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John Reeves

Frear or Faith

John Reeves August, 7 2022 Video & Audio
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John Reeves
John Reeves August, 7 2022

In the sermon titled "Fear or Faith," preacher John Reeves addresses the theological doctrine of trusting in God's sovereignty amid life's trials and uncertainties. Reeves articulates that believers often face moments of doubt and fear, reminiscent of the Israelites who hesitated to enter the Promised Land due to the presence of giants, as described in Numbers 13. He emphasizes God's faithfulness, asserting that despite the pervasive troubles in life, God has preordained every circumstance for His purpose and glory, supported by Romans 8:31 and Ephesians 1:4-5. The sermon underscores the significance of relying on faith over fear, spotlighting that Christ's redemptive power offers reassurance and hope to believers facing doubt, making it applicable to all Christians grappling with their faith in difficult times.

Key Quotes

“Days of darkness still come over me. Sorrows, paths, I often tread. But the Savior still is with me. By his hand, I'm safely led.”

“Our God sends those giants into our land.”

“He is my righteousness, he is my faithfulness, the giants in my land have no hold upon me.”

“We love Him because He first loved us.”

Sermon Transcript

Auto-generated transcript • May contain errors

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In the third stanza, we read,
we sang these words. We said, days of darkness still
come over me. Sorrows, paths, I often tread. But the Savior still is with
me. By his hand, I'm safely led. Our dear sister over in Wheatland has received word that her son
needs another MRI. Her son Jim. Let me tell you a little something about
Jim. He's an amazing young man that
doesn't hold his peace at all. He'll blurt out things like,
praise the Lord. God rules over everything. God
has blessed me with this. And you say, well, now, what's
so amazing about that, John? How many special needs children
do you hear say that? How many children have difficulty
understanding the realities of this life? Speak so highly of
God. I was talking with Jamie once
and she was distressed quite a bit over the situation. And she's a single mother on
top of everything. Struggling with work, trying
to work with home. I'll tell you folks, you think
you've got a problem? It's nothing compared with our
dear sister Jamie's going through. She was so stressed out and I
said, Jamie, you know, you have every right
to be under such stress and emotion. I said, but I want you to stop
and think about something. I believe your son knows the
Lord. I have two children. I know that if they belong to
him, they will come to him. But God hasn't made that move
in any of their hearts yet. He's made the move in Jim's heart.
And as we talked and we went back to that very thing, looking
to what Christ has done in one of his people, all the sorrow
that that poor young lady was going through at that moment,
fled away. Her son knows the Lord, as best
we can tell. God has inspired that young man
to express himself, glorifying the Lord. And that's amazing
to me. You know, folks, we all have
problems, don't we? We all deal with the things of
work or the things of family or the things of this, things
of that. Days of darkness still come over me. How about you? Sorrow's paths I often tread. How about you? But God. Don't you like those
words, but God? I love, but God who is rich in
mercy and in grace. For with he loved me, he gave
his only begotten son for us. What a great God. How great thou
art. Turn over the book of Numbers,
if you would, please. You ever get the feeling like you're alone
in that sorrowfulness, on that path, paths of sorrow, the days
of darkness? Am I alone in this, Lord? Am I the only one? that struggles with the sin that's
within me? Am I the only one who stops occasionally
and thinks to myself, Lord, am I really yours? How can a mind, how can a mind who knows the
truth of God think such thoughts as I do? How can a mind He laid down his life and shed
his blood for me. How can a mind who thinks, who
knows that, who's experienced grace in the heart, allow the
pride to stand up and say, I'm not gonna go talk to that person
because I'm better than they are. Lord, am I saved? Do I belong
to you? We're not alone, folks. The person
that wrote this song, the person that the Lord inspired to write
these words, days of darkness still come over me, sorrows pass,
I often tread, that's us, isn't it? Isn't that what makes this
song meaningful to you and I, the words? Isn't that what the
song of amazing grace makes meaningful to us? You think the person who
wrote that didn't experience grace? He most certainly did. We're not alone in sorrow. We're not alone in this valley
of the shadow of death. I know people point to the sovereign
grace churches and say, oh, the frozen chosen. You think you're the only ones
in the whole world who are saved, but no. I know I'm not alone. I know
that throughout the scriptures, throughout time, God has pictures
of people just like you and I. People whose faith is weak. People
who wonder, Lord, am I saved? People who doubt. This is the struggle that is
within us, and it's never gonna get any better. I don't care
what all those self-help preachers try to teach their congregations. It doesn't get any better until
