We sing the song, Amazing Grace,
how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was
lost, but now I'm found, was blind, but now I see. Not too long ago, we looked at
the blind man who had been blind from his birth and how he wasn't
sure what it was, who it was that saved him at first, He just
knew this one thing, he said, I was blind, but now I see. And we considered what it was
he saw, but I wanna ask you, what do you see? What do you
see this day? Well, if you belong to the Lord
Jesus Christ, if you have been called out of darkness to see
the light in the face of God Almighty in the flesh, the sovereign
ruler of all that is, the one who created everything for himself,
then you see the truth. If you've never heard the gospel
before, if you're sitting there today, and for the first time,
God is reaching in to a heart, a new heart, and shining the
light of his son, giving you the experience, not just the
knowledge of what grace is, but the experience. God was gracious
to me, a sinner. That's what he does when he calls
a sinner out of darkness. He comes to them when they're
still high and mighty in their own way. When they're still thinking,
you know, I'm not such a bad guy, I do some pretty good things.
When they're still thinking that they may have some righteousness
in themselves, and he shines the truth of the righteousness
that sin is before God. He shines the light of his son.
very light that natural men will not come to because it exposes
what they are before God. Worms, dogs, wretches, amazing
grace. Why is it so sweet? Because it
saved a wretch like me, like all of God's people. Paul says,
he came to save sinners, of which I am chief. We're all chiefs
at that, aren't we? We're all chiefs of that. We
see the truth. We see the truth of who we are before God. We
see the truth of our need of a savior. Our Lord says in the
14th chapter of John, verse six, he says this unto him. He says,
I am the way. He doesn't say that I'm part
of the way. He doesn't say that I've done this and now you need
to do that. He didn't say that I've done
all that I can. Now you have to do this. No, he says, I am the way. There's no other way. You're
not gonna find a way to God by studying his scripture, unless
he is right there with you, teaching you from it. There's a whole
lot of people, folks, who know this scripture way, way better
than I will ever know it. There's not enough time left
in my life for me to know it as well as some do. Yet they
don't know the grace of God. They've never experienced what
it is. You see, to experience grace, you gotta know what it
is you don't deserve. You gotta know that somebody
took what you deserve upon themselves and you don't have to pay for
it anymore. It's been paid for. You gotta
know that that one who took what you deserve upon himself and
sacrificed himself was perfect in every way. You gotta be brought
to know that what he did was because he's God, perfect. Everything is done. He is our
Sabbath. We rest in him. That's what the
Sabbath is. It's Jesus Christ the Lord. It's
not a day for us to observe. We observe him. We observe His
righteousness, because that's what we need. We need the righteousness
of Christ. I can't establish it for you.
I can't establish it for myself. I pray to my Savior. I pray to
my Lord. Lord, if it be your will, call
my children. Call my children. Our Lord says,
I am the way, and then he says this. He says, I am the truth.
We consider that in our Bible study. Where are you gonna find
truth? Don't find it in John Reeves. Don't find it in the
person sitting next to you. Don't find it in any of the commentaries
that you think you need to read about. Find it right here. Right here in the words of God.
That's where you'll find truth. Because that is where life is.
Life is in Him and He gives it to whom He will. He gives life
to all of those that the Father has given Him. You know what
that means? That means that some of us are gonna go to heaven.
Not possibly. not maybe, but are going to go
to heaven. Why? Because the perfect blood
of Christ was shed for our sins. He who knew no sin was made sin
for our sakes that we would be made the righteousness of God
in him. He says, I am the way, the truth,
and the life, and then he says this, no man cometh unto the
Father but by me. God has given life where death
once ruled. and he's revealed himself to
sinners. 1 Timothy 1 verse 15, we read
it this way, this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, and then
Paul says very clearly what we just read, what we just thought
a moment ago, as who I am chief. The song, I started with Amazing
Grace, it states this, it says, we see the grace of God in saving
a wretched people unto himself, he says, O wretched man that
I am. Who? Paul says, O wretched man
that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? Did
you know the world's trying to get rid of words like wretched
and worm and dog? We're so offended by things nowadays.
It's gotten to the point of ridiculousness. How dare you call me a boy? I don't want to be identified
as a boy. That's where the world has come to. Am I wrong in that?
