Good morning. Such a pleasure
to see you folks again. Look out there and see your smiling
faces. I've said this before, but it is a great, great blessing
to many of us around the country. To God's people. Those who love
Christ, just like we read a moment ago, And that psalm, that scripture
reading that we just read there, Psalm 116, you can boil that
down to just this phrase, we love Him because He first loved
us. Isn't that wonderful? Thank you for inviting me here.
Thank you to you dear folks there in rescue, my brothers and sisters
for allowing your pastor to come down here for this Sunday and
preach to these dear folks. These dear children of God who
are gathered here to worship their Savior. Couldn't go anywhere
else. There's no other place in town
to go to. This is where you live and this
is where you come together right here in this building to worship
Him. That blesses so many of us. So
many. You ever read a scripture and you think
to yourself, why can't the world see what it's saying? It's so obvious. It is so obvious
that our Lord says, Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. Isn't that obvious? You know,
there's a whole religion out there who's taken those words
and completely changed it. No, no, no. It doesn't mean he
hated Esau. It means something else to their
imagination. Why is that so important? Christ didn't have to love any
of us. He had every reason to hate Every
one of us, just like He did, Esau. Every reason. But one man, the God-man, chose
to love a people from before the foundation of the world.
Isn't that what Ephesians chapter 1 tells us? We were predestinated
to be adopted into the children of God. In love He had predestinated
us, it says. Turn, if you would, in your Bibles,
to the first chapter of John. John chapter 1. And while you're turning there,
allow me to read from Isaiah chapter 9, verse 2. Our Lord says, inspired the prophet
Isaiah to write these words. He says, The people that walked
in darkness have seen a great light. They that dwell in the land of
the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. Why can't people understand the
Word of God? Same reason you and I couldn't. There was a time in my life when
I had no desire for the Word of God. It was preached all around
me. I don't remember whether it was
the truth or not, but I know I was raised in a Baptist church.
My biological father was a preacher. I was really close to a man by
the name of O.C. Harris, who was our preacher
when I was a kid. My dad, my stepfather, the one
I called dad, the one that was sent in this world to treat me
like a son and to be a dad for me, he was a preacher. Now, I
know he was a preacher of truth because I heard him preach on
a videotape, or not a video, but an audio tape. after he had
passed away. My mom found some tapes of him
preaching. And he preached the truth. He preached grace. He preached Christ. Christ in
him crucified. So I grew up. I grew up in it,
but folks, I never heard nothing. I was just like any human being. I was a rebel to the core. I
was my own ruler. that I made my own destination. It was going down the wrong road,
I can tell you that, but it was my destination. It was my reason
for going down that road. Nobody told me what to do. I
wasn't going to allow my parents or anybody else or any God to
guide my path. John was on his own path. Did
you know that Paul was on a path just like that at one time? Those of you who know the Scriptures
well, you know what he was. He was a Pharisee's a Pharisee.
He was top of the line, trained by the best there was in the
world at that time. He learned underneath the professor. Yet he walked in darkness on
that road that day, the road to Damascus. And the light of
our Savior shined on him that day. So much so that it blinded
him. When I first sat and heard the
Gospel preached with sitting alongside my brother and my sister
there in rescue, I remember saying this, that
makes more sense with that guy in the pulpit saying than anything
I've ever heard in my whole life. You know what he was saying?
He was saying that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh. sovereign
ruler over everything. He wasn't this God that I had
heard about in the world, this One who was waiting for somebody
to make a decision, this One who was waiting for you to come
down and pray at the front of the altar, or waiting for you
to go to some box and speak to some guy in a box and confess
your sins to him, or get in the waters of baptism. No! He was
preaching. He was telling the people that
day about a God who rules One who deserves to be called God.
