For our scripture reading, I'd
like to read the seventh psalm. Psalms seven, beginning in verse
one. Oh Lord my God, in thee do I
put my trust. Save me from all them that persecute
me and deliver me. Lest he tear my soul like a lion,
rending it in pieces while there is none to deliver. Oh my Lord,
if I have done this, if there be iniquity in my hands, if I
have rewarded evil unto him, that was at peace with me, yea,
have I delivered him that without cause is mine enemy. Let the
enemy persecute my soul and take it. Yea, let him tread down my
life upon the earth and lay mine honor in the dust, say thou. Arise, O Lord, in thine anger.
Lift up thyself because of the rage of mine enemies and awake
for me to judge the judgment that thou hast commanded. So
shall the congregation of the people compass thee about. For
their sakes, therefore, return thou on high. The Lord shall
judge the people, judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness
and according to mine integrity that is in me. O let the wickedness
of the wicked come to an end, but establish the just, for the
righteous God triumphs the hearts and reigns. My defense is of
God. which saveth the upright in heart.
God judges the righteous and God is angry with the wicked
every day. If he turn not, he will whet
his sword. He hath bent his bow and made
it ready. He hath also prepared for him
the instruments of death. He ordaineth his arrows against
the persecutors. Behold, he travaileth with iniquity
and hath conceived mischief and brought forth falsehood. He made
a pit and digged it, and has fallen into the ditch which he
made. His mischief shall return upon
his own head, and his violent dealings shall come upon his
own pate. I will praise the Lord according
to his righteousness, and will sing praise to the name of the
Lord, Most High. Amen. Listen to these words,
oh, fill with thy spirit till All shall see Christ only, always
living in me. Did you catch that? Isn't that
our desire is that the world might see the Lord in us? And I know that there's a lot
of preachers who stand in pulpits try to declare that if they don't
see the Lord in you, you're not saved, and so on and such on. That's not why God's people want
to see the Lord in us. We want people to see the Lord
in us so that they might have the Lord speak to them. And I'll
give you an example of that here. Turn, if you would, to 2 Corinthians.
2 Corinthians chapter 4. In 2 Corinthians chapter 13,
you don't need to turn it. I'm going to read it for you.
Examine yourselves, it says. Paul is writing to the Corinthians
and he says to them, examine yourselves whether ye be in the
faith. Examine yourselves. Am I in the
faith? Am I in the faith putting my
trust in the Lord for everything? And that includes every speck
of my salvation. Am I putting any faith in my
coming to Christ? If you are, you're putting your
faith in a failure. Am I putting any faith in the
works that I do now that the Lord has saved me? If you do,
you're putting your faith in a failure. But if your faith
is the one who would begin a good work in you and will finish it
till the day of his return, if your faith is in him, that's
a good faith. Am I in that faith? Do those
who walk in the world that I walk in see that faith? I shared this
with some folks on Friday night, and I'm going to share it again
this morning. Kathy and I went to the services for Arlie Valdon. You remember the elderly gentleman
who lived with us here in the residence for a short period
of time while he was waiting for his home down in Folsom.
And then he moved into the home in Folsom, and I would go and
spend as much time as I could with him. He had no other children.
His wife had died and gone on. His sister, his only living relative,
lives way up in Orland somewhere, out in a ranch, and can't hardly
ever get down here. And I understand, that's a long
ways to go. So being the closest one and being my neighbor for
33 years, I thought it would be good for me to spend some
time. And I'm thankful I was able to. I'm really thankful
that I was able to get to know him in a more intimate way than
I did living across the street from him. See, Arlie proved during
these last year that he was a great guy, as the guy I knew living
across the street. But knowing him even closer,
he was a wonderful man. But he didn't know God. Oh, he
believed there was something, just as all mankind do. There's
something. He just didn't believe in the
true and living God. He'd never heard about it. He'd
been raised a Catholic. He'd been raised to know, to
think that men were those that he should go to for his reconciliation
with God. He'd never been heard of the
only one who can reconcile you to God. These folks who knew
Arlie, they were good people, and once again, they didn't know
God either. It's our tendency to say this
phrase, isn't it? Oh, they're in such a better
place. That's what I told the group.