No. We all see it in the news. Oh,
wretched mind that I am offends people. Are you calling my grandmother
a wretched? Oh, the Word of God is. Are you saying my grandfather
worked so hard, fought in the war, that he's a dog? The Word of God says so. Oh, the worm that I am. We see
the grace of God in saving wretched people unto himself. And when
one who has been brought to see the truth of salvation, Jonah, perfect example, wonderful
example of how God brings a wretched person to see the truth that
salvation is of the Lord. That was what Jonah said when
he was spit out into the dry land, was it not? But what did
he have to learn to get there? Remember, he was running from
God. He ran down to the city by the sea. He got on a ship. The Lord brought a huge storm. The men on the ship were like
going, oh no, who's offended God that the storm would raise
up against us and kill us? Jonah, that was me. I did it. Threw him over the board. Was
it an accident that that big fish was sitting there waiting
for him to be thrown overboard? That's a pretty big ocean, folks.
And here this is big fish waiting for, just waiting for, I can
imagine, I can picture it, I can just picture the fish. I don't
know, they can't think like humans, but if they could, they'd be
sitting there, yeah, it's coming, here it comes, I'll get something
to eat today. And while Jonah was in that fish's
belly, it says that the reeds were wrapping around his neck.
It describes in detail of what he was going through in the belly
of that fish, which God had purposed so that you and I would read
in this day and age about how Christ was in the belly of the
earth, just as Jonah was in the belly of the fish. When the Lord
was in the belly of the earth, was he dead? Did he die? Yes, he did. He died. That's what it says, he died.
He died and was raised again. Jonah died in the belly of that
fish. And when the Lord raised him
up again out of the belly of that fish and spit him out on
the dry ground, he went about preaching, salvation is of the
Lord. That's to be brought to the grace
of God, to see the grace of God. And nothing that Jonah had done,
but it was all done by God. Nothing John Reeves had done,
but it was all done by my God. Shining his light in my heart.
Shining the darkness of how wretched John was. How wretched John is. Oh, wretched man that I am right
now. You see, grace is not something
that comes just once. And then, okay, we're good. We
can go back our way. Go do whatever we want to do
now. We're good. We're saved. No. Paul knew that he needed
God every second of every day. He needed the grace of our Savior
every moment just to get through it. And being brought to that
point, the psalm writer writes in Psalm number 123, unto thee
lift I up mine eyes. Unto thee lift up mine eyes. As Christ or as the serpent. Remember the
story of the serpents when they came into the camp of Israel?
The camp of Israel had been complaining against God, so God sent a bunch
of serpents into the camp, and people were being bitten, people
were dying. Moses went to the Lord, he says,
Lord, I love these people, these are my people. Please, please,
and he cried unto the Lord, please, save my people, and the Lord
said, Make a brass serpent, brazen serpent, put it up on a high
pole where everybody can see it, and everyone who looks to
that brazen serpent shall be saved. That's what this is all
about right here. Unto thee, unto my great God,
unto the one who is sovereign over everything. All your troubles,
folks, are coming from one thing. Our Lord. Every bit of it. People
want to say, oh, who did something wrong? The Lord is punishing
the United States. He allowed three planes to fly
into buildings and kill all these people. He's punishing Israel
because Israel murdered against God. So he opened up the earth
and swallowed 3,000 people. God does not punish his people. Our punishment was laid on our
Savior. He allows me to go through the
same trials that are throughout all the troubles of this world,
so that I will see over and over again how weak I am and look
to him for strength. Unto thee lift I up mine eyes,
O thou that dwellest in the heavens. Behold, as the eyes of servants
look unto the hand of their master, and as the eyes of a maiden unto
the hand of her mistress, so our eyes wait upon the Lord our
God until he have mercy upon us. Have mercy upon us, O Lord. Have mercy upon us, for we are
exceedingly filled with contempt. Our soul is exceedingly filled
with the scorning of those that are at ease. and with the contempt
of the proud. Back in verse one, rather than
look to our right or look to our left, rather than looking
to something I can do over here. You know, there was a day when
trouble would come up against me and I would do anything I
could possibly do to fix it myself. I would look to this way. I can't
do anything over there. I'll look to this way. Can I
do anything over there? It's just bad luck. Rather than
look to our right or look to our left, indicating what it
is to look to what we can do, earning our way into heaven,
in other words, we are brought to look to the only way, and
that is Christ Jesus the Lord. Isn't that what I just read for
you in John 14? He says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. We look to the Lord Jesus Christ. Instead of looking
downward in despair, or looking to the right hand or the left
of human confidence, or looking within the pride of our own souls,
we now say, unto thee, Lord, I lift up mine eyes. What grace
that we do this wonderful thing. What grace that we have no confidence
in this body of death. Was there not a day when you
did look to something? when you look to something else
for your answers? Was there not a day where were
you ever not like I was, where I could figure out how to fix
something? I'll go to whatever I gotta do to get this fixed.
