Our devotional this morning is
the article written by Pastor Tommy Robbins. And he titles
his article, A Good Hope. A Good Hope. It's only when our
Lord in grace and mercy takes away our imaginary strength that
we truly look to Him and trust Him. This we do not learn in
creeds or confessions of faith. This we are taught by Him in
a personal relationship in the experience of grace. Pastor Robin writes this, he
says, I only find hope in Him when there is no hope anywhere
else. It's easy to learn correct doctrine But faith, hope, comfort,
rest in Christ is a living experience. Justification, redemption, atonement,
sanctification and glorification are not only doctrinal truths
believed in the heart, but they are the truths experienced in
the heart in regeneration. Our Lord is our life. and all
that is in Him is ours. There is no hope in what I know.
My only hope is in Him and what He has done. May God in mercy
shut us up to Christ alone. Amen. Will you join me in the book
of John, chapter 5, please. John chapter 5. Yeah, I know
there's some of you who have no idea what I'm about to
talk about. This thing that we use called Facebook on the internet. You know, I don't say a lot on
there. I like to repost some things that have truths in them,
you know, carefully reading them to make sure that it's not somebody's
idea of what the gospel is, but what the truth of the gospel
is, and that it matches scripture. I like to repost those, but my
main point about going onto Facebook is to Keep up with loved ones. I have family down in Orangeville
that I don't really associate with, my stepsisters. But I know
what's going on in their lives because I'm able to go on Facebook
and enjoy what they have going on in their lives. My stepsister
loves to put pictures. She's in this club where you
put pictures of different lighthouses on there. And it's a lot of fun.
I enjoy those pictures and stuff. I've got family in Colorado that
I haven't seen since I was a little kid and I'm able to keep up with
them. I have a cousin's granddaughter who's three now I think or something. But when she was born, she was
born with a bad heart. And I've had the blessings. And
I got to tell you, it's a blessing to watch that little girl grow
up, even though I've never met her. So there are some things
that have been very beneficial. And last week, like usually,
I'm going through Facebook, looking at things going on. And sometimes people. I don't know
if they do it on purpose. I kind of think they do, maybe,
because they like to get into discussions about things. They'll
put something up there that will just spark a conversation. And the next thing you know,
they've got like 100 people making different comments about different
stuff on there, right? And I think it was Deanne down
in San Diego area, or somebody. I can't remember who it was.
But they put on there a picture of some bones, a skeleton. And
it was embedded in the mud like you would find it if you were
brushing away the dirt and finding old bones from 200 years ago
or whatever. And man, I'll tell you. It had this statement on it.
Let me finish the picture. I've drawn the picture. Here's
a picture of some bones, a skeleton, human skull. And then it had
this statement on it. It says, dead in trespasses and
sin at the top. And then at the bottom, it said
this. It said, but at any moment of his own free will, he will
rise up and accept Jesus Christ. That's what most churches in
today's world are exactly telling you. All you got to do is rise
up. All you got to do is get up and
start doing it the right way. What a huge debate this brought
about. All kinds of religious foolery. Even Muhammadism. There was a
couple in there who were posting stuff about, yeah, you don't
know what you're talking about, you Christians over there, that kind
of stuff. Once I started reading it, I
just had to keep going. Because it was kind of like,
you know, I probably would have thought that too at one time. I thought just like that guy
did at one time. And I went through and I was looking at all this,
all kinds. But I got down to the end, close to the end I think
it was, and I saw something that blessed my heart. Blessed my
heart a great deal. Are you with me in the book of
John chapter 5? John chapter 5. Will you look
with me at verses 24 and 25? And I want you to mark your spot
because we're going to come back to this scripture at the end
of the message. Our Lord says in His own words,
from His own mouth, with His own voice, He says, Verily, verily,
I say unto you, He that heareth My word, and
believeth on Him that sent Me hath everlasting life, and shall
not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life. Now listen to verse 25 and listen
carefully. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
the hour is coming, and now is, not only did the Lord Jesus Christ
just declare what he was about to do, he said the hour is now. Right now. And now is when the dead shall
hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall
live." Can you get any more plain than that? That's not what most churches
are saying though, is it? Folks, there is another gospel
which is not a gospel at all. There is another gospel being
spoken of in the world which is not a gospel at all. It's
something that they call which is another Jesus. One who wants,
one who desires, one who is waiting, one who has tried. But that's
not the Jesus of Scripture. The Christ of Scripture doesn't
try anything what He has purposed shall come to pass. If He is
purposed to save you, He shall save you. He who hath an ear, let him hear. You see, the problem with the
world is this depravity. Don't tell me I'm a bad person. The battle we fight is the battle
between flesh and spirit, is what God says in His Word. And
as I brought out last week from the book of Matthew, blessed
are the humble, blessed are the meek, blessed are the mournful.