I was allowed to bring a short message. And I told them, I said,
that's our tendency to say he's in a better place now. How do
you know? How do you know? There's only
two places to go. One is a better place and the other is not. The
other is eternal torment. The other is the wages of sin,
eternal death. How do you know? And then I told
him this, and this may shock some of you at first, but I told
the group there, I said, you know, it just so happens that
I too believe he could be in a better place. What? You see, our Lord tells us in
Romans, whosoever calleth upon the name of the Lord shall be
saved. But how are you going to call on someone you've never
heard of? And I'm paraphrasing. How are
you going to call on somebody you've never heard of? Arlie
never heard of the true and living God. How's he going to call on
somebody that he's never heard of? How are you going to believe
in somebody you've never heard of? I too truly believe that he could be
in a better place. I know that the God of salvation,
the very God who has saved me, the very God who has saved all
of his people, can save them to the uttermost whenever he
wants to, and by any means that he decides to. But he does tell
us that we are saved under the preaching, under the foolish
preaching of his word. And as a child of God, my walk
through this world, there's a light that's shining in me. And I can
tell you this, I see the same light in you folks. Now, don't
take me wrong. I'm not trying to say this is
a proof of your salvation. I'm trying to say that if you're
saved, this light is going to be in you. And the light is this,
that Jesus Christ is the light of the world. He's God Almighty. He's the creator of everything.
He's my Lord. Is He yours? I hear you say He
is. That's the light of Jesus shining
in your life. That's the very one who grabbed
ahold of that old dark heart that lived in sin and loved sin,
pulled it out, and put a heart of light in there instead, giving
life. It's called quickening. Isn't
that what scripture calls it, quickening, making alive? It's
called quickening the spirit. I've walked with Arlie at least
twice a month, sometimes all four weeks of the month. I would
go down and we would take walks and we would talk around the
building if nothing else. Sometimes we would just sit in
his room. But for the most part, we would get out. Thankfully,
to the men of this church, he had a scooter that he could get
around on. But we would go for walks. I know you know what I'm
talking about. I know, my blesser, you know
exactly what I'm talking about because I've heard you around
those around you. And I've heard your actions.
I've heard your words. You'll be on the roof talking
to the Lord, not just in front of God's people, but in front
of anybody that the Lord brings around you. That's the light
of Christ in us. That's Christ doing a work in
us. It's not something that we're
doing to save ourselves. It's something we're doing because
God has saved us. We want to glorify our Savior
by sharing with the world. What is our peace in this world?
It's our Savior. It's the Lord himself. This is
the light in you, the light that shineth in our hearts. And Arlie
was one who saw that light in me. And because that light was
in Arlie's life for a short period of time, our Lord can do anything
with it. Do I know what the Lord did? Absolutely not. I have no idea. But I know this, He saved a man
on the cross who was just about to die, just moments before he
died. How did He save that man on that
cross that day? Through the preaching of His
Word. That man hung on that cross, he was railing against God the
same way the other one was. Something changed him in just
the moment, in the blink of an eye. Something changed him and
gave him a new heart to believe right there before he was about
to die. Could R. Lee be, could he be this very
day in the presence of the Lord? Absolutely. And then I close
with this. My hope is not in what Arlie
was in this world. Was he a good man? Yes, but that's
not where my hope is. Your hope might be, is what I
said to those people, your hope might be that he was a good man
and he's in a better place. My hope is in a better hope,
that's in the Lord Jesus. I told him, I said, you can't
be around John Reeves. You ask my kids, they'll tell
you. Yeah, Dad's always talking about his Lord in some way or
another. Yeah. Maybe someday they'll have
the Lord speak to their heart just as he spoke to ours. Brother Mike mentioned something
about, Brother Mike Loveless mentioned something about he
wanted to be here a couple Friday nights back, but he also wanted
to be where his grandchildren were playing down the street
in the park, some sports. I don't know if it surprised
him or not, this might surprise you, but I encouraged him to
be there instead of here. Why? Because you never know how
the Lord is going to use that light in you to shine in the
hearts of one of your loved ones. Is it your dearest hope that
your loved ones may come to know the Lord as you do? I want to
consider our walk before the world. Does the gospel the good
news of Christ and Him crucified shine in you. Look with me, if
you would, verses 1 through 6 of 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verses
1 through 6. Therefore, seeing we have this
ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not. This is the ministry of every
one of God's children. We have received mercy. We didn't just make a decision
one day. God made the decision for us. When God offers His mercy, He
doesn't offer it as something that can be refused. He puts
the power of God behind it, and it is received. Verse 2, But
have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in
craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully. but
by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every
man's conscience in the sight of God. But if our gospel be
hid, it is hid to them that are lost. Verse four, in whom the
God of this world 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. Verse five, for we preach
not ourselves, but Christ Jesus, the Lord, and our servants, your
servants, for Jesus' sake. Here's the verse I wanted to
bring us to this morning. For God, who commanded, did you
notice that? What did I just say a moment
ago? It comes with the power of God. It's the same power as
I told those folks at the funeral. The same power that God has when
the Lord Jesus himself said, Lazarus, come forth. Lazarus came forth. Did you know
he was bound in his grave clothes? You know what they did back then? They wrapped him up like a mummy.