the Lord takes us out of this world. That's where the bliss
begins. Oh, we have a peace all right.
We have a peace knowing that our Lord works it all out. He
works it all out according to his counsel. It's all according
to his purpose. It's for the good to them that
love him. We have a peace. Are you in Numbers chapter 13?
The Israelites had come to the base
of Mount Sinai on the border of the great wilderness and the
land of milk and honey, the land of Canaan, the land that was
promised to them by the Lord. And God instructed Moses to take
one spy from each of the 12 tribes and send them out to scout the
land. And they did. And they returned with evidence
of God's truths. In fact, they came back with
a cluster of grapes so big that it took two men to carry it into
camp. I've never seen anything that
big. I've never seen a cluster of grapes that big. My mom had
a grape farmer over in the back patio, and we'd get some, there
were some years where it was sparse, of course, you know,
but some years, there are grapes, big old huge grapes. You might
have to grab it with two hands, but never one big enough. It
took two men to carry it. This is, our Lord said it would
be there, and they went, and it was there. Yet their hearts, yet 10 of the
12 had hearts that were troubled by the people of the land. Two weren't troubled, the other
10 were. We're not alone. We're not alone. Look with me if you would. Chapter
13, Numbers chapter 13, beginning at verse one. And the Lord spake
unto Moses, saying, Send thou men, that they may search the
land of Canaan, which I have given to the children of Israel.
Of every tribe of their father shall send ye a man, every one
a ruler among them. And Moses, by the commandment
of the Lord, sent them from the wilderness of Paran. All those
men were head to the children of Israel. And then it goes on
to list those men I wanna jump over to verse 17, if you would,
please. And Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan and
said unto them, get you up this way southward and go up into
the mountain. Now, just keep going. And see the land what it is,
and the people that dwelleth therein, whether they be strong
or weak, few or many, that they dwell in, whether it be good
or bad, and what cities may be that they dwell in, whether tents
or in strongholds, and what the land is, whether it be fat or
lean, whether there be wood thereon or not, and be ye of good courage,
and bring of the fruit of the land. Now the time was the time
of first-stripped grapes, first-ripe grapes. So they went up and searched
the land, from the wilderness of Zin unto Roheb, Rehab, Rehob,
as men came from Hamath. And they ascended by the south
and came unto Hebron, where, and I'm sorry, folks, I just,
I struggle with names, and you know what, I do the best I can.
Hymen, Shehashay, and Talmai and the children of Anak were.
Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt. And they came under the brook
of Eshol and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of
grapes, and they bare it between two upon a staff. They brought
pomegranates and figs. The place was called the brook
of Eshol because of the cluster of grapes which the children
of Israel cut down from thence. And they returned from searching
of the land after 40 days. And they went and came to Moses
and to Aaron and to all the congregation of the children of Israel unto
the wilderness of Paran and Kadesh and brought back word unto them
and unto all the congregation and showed them the fruit of
the land. And they told him and said, we came unto the land whither
thou sendest and surely it floweth with milk and honey. and this
is the fruit of it. Nevertheless, the people be strong
that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled and very great,
and moreover, we saw the children of Enak there. We'll see in a
moment, the children of Enak are giants. The Amalekites dwell
in the land of the south, and the Hittites, and the Jebusites,
and the Amorites dwell in the mountains, and the Canaanites
dwell by the sea and by the coast of Jordan, and Caleb still the
people before Moses and said, let us go up at once and possess
it, for we are well able to overcome it. But, now remember, we're
talking about not being alone when it comes to doubt, when
it comes to the paths of sorrow. But the men that went up with
him said, we be not able to go up against the people, for they
are stronger than we. Remember, our Lord is the one
who said he would give this land to them. God instructed that he would
give this land to them. Do you know the Lord tells you
and I he'll give us everything? Remember what it says over in
the book of Romans? I'll be right back here. I'm
just gonna jump over this so I read it properly, because you
know me, I'm good at messing things up. What shall we then
say to these things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us, how shall he not with him also
freely give us all things? Back in our text in Numbers.
But the men that went up with him, with Caleb, said, we be
not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger
than we. And they brought up an evil report
of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel,
saying, the land through which we have gone to search it is
a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof. And all the people that
we saw in it are men of great stature, And there we saw the