And I thought to myself, wow! I've never heard that! That's
awesome! And my sister had to poke me
with her elbow, and she said, look at you! Look at you! You're
sitting on the edge of your chair! And I was! I looked down. By golly, she's right. Week went by, and you know, John
Reeves, he was the same old John Reeves. He wasn't any different
than he was before. Sunday come around. Where are
you going? Says my wife. I don't know. I guess, you know what? I'm going
to go to church again. What? Really? Yeah. Yeah, I'm going
to go to church. And I got up there and after
the message was over, I went to the pastor and Elder Steve
Doyle and I said, what in the world is going on? What's happening
to me? Can you imagine what Paul was
thinking about that day on the road to Damascus? Boom! All of
a sudden he's blind in the back. Can't see anything but a bright
light in front of his face. What's going on? What happened
here? You don't hear about these kind
of things happening. I hadn't heard about anything
like this in any of the churches. You know what I heard in the
churches that I had gone to? If you'll just come down here
to the front and pray with us, you can be a better person. I heard from this man in the
pulpit say, all men are dead in trespasses
and sin. I heard him say, the heart of
man is desperately wicked. Who can know it? And I got to thinking about my own heart. And the Lord grabbed a hold of
it and crushed it. crushed it with who I am before
Him. That day, just like it was for Paul, the people that walked in darkness saw a great light. A Savior. One whose purpose could not be
turned by anything I had done. One who had loved me before the
world ever was. I heard the gospel. The good
news that Jesus Christ came to save sinners. Do you remember that day? Can you look back and remember
the day you were blinded to the things of the world with the
glory of the Son of God? That's what happened to Paul.
That's what happened to me. I heard the gospel, the good
news that Christ came to save sinners. The people that walked in darkness
have seen a great light. They that dwell in the land of
the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. If you've
had that great light shine in your heart, you know the darkness
you once walked in. You know that song, Amazing Grace. It still grabs a hold of my heart.
Folks, it was six months to a year before I could sing that song
without tearing up. It meant that much. What amazing grace that God would
love a sinner as me. What amazing grace that He would
shine His light in my heart. An undeserving heart. An old
stony heart was cut away. The one that used to shake its
fist at the God and say, I'll not have that one rule over me.
I'm my own boss. We know what the darkness that
we used to walk in is like, don't we? God help us never to forget
that pit that He drug us out of, that He pulled us up out
of, that He reached down and grabbed our arm and said, you're
mine, I'm not going to let you go. Just like He did with Peter
when Peter took his eyes off of Christ for a moment and looked
at the boisterous winds and the seas that were splashing up on
the boat. And upon him, as he walked on
the water, he began to sink. And what did the Lord do? He
reached down and grabbed ahold of him. Why? Because he belongs
to Christ. He belongs to God. Jacob. Peter. Bob. John. Mark. I can just go on
and on with all the names Christ says, have I loved. He could
have said, have I hated. Folks, that's grace. Do you get
that? Do you get the amazing grace
that God would love any of us? We know the darkness that we
once walked in. We sing the song, Once I was
blind, but now I see. That's why, as I opened the message
with, that's why those that we say, how come they can't see
this? How come they can't understand
what that verse is? It's so clear! It's so clear
that God loved one of the two twins that were born before they
were even born, that they were still in their mother's womb.
Why? So that election would be sure. what it is to be chosen of God.
We know that we would never have chose Him if He had not chosen
us first. We know that we would have never
loved Him if He had not loved us first. That psalm was all
about the love of God for His people. Lord, help us never forget the
darkness of our sin against our Creator. It's not easy to look
upon ourselves of what we naturally are, is it? I don't like the fact that I'm
a sinner, but I am. I don't want to be a sinner,
but I am. We were looking at this in Bible
study. The Spirit is willing. but the
flesh is weak. That's a tough way to look at
yourself. You know, pride, the most ugliest thing we have in
us, used to rule over our lives. I'm not such a bad person. I'm
not as bad as that guy who killed all those people back east and
ate their bodies. I'm not as bad as that man who
ran a country and killed all those millions of people in Israel.
I'm not as bad as my neighbor who lets their dog go over here
and come and potty in my yard. I'm not as bad as the guy who
cut me off on the freeway. You ever think of yourself like
that? Oh, that was common for me before the Lord shined His
light. You know, I thought about this as I was looking into this
study. Paul was blinded. He was blinded to the things
of the world. Isn't that funny? How after the
Lord calls us out of darkness and shines His light in our hearts,
we're blinded to all that stuff that's going on out there now.
Oh, we see it. That's not what I'm talking about.
I'm talking about it doesn't have any effect on us, hardly.
Why are things going on in the world? Because the Lord has purposed
it to do so. Why did that crazy guy on the
motorcycle do what he did yesterday? Because the Lord purposed him
to do so. Every single thing that happens
has been purposed by our God. If not, then you can't call Him
God, can you? He's either sovereign over everything,
or He's not God at all. You ever try to help somebody?
