He saved me from being hurt a lot worse as well. How do you, how do you wish to
be remembered? Listen to this, the fifth point. Matthew 11, 28 tells us this. Come unto me, all ye that are
burdened and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. What is this salvation that ye
surely would want you to remember her by? That all of it, not part,
not just a little, but all of her salvation is in the Lord,
and she rested in that. One of the hardest things for
God's people to go through this world is to, can I be saved? That thought that just went through
my head. That fact that I just blew up at that guy who cut me
off on the freeway. How could God save me? How could
I be saved and still do stuff like that? We're thankful. It is not occasions like that
that determine our salvation. That's what I'm talking about.
Resting in Christ. There's no salvation in anything
I do. Shirley knew there was no salvation
in anything she would do. Her only part of salvation is
in what Christ had done for her. Lastly, lastly, we are conformed
to His image as we read over in Romans chapter 8. Let me just turn over there and
I'll bring this to a close. In Romans 8, verse 29, we read
these words. For whom He did foreknow, He
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that
He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, for
whom He did predestinate them, He also called and whom He called,
them He also justified, and whom He justified, them He also glorified."
We continue. We continue in the day of His
grace. We continue in faith. That gift
of faith that God gives all of His people that's spoken of in
Ephesians chapter 2, We continue to the day we go
through that door marked death. How did Shirley wish to be remembered? She wished to be remembered by
His grace. She believed God. What is it
she believed? She believed that Jesus Christ
was God Almighty in the flesh. Let me turn over. And read another
one. This one just came to mind for
me real quick here. Philippians chapter 3. This is
the Lord Jesus Christ right here. She believed this with all of
her heart. Who being in the form of God,
thought it not robbery to be equal with God, speaking of Christ
himself, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon
him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.
Being found in the fashion of the man, he humbled himself and
became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore
God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which
is above every name, that in the name of Jesus every knee
should bow of things in heaven and things of the earth and under
the earth. What is it that she believed?
She believed who he is according to scriptures. She believed what
he did, that what he did on that cross was all that was necessary
for her to be saved. And she believed that God accepted,
God the Father accepted the sacrifice of His Son on her behalf and
raised Him from the dead. Today, Jesus Christ sits on His
throne right next to God the Father, working all things out
according to His counsel, making intercession for us this very
day. Where was her peace? Her peace
was in Christ. from beginning to end. His grace
is greater than the sins of his people. His grace, as he tells
Paul, is sufficient. I want to close with that song.
Would you pull up that song for me? Kathy didn't know this, so
give her just a minute if you would. Song 201. You got it? Oh, you're so good. I'm so thankful to the Lord for
you. Huh? No. Geez. No. No, no. Two or one. Join me in seeing grace greater
than my sin. our sin Grace, grace, God's grace. Grace that would pardon and cleanse
with Him. Grace, grace, God's grace. Grace that is greater than all
our sin. Sin and despair like the sea
waves cold, threaten the soul with infinite loss. Grace that is greater, yes, grace
untold, points to the refuge, the mighty cross. Grace, grace, God's grace, grace that will pardon and cleanse
within. Grace, grace, greater than all our sin. Dark is the stain that we cannot
hide. What can avail to wash it away? Look, there is slowly a crimson
tide. greater than marvelous, infinite, matchless
grace freely bestowed on all who believe in You that are longing
to see His face, weary of this moment His grace received. Grace, grace, God's grace, Grace
that will pardon and cleanse within. Grace, grace, God's grace, Grace
that is greater than all our sin.