giants, the sons of Anab, which come of giants, of the giants. And we were in our own sight
as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight. Now read one,
look at verse one of chapter 14. And all the congregation,
they came with a bad, with an evil statement. They came stating,
no, God, you're not right. Lord, you can't give us, we can't
go up against this people. Trusting in their own flesh,
they turned against God and spoke against God, and all the congregation
lifted up their voice and cried, and the people wept that night.
Their cities, the cities of the land, had high walls. The people
were tough. They were hard people. Did you
know that Jonah didn't go into Nineveh because the people were
too strong. It'd be like, as I was reading
the description of a commentator on what the city of Nunavut was
like at that time, I thought to myself, it'd be like going
down here to a bar full of hell's angels and trying to preach Christ
to them. If the Lord sent me there, I
would go. I'm thankful he hasn't sent me
there yet. But if he sent me there, I'd go. Even giants were in the land.
I ask you this morning, are there giants in your land? Is that not a good description
of the troubles that plague our lives? And I'm going to make a statement,
a bold statement. Our God sends those giants into
our land. The God of all creation, who
rules over everything, does everything according to his purpose, sent
those giants into the land. He drew Israel, Jacob and his
family, into Egypt and then raised up Egypt against
Israel to enslave them so that he could raise up Pharaoh to
sit where he sat and destroy him to show all the world his
power. We were reading in Friday night's
Bible study about a blind man by the name of Barnabas. Barnabas. Again, I don't say the names
right, do I? Don't worry about it. I'm not. Did you know God gave him that
blindness? What? If you don't believe in a God
who rules over everything, who controls everything, then don't
sit there and tell me about how he controls the dove, but he
doesn't control you. He either rules over everything
or he's not God at all. Is that not correct? He was either
in charge of everything at the time that man became blind or
was born blind. And it was by his purpose that
Barnabas was blind so that he could open his
eyes in the day of love. You and I were born exactly where
we were at the exact time God determined for us to be born,
and everything that we have gone through to this very moment until
the day the Lord takes us out is by his purpose. If you don't
believe that, then you don't believe God is sovereign. Our Lord guides the giants just as much
as he does the kings. He turns us all like rivers to
whichever way he wants. Have you ever stopped for just
a moment to consider the pictures that we see, the old types, the
old pictures and types that we see in the scriptures that God
has put there? You know, this is not a story.
This is not somebody sat down and just wrote with a pen thinking,
oh, that's great. You know what? I could see something.
I could write that down. Imagination. That's not what
this is. This is a fact. This is something
that happened. God brought these people. through
the slavery of Egypt so that he could bring them into the
wilderness so that he could tell them, this is the land that I
want you to have. And it was his purpose that 10 men would
come back and say, no, no, we can't do that. And it was his
purpose that they would go out into the wilderness from there
instead of going into the land that was promised. And only two
over the age of 20 would go into that land. Oh, there were millions
of people from Israel, but they spent 40 years out in the wilderness,
and everybody that was over the age of 20, other than two men,
those two spies that came back and said, absolutely, we can
take it, everybody else died in the wilderness. All the ones that were born in
that 40 years, and all those ones who had not been born at
that time came, they grew up, and they went on into the land
after that. I am so thankful, so thankful
that my Lord has given me these pictures that I can go into his
word, the word of truth, and say, I'm not alone. I'm not alone. There were others who had doubts. Did Abraham have doubts? Did he not sleep with his wife's
handmaiden and had a child by another woman? Did he not have
doubts? Oh, yes, he did. Did David have
doubts? Oh, yes, David had lots of doubts,
a man after God's own heart. One of the strongest apostles
I can think of is Peter. Did Peter have doubts? When he
looked down at that water, When he had faith and he was
looking to Christ, he could do anything. But when he looked
down at that water, all of a sudden doubt flooded him. He began to
think, aren't you thankful the Lord reaches down and pulls us
up out of our doubts? I've spent a lot of time just
introducing today's message. My message this morning is fear
or faith. All but the two of these spies
had great fear in their hearts. They trusted not the word of
the Lord. Some of you may be sitting here now wondering, am
I trusting the Lord as the two did, or am I one of the ten? I tell you, I wonder that. I
did. I found myself coming up short. We recently considered the Word
of God where a man was sick and tormented, and had a tormented
son. And he came to the Lord for healing,
and the Lord responded in these words in Mark 9, verse 23, if
thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.