You know, if you could just stop doing that and walk this way. I know, I was there. I did that once. If you could
just stop doing that and walk this way, things would be a whole
lot easier for you. My mom tried that with me. It
didn't work. Didn't work at all. My mom lived
an example for me, yet I could not see it. I could not see myself
any other way than the way that I was. I did not want to see
it her way, for it would have proved that my way was wrong. Looking at things the way she
tried to teach me, I would have seen that what I was really doing
was wrong, rebellious, and wicked. And I liked the way I was. Listen to these words in John
3.19. I'll be there with John chapter
1 in just a moment. Stay there. This is the condemnation,
3.19. That light has come into the
world and men loved darkness. Does that not describe you? That
describes John Reeves before the Lord called him out of darkness
to a tea. Men loved darkness rather than
light, and here's why. Because their deeds were evil.
For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh
to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. Our very
nature ruled our will. We ran from truth. Is it any
wonder that we live in a world Where people truly believe that
a man can be a woman or a woman can be a man. How ridiculous. Yet people truly believe it as
such. What a lie. Yet true people believe
it to be truth. So many have turned away from
many truths of this world and turned to lies. And religion
is no different. Whatever you may think is truth
is true is what they're saying. Light reveals the truth. Darkness
hides it. Here's a truth. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. That's in Romans 3.23 and 5.12. Here's another truth for you.
There are none that seeketh after the Lord. Did you know that?
I've had people saying, I've always been looking for the Lord,
and I finally found Him. I finally found him over in this
church on the hill over here, Skyline Church. I finally found
him in this pastor or this minister who preaches, pumps you up and
builds you up. Our Lord tells us, There are none that seeketh the
Lord. Romans 3 11. Yet God has mercy. on whom He
will have mercy. Some are loved with an everlasting
love. His love for His people is so
great that He could not let them spend eternity paying for their
own sins. He could not leave them in the
darkness that they were born into, so He, who is God, became
flesh. Look with me, if you would, here
at John 1. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Why can't they see that? In the beginning was God. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. How can I explain
it? I don't know. But I can tell
you what, that's very clearly speaking that this one, this
word that we read, that we hold in our very hand, is all about
God. Not gods. God. One God. God the Father, God
the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. There's only one God, folks.
Three distinct purposes, absolutely. Yet one purpose. One will. One mind. In the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The
same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by
Him. And without Him was not anything
made that was made. He created all that there is,
is what that's telling us. Everything that we see, all the
air, all the molecules, everything is created by this One who is
the Word. Now, look over verse 14. Explanation
of what it means by the Word. And the Word was made flesh. How can they not see this so
clearly? This whole book is about Him.
It's a Him book. Not H-Y-M-N, but Him, H-I-M,
capital H-I-M. The Lord Jesus Christ. The very
One who is God in the flesh that walked this earth. He was made
flesh and He dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, and
the glory is the only begotten of the Father, full of grace. And what's that last word? Truth. I've had people say, God could save somebody underneath
another ministry. He could save them underneath
the Jehovah Witnesses ministry, or the Methodist ministry, or
the Catholic ministry, or the Muslim ministry, or any other
ministry. He's God. He can do anything.