Folks, there's some things in this world that you just can't
do anything about. Do you have grown kids? I do, I got grown kids. I can't
do anything about them. They're gonna do whatever it
is they're gonna do, and you know what, my mom couldn't do
anything about me. She tried. I'm thankful that she didn't
consider it bad luck. Was there not a day when you
looked to something else for your answers for your needs?
Yet by His grace and grace alone, we now look to Him. To a child
of the Most High, there is always something blessed to see upward,
especially when we look up to Him who dwells in the highest
of heavens. As I go through a trial that
I'm in now with family, I realize that there's nothing I can do. It's completely out of my hands.
All I can do is go to my father and look up to him and say this,
it's in your control as all things are. And I can say with the belief
in my heart that whatever it is I'm going through is because
he is gracious to me and loves me and will make it for my good. I know I didn't. make it easy
to go through these things still. I know a man whose daughter had
been molested by a good friend, a really close, close friend.
There was absolutely nothing he could do about it, other than
take his close friend and wring his neck. And that's what he
wanted to do. He told me, he said, the only thing I could
do, John, was put it at the feet of my savior. Put it at the feet
of my savior. There was nothing else to do.
I know what that man feels. My situation's not his, but I
know what he feels. There's nothing I can do. Lord,
help me to put it where it belongs, at the feet of my Savior. That's
the blessings of looking upward. That's the blessings of lifting
mine eyes unto the one that dwells in the heavens. That's the blessing
is knowing that whatever I'm going through, whatever you're
going through, whatever God has seen fit to allow in your life,
it's for the purpose of bringing glory to Him, our Father, our
Savior, our Comforter. When we look up into the highest
of heavens and we see our Father, our Savior, our Comforter, there
is little down here that is worth looking at, but there is everything
for our comfort when we look to Him. We know it to be by his
grace. In Luke chapter 10, verse 21,
we hear these words. In that hour, Jesus rejoiced
in spirit, and he says, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven
and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and
prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes, even so, Father,
for it seemed good in thy sight. All things are delivered to me
of my Father, and no man knoweth who the Son is, but the Father,
and who the Father is but the Son, and to Him, to He, to whom
the Son will reveal Him. In Ephesians 2, verses 8 through
9, we read these words, for by grace ye are saved through faith,
and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not of worthless
a man should boast. Psalms 123, verse 1, it says,
O thou that dwellest in the heavens, Is it not a delight or a comfort
to a Christian to remember that the title of our God is our Father
who art in heaven? We look up to the majesty of
him on high. It's the place from which God
looks down upon us and sees all things of all men. He understandeth
all of our ways and is also the place of his power and his glory. It's the place where the Lord
gives us to look up unto thee. Thou that dwellest in glory,
therefore all power is in thy hands, and thou knowest how to
use the power on the behalf of thy people. He knows how to help
us. He's been tempted as we are. Folks, there's no comfort in
what I can do. I'm finding it easier and easier
in my life to say, I just can't do anything about that. Therefore,
my Lord has got that in my life for a reason, for a good reason,
for my good. and for his glory. There's no
comfort in what I can do with my hands, for my hands are tainted
with sin. I was born with iniquity in my
flesh. I am undone. I am a worm. As I said a moment ago, the world
is trying to remove the word worm. They're trying to remove
the word dog. They're trying to remove the
wretched, the undone. But folks, if you take that out,
then you're making yourself better than what you are. You're raising
yourself up to be as gods. Verse two, says, behold the eyes
of the servants. Behold, as the eyes of the servants
look into the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maiden into
the hand of her mistress, so our eyes wait upon the Lord,
the Lord our God, until that he have mercy upon us. Isn't
that how we go through the storms of life? Lord, will you have
mercy on me today? Will you be merciful today, Lord,
and make the winds cease? Is today the day you'll do that
for me? Must I endure another day of this trouble, this heaviness? Does not the servant look to
his master's hand for the direction and for the support? If he has
a work to do that is too heavy for him to do, he looks to his
master to send help. In heaviness, isn't that what
you and I do in building up, in building up our brethren in
the faith? It's all right. I know, I know what you're going
through. I have trials in my life just like you do. He sends
us help. We look to, we look to our master's
hand for his reward when the work is done. What is our reward? It's the glory of our Father.