They wrapped him up, they put a little towel over their faces,
and they'd wrap him up. Total oil lines to preserve their
bodies like they do today. I don't know if it was embalming
fluid, I don't think it was that, but it was something. It said
that they had to loose him. The Lord told them to loose him,
meaning cut him loose from the clothes that bound him. He came
by the power of God. That's the Lord Jesus. He speaks
with the power of God because he is God. He's God in the flesh. He's God, manifest in the flesh.
He is equal with the Father. Everything about the Lord Jesus
Christ in characteristics, in knowledge, in will, in purpose,
can be found in the Father and in the Spirit. They are one of
mine. Three separate persons, one of
mine. You cannot worship one if you
don't worship the other two. And if you worship the Lord Jesus,
you worship all three. For God who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. God commands his light to shine
in the hearts of his people. When the Lord asked his disciples,
who do you say that I am? And they answered, a prophet
of this, a prophet of that. He said to Peter, who do you
say that I am? Why, Lord, thou art the Son of
the living God. That means one who has all power.
That means who is sovereign over all things. And our Lord Jesus
said to him, blessed are you, for flesh and blood have, flesh
and blood was standing right before him. Flesh and blood was
standing right before this man who said, Thou, you, art the
Son of God, with all power in heaven and earth. Flesh and blood
hath not revealed this unto you, but my Father who is in heaven.
The very one who commands the light to shine in us. The very one who brings us to
the point where we cry out to him, Lord. We call him Lord because
he is now our Lord. He's always been our Lord. He's
the Lord of everything. But now we call him as he is
because he is. He has made himself Lord in our
hearts. Oh, that I pray God will make
himself Lord to you before you go through that doormark death.
Oh, how I pray that he has made Arlie himself Lord to Arlie before
he went through that doormark death. And I know that he can. This is the light that shines God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. What is the
knowledge and the glory of God? It's in the face of our Savior,
Christ Jesus. Now turn over to 1 Peter. 1 Peter chapter 1. People who know
me best, those who know me, who knew me before the Lord of all
that is, before he had called me out of
darkness have seen the difference in me today than what I was before."
What is it they see? They see a different man. They
see a man who sins. Do they see a man who sins no
more? Do they see a man who walks uprightly? Do they see a man who is just
and perfect? No. No, they see a man who occasionally
lets one of those words as a truck driver slip out of his mouth.
They see a man who occasionally puffs up his chest and says,
see what I did? See how straight that ball went
right down the fairway? Do you see what I did? I may
try, folks, to be a just man. I try to turn away from my sins. I try to be a better man than
I was, but the truth is I'm not. In the sight of God, I am still,
in the flesh, a sinner. Yet in the sight of God, those
sins have been laid upon my Savior. That's the difference. That's
the difference with you. That's the same difference with
you. You're still a sinner, but if you belong to God, your sins
have been paid for. Many walk this earth more righteously
than I do. Many could be seen as a better
person. Hardly, you might say. You would
say, actually, as a better person. Some may be even called a better
Christian than I. What do those who cross my path
see in me that was not there before? What is this light shining
in me? As one who has been given the
gift of faith, I now credit all things that happen to the one
who rules all that is. That's the difference. That's
the difference between me now and then. I wonder, what's the
difference between you and what you were before God called you?