He doesn't. He's very clear to us. You must
worship God in spirit and in truth. We beheld His glory full of grace
and truth. God does not save under lies. You may learn some things about
who God is in another ministry. You may learn some things about
the truth of God in other ministries, but He's not going to save you
until He brings you under the preaching of His Word in truth. In truth. This great light, the light of truth, the light
of glory is God who became a man. Look at verses 4 and 5. And the
light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it
not. Oh, I skipped one. I started
at five. Sorry. Let's go back. Started
at four. In Him was life, and life was the light of men, and
the light shineth in darkness, and darkness comprehended it
not. Folks, the name of that light
is Jesus Christ the Lord. He is called Jesus, for He shall
save His people. It says in Scripture, All that
the Father giveth Me shall come to Me. That's God's Word. That Word is truth. When Saul of Tarsus was traveling
to persecute believers on the road to Damascus, God came to
him and a light was so bright that it blinded him. He was not
seeking that light. No one does. People seek something
to relieve their conscience, but they're not looking for the
truth. They're looking for something they can do. What must I do to
be saved? What can I do to be saved? God's
preachers stand before you and tell you nothing. Anything you
do will do nothing but pollute the gospel truth. And the gospel
truth is this, that salvation is of the Lord. Boom. Period. One of the things that amazes
me most about true preachers, ones who preach the truth, is
they don't stand up before people and tell them, you can be better
if you just do this. I hate holier-than-thou people. That's what bothered me about
religion the whole time I was growing up. Everybody was better
because they were holier-than-thou. The truth is this, folks. Your
holiness, if you're holy at all, is only in Christ. It's not going
to get any better in this flesh until the Lord takes you out
of this world. You're going to be battling the battle as we
saw in our Bible study. And if you don't have the armor
of God, you're going to lose. That's exactly where I was. without the armor
of God, without the light shining in my heart. Only God can deal with the hearts
of men. I can stand here and preach all
day. Any of God's ministers can preach without stopping, and
it's not going to do any good unless God does a work in our
hearts. We came into this world with
hearts that were desperately wicked. Turn over to 2 Corinthians
chapter 4. 2 Corinthians chapter 4. We came into this world with
hearts that were desperately wicked, dark as can be. And we will come to the light,
and we will not come to the light, for it reveals our depravity,
it reveals our wickedness, it reveals the vile, evil, self-righteousness
that is in all men. Our Lord Jesus Christ is on His
throne ruling over everything right now. People say, well,
He's going to come back I was asked this question, what do
you think of John MacArthur? I'm not ashamed or bashful to
use other people's names, by the way, as you can tell. What
do you think of John MacArthur? I said, well, he's a pretty knowledgeable
guy about Christ, about the Bible. He knows a lot about the Bible.
But I have one problem. He says our Lord is going to
return and reign, that he does not reign. I've heard him say
it. He does not reign right now. He will return and reign on a
throne here on this earth. Bolonialism. Those up in rescue
are laughing right now. That's a word I made up three
weeks ago. I'll let you figure out what it means. Bolonialism. Our God rules on His throne right
now. Death could not hold Him as we
read in Acts chapter 2. He satisfied the justice of God
the Father, and God the Father would not leave him in the grave. He was raised. Every time he
spoke about death, did he not say on the third day that I will
be raised again? Is that not true? Is that not
what he said in his word? Well, he's sitting on his throne
right now. He doesn't need to come back here to some handmade
throne of men. He's got His own throne in heaven,
and He's sitting there ruling it right now, doing everything
according to the purpose of His will. Read Ephesians 1 all the
way through, and you'll see exactly that. It's His purpose. His will. The Lord Jesus Christ. That's why we can read in Romans
8, Here I'm going to do something
foolish and read something again off memory. No, I don't want to do that.
I want to read it exactly how the Lord says, What shall we
say then to these things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? If He's sitting on His throne
right now, working everything out according to the counsel
of His own purpose, according to His own will, as we read in
Ephesians 1, what shall we say then to these things? If God
be for us. Remember this. Because this is
something we forget often. Especially when the waves start
to crash against our little boat. We forget that He who has loved
us with an everlasting love, He's for us. Who can be against
us? You know what I first thought
about when I heard that? I thought about John Reeves. John Reeves
can't be against John Reeves. Think about that. If God be for
us, I can't get in the way. If I could get in the way, I
would and mess things up. I know that. Then He says this,
He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all,
how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. The
very One who is sitting on His throne who justifies you and
I. We are justified fully in Him. It's just as if I'd never sinned
is what that word, you could boil it down to that. Who is He that condemneth? It
is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again. Isn't it
good news, folks? Death couldn't hold Him. I mentioned this just a couple
of weeks back up there in Rescue. They won't mind me mentioning
it again, I'm sure. Do you realize that our Savior
was perfectly made my sin? You talk about something that
boggles your mind, if you try to wrap your mind around it,
it could pop. He who knew no sin, who was perfect
in every way, perfectly took my sin. And in doing so, He perfected
us forever. Perfected them that are sanctified. Isn't that what it tells us in
Hebrews? He perfected us. You can't get any more perfected
than that. You can't get any more sanctified
than that if you're sanctified in Christ. You can't get any
more justified if you're justified in Christ. He did it perfectly.