We were looking at that in Bible study today. We don't do things
for our own glory. We try not to. We try to be as
good as the apostles when they healed that lame man. Why are
you looking at me? You know, we're told not to let
the left hand know what the right hand's doing. Sometimes I get
that backwards. Maybe it's the right hand not to let the... Whatever
it is. Why? Because as soon as the other
hand knows what you're doing, it's going to start boasting
about it. That's the way it is with me. Do we not look to our
Master for everything? Dear friends, we are to, day
by day, as our walk in this world, look to our Master's light for
guidance. Isn't that what Israel did? What
did they do as they traveled through the wilderness? They
had a pillar of light at night, and a cloud of smoke during the
day. Follow that. Follow him. Follow the one who
must be lifted up as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness.
Follow him. Do we not seek his merciful hands
day by day? Are we not in need of his grace
every day, every moment? We just sang that song, come
thou fount of every blessing. Come now, Lord. Come this morning. The services are over. Come again,
Lord. Come again now. I need you now.
Thou fount of every blessing, every blessing we have comes
through our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's in Ephesians.
All blessings flow through him. He's like Joseph. He has the
keys to all of the treasury of the king to disperse as he wishes. We sing that in that song, Prone
to Wonder. How long does it take you to
wonder? I hope you last longer than I
do. It doesn't take me long at all.
This is what we're looking for. We're looking for the mercy of
the Lord our God. It comes from his great heart,
through his almighty hand. A wave of his hand is sufficient
to drive away all of our troubles, if it so pleases him. He supplies
the needs of every living thing, so mighty and so bountiful is
He. Let us therefore keep our eyes upon our Lord's hands until
that He have mercy upon us. That's what it says, until He
have mercy upon us. And then again in verse three,
it says, have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us. It's
not enough just to have mercy once, Lord, mercy, mercy, mercy,
grace, grace, grace. Is this not our personal prayer?
Does not the longing soul wait in utter silence with expressive
desires? Folks, we know the will of Christ
was perfectly conformed to that of the Father, but yet our Lord
Jesus still went to his Father in prayer. Should we not go to
our closet in prayer? Over and over, it says without
ceasing. Pray without ceasing. That's
a constant communication with our Lord. You don't have to stop
when you walk out these doors. As you walk out the door to your
car, thank you, Lord, that I haven't stumbled over something and broke
my leg. That might sound ridiculous, folks, but isn't that what we
do? Do we not praise our Savior and seek Him in all things? If
you're not, examine yourself. Are you in the faith? Am I in
the faith, God? Do you need him? Now? In a moment from now? In an hour
from now? Do you need him? The psalmist
uses the same words twice as if to express the greatness of
his need. Is that not the hearts of all
of God's people? Is it not the clearness of our
perception of what we need? The earnest of our desire? Is it not our expectation that
our needs would be supplied by Him. In this verse and the previous
one, we have a petition. He says, have mercy on us. Present
it to us no less than three times. That tells me that mercy is the
greatest need of all men. Mercy and grace. And then it
says again in verse three, for we are extremely filled with
contempt Do you have contempt in the body that you walk in?
Oh, wretched man that I am, says Paul. Can you say that? Yes, Lord, I am a dog, but even
a dog gets the crumbles from your table. Isn't that what the
woman said, who came crying to the Lord, Lord, will you heal
my daughter? It is not for the master, It is not for the master
to serve the needs of dogs. Oh yes, Lord, I know what I am.
By your grace, I see what I am. By your mercy, I see that I have
a need. I need a savior. Do you? We are exceedingly filled
with contempt. The best thing that a man, that
the best man, the best of us, And some are better than others,
absolutely, in our eyes. The best thing any man can ask
for is mercy and grace from God. But here's the wonderful thing
about it. Those who truly come to the Lord and call upon his
name shall be saved. Verse four, it says, our soul
is exceedingly filled with the scorning of those that are at
ease and with contempt. of the crown. This was the lot
of God's people in David's day, just as it is the lot with you
and I this day. And I suppose as long as the
earth is standing, the saints of the Lord will cry unto him
concerning their adversaries. Well, who are our adversaries? Who are your and my adversaries? I don't know about you, but mine
is the flesh that stands before you. My pride, that's the root
of all my trouble. When I boil all my trials down
to one thing, pride of the flesh floats on top of it all. Turn
over to Romans chapter seven, if you would. Every child of
God, especially one who is hearing the gospel, the good news of
Christ and him crucified for the sins of his people, will
read these words and put their own name right there. My cry
is as Paul's is here in verse 14. For we know that the law
is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. That's this flesh
that stands before you. That's this flesh that stands
before anyone. I'm sold in carnal sin. For that which I do, he says
in verse 15, I allow not. For what I would that do, I not. But what I hate, that I do. Do you hate your sin? Do you hate the thoughts that,
what if, well, John, I don't have any, I don't have any anger
towards anybody else. I don't have that kind of a sin. lust for another man's wife or
another woman's husband. I don't have that kind of sin.