And you know what the man said afterwards? He said, Lord, he cried out, Father, Lord, no,
the father cried out, Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief. We're not alone. Do you have
doubts? Do you have wonders? You think,
Lord, how can a man, how can I, a woman, think such things? You see, this one who cried out,
Lord, I believe, help Thou mine relief, this is more like me.
This is more like what I am. I see my own sins. I find my
own self without strength. I see great giants in my land.
Turn, if you will, to the book of Mark, chapter 4. Mark, chapter 4. Join me if you would, verse 35,
Mark chapter four, verse 35. And with many such parables spake
he, spake our Lord, he the word unto them as they were able to
hear it. But without a parable spake he
not unto them, and when they were alone, he expounded all
things to his disciples. In the same day, when the evening
was come, he saith unto them, let us pass over unto the other
side, And when they had sent away the multitude, they took
him even as it was in the ship, and there were also with him
other little ships. And there arose a great storm
of wind, and the waves beaded into the ship so that it was
now full. And he was in a hinder part of the ship, asleep on the
pillow. Does it ever seem to you that
the Lord's asleep in your life? Lord, where are you? Lord, I need you now. Where are
you? Do you care if I die? Do you
care if the troubles that are pounding down against me beat
me to death? Our dear sister was crying just
like that. Her troubles were great. I pray the Lord lays it on your
heart to pray for her. Her name is Jamie and her son's
name is Jim. Pray for them, please. May God
be merciful to them and comfort them through the trials that
they're having to go through. Lord, do you care? And there arose a great storm
of winds, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was
now full. And he was in the hindered part of the ship, asleep on a
pillow. And they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest
thou not that we perish? And he arose, and rebuked the
wind, and said unto the sea, Peace be still. And the wind
ceased." Did you hear that? The wind ceased. If it's God's
will to bring you to the point of crying out to him, he will. And sometimes he brings you to
that point so that he will call the winds to cease, so that you
will know he is God. People say, well, I'm looking
for signs. I need something to show me. God shows us his signs
all the time. I don't need to look for it.
He shows them to us. and the wind ceased and there
was a great calm. And he said unto them, why are
ye so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith?
And they feared exceedingly and said one unto another, what manner
of man is this that even the wind and the sea obey him? What manner of man is this that
even a dead spirit can be given life and believe
in him. We were all dead at one time,
weren't we? If you see that, it's because you were blind before
and now you see. Because God has given you sight.
What manner of man is this that even the wind and the sea obey
him? This is a man like no other.
a man that never walked this earth. This is one, this one
has not the seed of Adam, the seed of sin. This one came by
the way of the spirit through a virgin. This one had no guile
in his mouth. He knew no sin. He walked perfectly. Everything he did pleased the
Father, our Lord God from heaven, and everybody around heard it,
said, this is my son and who I am well pleased. Jesus Christ,
the Lord is who you speak of. He and the Father and the Spirit
are one, and all the fullness of the Godhead dwelleth in Him
bodily. The wind and the sea answer to Him because He is the
Lord of all lords. He is the King of all kings.
He is God in the flesh, and He is the one that says this in
Isaiah 14, 24, the Lord of hosts hath sworn, saying, surely as
I have thought. All he has to do is think it. Some like to say, well, he snapped
his fingers. God just says, let it be. And it is. Surely, as I have thought, so
shall it come to pass. And as I have purposed, so shall
it stand. He says again in Isaiah 4611,
calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executed
my counsel far from from a far country, yea, I have spoken it,
I will also bring it to pass, I have purposed it, I will also
do it. And if that's not good enough
for you, I can give you a third verse. I'm sure there's a lot
more, but here's a third one, Jeremiah 428, for this shall
the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black, because I, speaking
of God, speaking and will not repent, neither
will I turn my back from it." Folks, this is the sovereign
God that we talk about from this pulpit every Sunday. The one
who has purposed everything. That's hard for us to swallow,
isn't it? Some of us have been through some pretty downright
terrible, nasty, ugly trials in our lifetime. but everything
I have been through, my God has purposed for me. This is the very one who chose
us to be the recipients of his love. Think about that. Our God has
chosen us to be the recipients of his love. Now, if he purposed
everything in creation, Is anything going to stop us from receiving
that love? Can you stop the hand of God? As a recipient of His redeeming
grace, we are vessels of His mercy. We've been vessels of
His mercy from before the world was ever created. Isn't that