Humbleness, meekness, and mournfulness does not come to us naturally. See what such a good person I
am? And I know people do that because I do it. One must be made humble. It doesn't come natural to us.
We must be brought to our meekness. Our nature is to be proud of
what we are, be proud of what we do. Holy Scriptures gives us plenty
of plain testimony of this very thing. Listen to James chapter
3 verse 2. In many things we offend all. A little vague, but correct. I'm getting more clear. I wanted
to give the vagueness of Christian first. I mean, I can see where
some people who don't want to believe God, who want to fight
against the truth of God, and say, I'll not have that one who
does rule over everything rule over me. I can see where they
might misinterpret or take that out of context. What about this
one? Let's think about this one here.
Ecclesiastes 7, verse 20. There is not a just man upon
the earth that doeth good and sinneth not. That's as plain
as can be. Or Job 15.14, what is a man that
he should be clean? Or he that is born of a woman,
that he should be righteous? And then we read in Romans 3.9-12,
something that you cannot misinterpret. What then? What then, Paul says,
are we better than they? No. And no wives. Before I go on with this verse,
Paul has said once before, he says, but for the grace of God,
there go I. And he's talking about them. He's talking about himself where
he was at one time before. A religious, self-righteous Pharisee. And I don't care if you've never
walked into a church in your entire life before God calls
you out of the darkness that you walked in. We were all self-righteous
Pharisees. Going on, Paul says, No, and
no wise, for we have before proved, both Jews and Gentiles, that
they are all under sin. As it is written, there is none
righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth.
There is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of
the way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. I read this morning an article
from an old preacher who said this, he says, I scarcely ever
preach a sermon without condemning self-righteousness. Yet I find I cannot preach it
down. Men still boast of who they are,
what they have done, and what they have not done. Oh, look
at me, I don't smoke anymore. I said earlier that in Bible
study, I think it was, people were amazed when John Reeves
started going to church. You don't think so? Ask that
woman right there sitting here, my wife that I've loved for all
these years. She was amazed. What in the world
are you doing? She didn't like my pastor at
all. She thought he had brainwashed me. Nobody was more amazed at it
than her. And I was sharing with them that the friend that I was
riding motorcycles with yesterday, a man I've known since before
the Lord called me, he's amazed that I'm still going to church.
He's amazed that I'm a preacher now. There's nobody more amazed
than the guy standing right here in the pulpit, folks. If you'd have told me 20 years
ago that I was going to be a preacher, when Pastor Gene came and asked
me to lead the singing, I told him, you're flat crazy. I can't
stand up before people and do anything. And I truly thought
that. Men still boast of who they are.
I'm not boasting of what I am now, but I am giving my Lord
and Savior all the glory for where He has brought me. I'm
here to tell you about His mercy and grace for
me. That's why I'm here. We all boast about what we are
and what we've done, or what we have not done, and we mistake
the road to Heaven to be one that's paved by our own works
of merit. And then he closes with his statement
this, he says, God help us, and I say the same, God help me. Folks, it's my duty, as the pastor
that you have asked to be the pastor of this congregation,
Two years ago, God gave me the duty to stand before you. I asked
you if you would accept me. The Lord inspired you to, and
so now I stand before you and say this, to bring these things
to remembrance before you does not trouble me. In fact, it's
good for you to be reminded of things over and over again. Because
we go out into the world and we're surrounded by all the things
of the world every day, 24 hours, however long you're awake. Some
less than others. But you get the point. Self-righteousness. by our nature of our flesh is
a disease for all of the sons of Adam. Every one of us, including
you and I, from the heights and the depths of our society, we
all tend to think more highly of ourselves than we should.