You know, I just love everybody. I do. I really do love everybody. Do you trust the Lord Jesus Christ
in all things? Do you love him with all your
heart? And if you're still saying, I
do, do you love your neighbor as yourself? You see, sin is
not just what we do, it's what we are. It's a failure in the
flesh to come up perfect. Our God is holy, perfect in every
way. He must have holiness. That's why we need a righteousness.
That's why Christ was made sin. He was made our sin, not a sin
of his own. He had no sin. He was the lamb
slain, the perfect spotless lamb of God slain before the foundation
of the world. There was never sin in him, but
yet he was made sin for our sakes that we would be made righteous
in him. Perfect righteousness. Paul says, I hate what I do,
but what I hate that I do. Verse 16, if then I do that which
I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Then it
is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. Now
don't start thinking to yourself, you can say, see there, the devil
made me do it. That's foolishness. The devil doesn't have any power
over you. He can deceive. He's a good deceiver, but he
can't do anything over you. He's got no power. Then it is
more and more that I do it, but the sin that dwelleth in me.
Paul is recognizing that the sin that dwells within his flesh
is his. It's not somebody else's. It
says in verse 18, for I know that in me, that is in my flesh,
dwelleth no good thing. For to will is present with me,
but how to perform that which is good, I find not. For the
good that I would, I do not, but the evil which I would not,
that I do. Now if I do that, I would not,
it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find
then a law. that when I do good, evil is
present with me. For I delight in the law of God
after the inward man, that's the spirit, that's the law we
all want to walk, the law that we all want to follow as best
we can, yet we still lean on the one who followed it and did
it perfectly for us, the Lord Jesus Christ. It is in his righteousness
of fulfilling the law that we stand. For I delight in the law
of God, after the interweb, but I see another law in my members,
warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into the
captivity of the law of sin, which is in my members. Oh, wretched
man! Oh, wretched man that I am! Who
shall deliver me from the body of this death? Who shall deliver
me from the body of this death? This is who can, and who will,
Jesus Christ the Lord. He is the one who has turned
me. Lamentations 5, verse 21, we read these words. Turn thou
us unto thee, O Lord, and we shall be turned. Renew our days
as of old. This very one who turns me is
the one who became flesh, God Almighty in the flesh, the one
who fulfilled the law perfectly in my stead. And then after fulfilling
the law perfectly, establishing a righteousness for us, he gave
himself as our substitute, taking our death upon himself. And because
he was so perfect, his death was accepted as an atonement,
as a payment. Our great Redeemer didn't try
to redeem us, he redeemed us. It is complete. Hebrews 1.3,
we read these words, who being in the brightness of his glory
and the expressed image of his person and upholding all things
by the word of his power, when he by himself purged our sins,
that means washed it out, cleaned it out. There's nothing for a
God to see in you and I anymore other than the blood of his son.
Purged our sins, he sat down on the right hand. of the majesty
on high. And because of that, there is
therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.
We read this in Bible study, but I'm gonna read it again.
It says, now unto him, in verse 24 of Jude, one chapter, verse
24, now unto him that is able, not unto the Lord, the only one
who is able, now unto Christ Jesus, he is able to keep you
from falling and to present you faultless. before the presence
of his glory with exceeding joy to the only wise God our Savior
be glory and majesty and dominion both now and forever. My Lord
shall hear, how shall he not hear my cries? How shall he not
hear our prayers? Let us always remember to use
the same remedy that the godly ones of old used and not to plead
in earthly courts of law, not to look for something in the
earth for our salvation, but to take our case to the great
court of the king, the king in heaven. Let not any of Lord's
children ever be concerned about defending their own characters,
but let them always go to the one, to him whose bare arm is
quite sufficient to write all things for us and to deliver
us as the oppressed. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look
upon him alone. Read with me a few words of the
31st Psalms, Psalms number 31. Psalms number 31 in verse 1,
we read these words, In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust. Let
me never be ashamed. Notice what it says next here.
Take this to heart, folks. We have no confidence in our
flesh because our confidence is right here. Deliver me in
thy righteousness. Bow down thine ear to me. Deliver
me speedily. Be thou my strong rock for a
house of deliverance to save me for thou art my rock, my fortress,
Therefore, thy name's sake, not because of something I have done,
not because of something you have done, but for thy name's
sake, lead me and guide me. Pull me out of the net that they
have laid privily for me, for thou art my strength. And to
thine hand I commit my spirit. Thou hast redeemed me, O Lord
God of truth. Amen.