When the Lord says that it was finished, it was finished. It
was done. It was so much done that God
the Father looked down through time before anything was ever
made and said, it's done in Him. Great is His faithfulness. That's the God we serve. That's
the God who loved us and gave Himself for us. Oh, I hope you
go away today with this one thought in mind as you walk out into
that door into the world and the waves start to come up against
you again. If God before me, who can be against me? He's ruling on His throne today
Making intercession. He's our high priest. It says
that all over in the book of Hebrews. What is a high priest?
He's the one who is to go between God and man. Man can't go before
God. He couldn't even go on the mount
where God sat, otherwise he'd be burned up and killed. Only
one could go up on that mountain, and that was Moses. Our Lord is ruling everything,
every detail according to His purpose. He is either God of
all things or He's God of nothing. There is no in-between. He either
rules or He doesn't. He's either Lord of all or He's
not Lord at all. This is what one sees. when the
light is shined in our hearts. I remember that. I remember sitting
there thinking to myself, this man before me is talking about
one who deserves to be called God. Not some wishy-washy, want
to be something, who's waiting for man to do something, but
one who does what he's purposed to do. Look at verses 3 and 6 of 2 Corinthians
4. But if our gospel be hid, it
is hid to them that are lost. In whom the God of this world,
verse 4, hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest
the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of
God, should shine unto them. For we preach Christ, for we
preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves,
your servants, for Jesus' sake." Now here's what I want you to
see right here. We're talking about the great light, the very
light that God shines in the hearts of His people. for God
who commanded the light." Who? Did man make a decision there?
Did man do something? No. It says, for God who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts. I mentioned this in Friday night's
study. We were talking about In Matthew
16, where the Lord said, Blessed art thou to Simon of Arjona,
for flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee. And
we talked about what that was. What was it that flesh and blood
had not revealed? Flesh and blood cannot reveal
that Christ is the Son of the living God. God the Father must
reveal that. I can't do that. You can't do
it by making a decision. You can't do it by studying the
Word of God. If you could do it by studying
the Word of God, wouldn't the Pope be one of God's? He studies it. Those Catholic
priests, they study day and night. Read, read, read. I know somebody
who's read the Bible all the way through, five times, and
has no idea, no idea, that the Sabbath is Jesus Christ. Playing his bell to me. I bet
it's playing his bell to you folks as well. God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts. Now look
at the last part of this verse. To give light. Light of what? Light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Do you believe? Do you believe that Jesus Christ
is God? Do you believe He is your God? Christ rules all things. All
things were created by Him, as we read there in John chapter
1. All things are held up by Him.
He, the Lord Jesus Christ, is above all things. And that's
how great He is. He is that great light. Look at verse 7 of 2 Corinthians
chapter 4. But we have this treasure. This
is talking about that great light in earthen vessels. That the
excellency of the power may be of God and not us. Oh, how I wish my brothers and
sisters and aunts and uncles and all my religious friends
could see this for the truth it is. It's not any power in
you. You don't have any. I'm sorry
to tell you this, but you have none. We are but worms before
our Almighty Creator who have rebelled against Him and shook
our fist at Him. May God and His love come to
His people. And He says they will. All that
the Father giveth me shall come to me. That's our hope for our
lost loved ones. That's our only hope. but that
they would see that the Word of God shows that it is the power
of God that does this in them, not themselves. It wasn't your
decision. It wasn't coming to the front
and praying a prayer or getting into the waters of baptism or
going to church on a Sunday or Saturday or whatever day you
think is a holy day. It's Christ. It's the Lord Jesus
who saves His people. Salvation is of the Lord. Jonah
paid a great price to learn that. May God cause us to pay a great
price and learn it as well. That's a tough thing to ask for. Whatever it takes. I have children
who hate the Lord as I did. My only hope for them is that
Christ loved them as He loved me from before the world was. I'll close with these words.
Romans 5, verse 6, For when we were yet without strength, in
due time Christ died for the ungodly. That's John. That was
John Reeves at the age of 40. Verse 7, it says, for scarcely
for a righteous man will one die, yet preadventure for a good
man some would even dare to die. That's my Savior. But God commendeth
His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. Much more then, being now justified
by His blood, we shall be saved. from the wrath of God through
him.