We secretly, in our own heart, flatter ourselves that we are
not so bad as others. I didn't eat people like that
guy Jeffrey Dahmer did. Yeah, you may take that and think,
John, you're being a little bit over. No, I'm not. Because I
could be just like him. But by the grace of God, he has
brought me to where I am. Don Fortner wrote this. He said,
ever since man became a sinner, he has been self-righteous. When
man had a perfect righteousness before God, he did not glory
in it nor cherish it. But ever since man has fallen
and lost all righteousness, he has pretended to be righteous. Adam wrapped himself in his own
apron. He wrapped himself in fig leaves
and he began to defend himself by blaming his troubles on God.
And then he blamed God for the woman for whom God gave to him. And then he blamed the woman
for the fruit. See, Lord, I'd have never sinned
if you hadn't have created her. As it is with Adam, so it is
with all men, women, children. We justify ourselves before God
and men. Self-righteousness is born within
us. And while we can, to a degree,
control our lusts, maybe, control our desires. I haven't murdered anybody. Our
self-righteousness will not allow us to confess that our sins and
come to God for mercy as guilty sinners. Millions of sermons
have been preached against self-righteousness, but it remains the number one
sin that keeps people from coming to Christ." Folks, for us to have true grace
revealed, did you hear what I said? Revealed. That means it has to
be brought to us. That means it has to be given
to us. Revealed means that somebody
else did something. I'm not smart enough to go figure
out stuff like that on my own. I'm not trying to tell you I'm
stupid, or dumb, or ignorant. But I know that I'm not smart
enough to come to the Almighty Lord Jesus Christ because He
says that we're not seeking Him. He must seek us. The truths of God's mercy towards
His chosen people, His elect, to see those things revealed,
we must first and continually have the truth of what we are
before God shown unto us, for our natural tendencies are to
battle against those truths. When our pride is puffeth up,
and it will, if you say it won't, you are foolishly mistaken. It
will. And when it does, God is really
good about reminding us of our weakness. And that's something we can all
be thankful for. Mark your text there in the book
of John, if you would, and turn over to Hebrews chapter 12. Oh, the wonder that our Lord
loves us enough That our Lord is long-suffering enough. That
our Lord is forgiving enough. That He continues to remind us
of our weakness. Are you with me in Hebrews chapter
12? Will you join me in reading the beginning of verse 3? Hebrews 12 verse 3, For consider
him, consider our Lord, that endured such contradiction of
sinners. Isn't that something? Do you
know what that means? He endured the contradiction
of being made sin. The very One who knew no sin
was made sin for you and I, for consider Him that endured such
contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest ye be wearied and
faint in your own minds. Oh, life is so tough for me,
and it is. But think about what our Lord
has gone through for us. Is it anything compared to what
He's done? Do you know that God Almighty
in the face of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, has gone to hell
for you and I? Has been damned? Has been made
a curse? That you and I would be made
righteous in Him? Then listen to verse 4, it says,
"...Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against
sin." God did. The Lord Jesus Christ shed His
blood for our saints on the cross. We haven't gone to any cross
for our sins, yet we have, haven't we? In the person instead of
our substitute, Jesus Christ. All of my sins were laid upon
Him, and His blood covers my sins completely. My sins have
been paid for. I was in the cross when He was
in the cross. When He walked this earth perfectly
in perfect righteousness, I was walking perfectly in righteousness
in Him. And so has every single one for
whom He went to the cross for. Verse 5, And ye have forgotten
the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My
son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou
art rebuked of Him. For whom the Lord loveth, he
chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye
endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons. For what
son is he whom the Father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement,
wherefore are all our partakers, then are ye bastards and not
sons. Furthermore, we have had fathers
of our flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence. I'm going to stop there for a
moment, too, because I want to say this. You know, I thank God
for my father, my dad, the one I call Calvin Samuel Ellis. I rebelled against that man in
ways that I won't even repeat because I'm too embarrassed about.