What's the difference before you? Have you heard of the word
repentance? It means to turn from something
and turn to something else. John the Baptist preached repentance. He went about preaching repentance. What was it he was preaching
repentance of? He was living in a world of people. People who had become so religious
that that was their God. Their religion. It was no longer
the Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah. It was no longer the one who
would deliver them. And it had become what they were
doing. That was their God. They were
so religious, their ceremonies, their actions, their standing
in the courtyards, praying out loud to bring attention to themselves,
it was all about my religion, my religion, rather than the
one who could deliver. He preached repentance, meaning
turning from. Turn from this self-righteous
religion that you're in. Turn away from the religions
of the world and turn to the One. You see, that's what repentance
is, is turn away from that and turn to Him. Turn away from the
religion of self, of believing, I'm a good person, therefore
I am. That's what R. Lee believed.
When I first sat down and began talking with him in details about
some of the things of God, his first belief was all about how
a good person he had been. I'm going to see my wife in heaven,
he would say, because we've been good people. That's our nature,
folks. You don't even have to be religious
to have that thought. Here's repentance. to a sinner,
to one who has been called out of darkness. I once walked in
darkness, and now I walk in his light because of him. Because
he has given me life. Because he has given me faith.
Because he has given me a new heart to believe. Because he
has placed a new song in my heart. Because he, because he, because
he, not because I. Not because I made a decision,
but because He made that decision. It's our nature to take credit
for what we can. It's the nature of God in us
that gives Him the credit for everything. It used to be all
about me, but now it's all about the Lord. The difference between
then and now is now I believe God. I believe His Word about
what I am before Him, dead in trespasses and sin. I believe
His Word that He chose me from before the world was, not me
choosing Him. I believe. I believe that His
blood was shed for a limited amount of people, and because
it was for that limited amount of people, they shall be saved. I believe that His grace, when
He shed it upon me and called me out of darkness, I came because
of Him, not because of me. And I believe He's sitting on
His throne right now, keeping me every moment of every day. Do you? Do you believe? Our verse, our text said, For
God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath
shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God, to give the light, the knowledge, the knowledge
of who God is in the face of His Son, the Lord Jesus. There
is no subject more important than the nature and the extent
and the inward changes that take place in us when a man is savingly
joined to Christ. Some want to think that sanctification
is God's work and that man has nothing to do with it. They say
that God saves us, He sanctifies us, and works His will in us,
and we need to give no concern to the matter of our holiness
within our flesh. Others think that the work of
sanctification is a personal holiness in man's work entirely,
and it gives God us the means and the ways to see what we will
make of ourselves. Peter proves both of those to
be error. On the one hand, he teaches that
we are the elect of God, born of the Spirit, given a new nature,
a new heart, a new direction, and indwelt by the Spirit of
God. But on the other hand, this dramatic change is accomplished
through the knowledge and the belief of the truth. Read it
for yourselves in 2 Thessalonians 2.13 or Mark 16.15-16. Folks, we are born again. We
are born again from those who used to walk in darkness. Now
we walk in light. If you don't walk in that light,
you need to examine yourself. Am I in the faith? Are you with
me here in 1 Peter 2? Look at verse 1 if you would.