what it says? Turn over to Ephesians chapter 1. Let's just look at
that again. I think we looked at this in
our Bible study. We're going to look at it again. Sometimes that happens when you've
got two messages going on in your mind at the same time. Ephesians 1. Our brother Tom Sawyer, one of
the elders of the church, wonderful guy, just a wonderful guy. Some
of you may remember him. When we had our men's meeting
on Sunday mornings, There would be one man who would volunteer
for the next Sunday to read scriptures, and every single time, Tom would
read Ephesians 1. Somebody asked him one time,
he says, do you ever get tired of reading? He goes, no. He goes, I'm not reading for you.
I'm reading for me. I never get tired of it. God's purpose for you and I was
determined before the world ever was. That's what we read in Ephesians
chapter one, verse four. According as he has chosen us
in him. According as God has chosen you
and I, all of his sheep and his son, before the foundation of
the world, that we should be holy, holy and without blame before
him. in love, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of the children by Jesus Christ himself, according
to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of
his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. Folks,
this one who chose us is faithful in all that he does, all that
he says. He is unchanging. He is unwavering. He is steadfast. Scriptures describe
him as the solid rock. After telling Peter, blessed
are you, because Peter had said, why thou art the son of the living
God, blessed are you, Peter, for flesh and blood have not
revealed it to you. He said, upon this rock. Now,
many people have taken that and said, that's Peter. That's talking about Peter, because
Peter means rock. Upon this rock, upon this rock, my church shall
be built. Folks, Jesus Christ is the rock. Peter was nothing
but a man saved by grace just as you and I are. Jesus Christ
is the rock that his church is built upon. He's steadfast, solid
as a rock. Men, we change our minds about
everything, don't we? You think that changing your
mind is only for a woman? No. Ask my wife. She'll be happy to tell you.
Men change their minds just as much. Can't count on men to do
anything. I had to change my mind with
my daughter. She was going to come down and
I promised her I'd go somewhere with her and I didn't call her
until, you know what, I just can't keep that promise now.
That's all right, Dad. I'm not sure I really want to
go anyway. Men change your minds just as much as women. We do
it all the time, but this one, this one that we see in scriptures,
he does not. He set his love upon us and is
faithful in all that he has promised. He faithfully gave himself as
our ransom. He faithfully laid down his life
as our substitute. He faithfully shed his blood
as our scapegoat, as our sacrifice, as our payment to God for our
sins. faithfully laid down his own
life in our stead, being made sin for us that we would be made
righteous in him. And then when all of our sin
was laid upon him and he took it into the grave, he raised
himself from that grave, leaving all unrighteousness, all the
unrighteousness that was ours behind, never to be seen again. He is my righteousness, he is
my faithfulness, The giants in my land have no hold upon me. The very sin that I look at and
say, Lord, how can I think such things? Lay it at the feet of
Jesus. Lord, how can my pride swell
up so much? Lay it at the feet of Jesus. Our God is bigger than anything
else. He is either your high point or he is nothing at all. Oh, I still tremble. I tremble
when the giants go about roaring like a lion. Did you know the
devil is that? Goes about roaring like a lion, seeking to devour
whom he will. The devil is God's devil on a
chain. The devil could do nothing to
Job. until the Lord said, go, but
don't do that. All those devils that were in
that possessed person couldn't go anywhere until the Lord said,
go ahead, go into that herd of swine, and then he ran them off
a cliff. Are there giants in our land?
Absolutely. Are we going to tremble? Yes,
but all they're doing is roaring. Did you know this, that a lion,
when they roar, they're not hunting? I didn't know that. When a lion
roars, when they hunt, they're quiet. Have you ever watched
a cat? They sneak up on their prey.
They're not out there. Same thing with lions. They're
not roaring. And they're roaring, they're crying out for something
to, I'm the king of the forest or the king of the jungle. But
when they're hunting, they're quiet. Our giants roar, don't they?
I'm getting a little bit long here. The one whose faithfulness is
perfect, perfect as it is in everything he does, I turn to
the one whom God the Father first trusted. Look with me over at
Ephesians chapter one, verse 12. Ephesians chapter one. Are
you still there? I got out of it, sorry about
that. Let me go back to it. Look at verse 12. That we should
be to the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ. If God the Father trusted his
only begotten son, can you and I trust him? Can we go up against
those giants in our world, in our land, against Him? Now look
at verses 13 through 23. In whom, in this very one, whom
God first trusted, ye also trusted after that ye heard the word
of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after
that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise,
which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased
possession unto the praise of his glory. Wherefore, I also,
after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and love of all
the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention
of you in my prayers. That the God of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit
of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. The eyes of
your understanding to be enlightened that ye may know what is the
hope of his calling and what the riches of his glory, of his
inheritance of the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness
of his power to usward, who believe according to the working of what?
Of his mighty power. Folks, we have giants in our
land. but they are all smaller than
our Lord. Listen to a quotation from Robert
Parker, if you would. In these verses, amidst many
other blessed things, we have two great subjects of doctrine
spoken of. The first, that the church is predestinated to the
Lord's glory by trusting in Christ. And the other is that after this
predestination act of Jehovah, to believe in Christ, the Holy
Ghost is said to seal the persons of believers as the Holy Spirit
of promise. There will always be storms in
our lives, folks. As long as we walk this earth,
cursed is the ground that we walk upon, but we have an advocate. We have a mediator. We have the
perfect spokesman speaking on our behalf, and he does not fail. He is called Jesus Christ the
Lord, for he shall save his people. These pestilent giants that we
have walking in our land are big, yes, but God. Turn over to 1 John 1, and I'll
bring this to a close. While you're turning there, allow
me to quote from Habakkuk 2, verse 4, where it says, the just
shall live by his faith. Where is your faith this day?
That's what our Lord asked them. That's what he asked those men
that's on the ship. Why are you so fearful? Where is your faith? The disciples on the ship, they
trembled in fear, yet the Lord taught them once again, He is
God in the flesh. We constantly are troubled, therefore
we are constantly turned to Him. When we are at our weakest point,
His strength is revealed. We who are purchased of God by
the blood of His darling Son, we put our trust in Him because
of Him. He is the author and the finisher
of our faith. His gift to us is faith in Him. It can simply be put this way,
can't it? We love Him because He first loved us. I didn't just decide one day,
I think I'll love the Lord. No, He showed me Through the preaching of his
gospel, I heard about a God who does not fail, who has loved
me from before the world was, and that's how he shows each
and every one of his people. I loved you, you will love me. So when these giants come your
way, look to your advocate, look at verses five of chapter one. 1 John chapter 1. This then is the message which
we have heard of him, and declare it to you. This is the gospel
message that we have heard of him, and we declare it again,
and again, and again, and again. That God is light, and in him
is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship
with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. But if we walk in light, in the
light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another,
and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all
sin. If we say that we have no sin,
we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess
our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned,
we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. Now let's go to
verses one and two. My little children, these things
I write unto you, that ye sin not, and if any man sin, we have
an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And
He is the propitiation for our sins. And not for ours only,
but also for the sins of the whole world. Now, many want to
take that and say Jesus is a propitiation for the sins of every man. Just
like they take the John 3, 16, for God so loved the world. We
know that's not true. We know that's not true because
God also says in his word, Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. He also says in John chapter
17, I pray not for the world, I pray for them that thou hast
given me. So how can we read this? How can we read this and understand
the truth about it? God's people are spread throughout
all time, throughout all the whole world. As long as the world
is here, as long as the world is in place where it is today,
God has his chosen sinners that he will save, that he shall call.
All that the Father giveth me shall come to me. My sheep hear
my voice. When the last sheep is called, that's the last of the world.
Everything will be burned up and God will create a new heaven
and a new earth. As David said this to Goliath,
now I ask you, do you think David had strong faith? He had exactly
the amount of faith at the time that God wanted him to have it. You and I have the exact amount
of faith that our God wants us to have it. Thou comest to me, said David,
with a sword unto Goliath and with a spear and with a shield,
but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God
of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. Do we have giants in our land?
Absolutely. Absolutely. But our God is bigger
than the giants. Would you turn with me, stand
with me and turn to page 103.

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Joshua

Joshua

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