Wherefore, laying aside all malice and all guile, and hypocrisies
and envies and all evil speakings. Paul's encouraging us, he's telling
us, lay aside all thoughts of malice that you can, lay aside
all the guile that was in you, all the hypocrisies and the envies
and all the evil speakings. He's exhorting us to lay aside
to be done with those things. Things that are disagreeable
and contrary to spiritual life. And it's not a once and for all
situation. It's accomplished by a continual
effort of laying aside the following. Lay aside malice, ill will, and
ill feelings towards others. When those feelings build up
in you, I encourage you as Paul, lay them aside. Folks, let me
stop for just a moment. Any man who does not preach grace,
Any man who does not preach grace is not preaching the gospel,
but we must also preach the responsibility. They go hand in hand. Where that
line lies, I can't tell you. And any man who tries to doesn't
know what he's talking about. Scripture gives us both. Salvation is by grace, but the
works are because of grace. Turn from your malice, your ill
will, your ill feeling towards others. Turn from guile and deceit. Turn from hypocrisies. Turn from
envy. Turn from evil speaking. Look
at verses two and three. As newborn babes desire the sincere
milk of the word that ye may grow thereby. Paul takes for
granted, or Peter takes for granted that we're born again. He's speaking
to the children of God, the family of God. Therefore, as babies,
as a baby desires milk, we too should have the same hunger,
the same thirst of the word of God that we may grow in grace
and love and the knowledge and patience and humility and in
faith. Verse three, if so be ye have
tasted, here's that milk. that the Lord is gracious. This is the milk that guides
us and helps us to turn away from malice, to turn away from
guile, to turn away from hypocrisies, to turn away from envies and
all evil speakings. If so be ye have tasted that
the Lord is gracious. To whom coming as to into a living
stone Verse 4, disallowed, rejected indeed of men, but chosen of
God and precious. To whom coming, it says, that
means believing on Christ and living in Christ. These are not
isolated acts of faith, but a continuous coming to Him, continually exercising
a faith in His love towards us, His grace towards us, His blood
towards us, and His intercession. We came to Christ and we continue
to come to Him, looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher
of our faith. We come unto Him as a living
stone. Peter's not a rock upon which the church is built on.
Christ is that stone. Christ is our solid foundation. He was rejected and refused by
religious people of that day and chosen to the Father as our
surety. Head of the church. Savior of
the body and heir to all things, verses five and six. Ye also,
as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood
to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Believers are stones found in
the same quarry as all men are, but were dug out by God's grace. separated by God's spirit and
given life by our Lord Jesus Christ. We are made a spiritual
building, and we become the house of God, as it says in Hebrews
3.6. This is the distinction from
the material tabernacle of the old, which the presence of God
dwelt in as a type. We are the tabernacle of God
spiritually. We are a holy priesthood, like
priests of old, who offer sacrifices of faith, offerings of love and
praise acceptable to God and our Savior, the Lord Jesus. Did
you know that 1 Peter 2.6 is a quotation from the Old Testament?
Listen to Isaiah 2.28.14. Wherefore, hear the word of the
Lord, ye scornful men that rule his people, which are in Jerusalem.
Because ye have said, we have made a covenant with death, and
with hell are we at agreement. When the overflowing scourge
shall pass through, it shall not come unto us, for we have
made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves.
Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, behold, I lay in Zion for
a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone.
sure, a sure foundation, he that believeth shall make haste. Those false religionists sought
acceptance, they sought deliverance, protection, and judgment in a
form of ceremony and works in their religion. Their religion
had become their god. They were not afraid, for they
felt secure in what they had done. but their refuge and their
lies shall be what destroys them. Look at verses seven and eight.
Unto you, therefore, which believe, he is precious. But unto them
which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed,
the same is made the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling,
and a rock of offense, even to them which stumble at the word,
being disobedient, whereunto also they were appointed. unto
you who have seen your guilt, who have seen your inability,
who have seen your need of a Savior, who have seen His grace and power
to save, who have received Him as prophet, priest, and king,
He is precious. Isn't that what brings us back
every Sunday? To hear about our precious Savior? To hear about how our precious
Savior became a man for us? To hear how our precious Savior
shed his own blood for us. Not to have religious ceremonies,
although we do come to the table of remembrance. To you and I,
he is precious in every way. But for the unbelieving, the
very stone which they reject and refuse to become the main
cornerstone By decree and act of God, therefore, instead of
being to them the foundation of their refuge, he is a stone
and the cause of them to stumble. That's what we read in Romans
9.32. Wherefore, because they sought
it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law, they
stumbled at the stumbling stone. That could be you and I, folks.
Every message brings us right back to this. That could be you
and I, by God, by grace. Our Lord says in verse 33, as
it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone, a
rock of offense, whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
What is that light in us? As we walk through this world,
it's the light of Christ. It's the light of Him as our
Savior. It becomes obvious to those who walk in our lives that
we have turned from self, from ourselves as being gods, to look
into the one and true God Almighty in the face of His Son, the Lord
Jesus. How am I different than before? The songwriter puts it
best, who wrote these words, 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. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, had shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. I see the glory of God in the
face of my substitute. And that substitute is Jesus
Christ, my Savior. Amen.