But as the Lord opened my eyes to the truths of His Word, I
looked back and saw a man who loved me so much that he put
up with..." Oh, I almost said it. He put up with John. He put up with John. And I revere Him today. I revere Him in my heart taller than any man that ever
walked this earth. We have had fathers of our flesh
which corrected us and we gave them reverence, shall we not
much rather be in subjection unto the Father of the Spirit
and live? Does not my Lord deserve reverence from my heart
way more than I have from my own dad? Verse 10, For they verily for
a few days chastened us after their own pleasure, but he for
our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present
seemeth to be joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward it yielded
the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised
thereby. Now I'd like to ask you to turn
over to Luke chapter 18. Most of all mankind walk with
a desire to be stronger. Oh, if I could just be more stronger. If I could just turn away from
the sin that dwells in my heart more. Oh, if I could just close
my eyes to the desires of the flesh more. You see, accepting ourselves
as weak in spirit is a humbling that only God can bring about. But humbled we must be. Listen to the words of a man
who is a king over a nation, a powerful man, a great man with
much strength when it comes to the things of this world, yet
he was humbled by the Almighty. Psalms, verse 40. You don't need
to turn there, I'll read it for you. To the chief musician writes
the psalmist David, I waited patiently for the Lord, and He
inclined unto me, and He heard my cry. He brought me up also
out of a horrible pit, and out of the miry clay, that's the
kind of clay that clings onto you and sucks you down and holds
you down, and that's what sin is. He inclined unto me and heard
my cry. He brought me up also out of
a horrible pit and a miry clay, and he set my feet upon a rock." Oh, the rock of salvation. And let's not stop there. He didn't just set him up on
that rock and say, OK, you're on your own now. No, he said
next, he goes, and established my goings all the way my Savior
leads me. What have I to ask beside? And he hath put a new song in
my mouth, even praise unto our God. Many shall see it and fear,
and shall trust in the Lord. Blessed is that man that maketh
the Lord his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn
aside to lies." Now look with me, if you would, at verses 10
through 13 of Luke chapter 18. I refer to this Poor man, over against the wall
much lately, but here I want you to read it again. This is
good to read God's Word. Two men, verse 10, went up into
the temple to pray. The one a Pharisee and the other
a Republican. And the Pharisee stood and prayed
thus within himself, God, I thank thee that I am not as other men
are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. And
then he goes on to state all the good things about himself.
See how I feed the poor. No, he says, I fast twice a week.
I give tithes of all that I possess. See, I don't smoke anymore. See,
I do this. See, I do that. And the publican,
verse 13, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as
his eyes into heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God,
be merciful to me, a sinner. God, be merciful to me, a sinner,
not just once, but all the time. Do you have a question? Are you
thinking to yourself about John? John, are you saying that we
need to be in a consistent state of sorrow and disdain, always
down, crying out about how bad we are? Are we to be forever
mournful in our state of mind? God forbid. What a horrible way
to have to go through this world. I'm here to tell you this morning
that there is a joy. Yeah, that's me over there pounding
my chest. That's me over there in my spirit.
pounding my chest, asking for the Lord to have mercy upon me,
but there's a great, great joy in that man over there. There is joy for one who has
had their weak condition revealed, one who has been humbled from
their natural pride, one who has seen their true depravity. Look at verse 14. Our Lord goes
on to say after He just gave the parable, He says, I tell
you this, this man, this one who sits over in the corner pounding
on his chest, this one says, I tell you this man went down
to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone
that exalts himself shall be abased, And he that humbleth
himself shall be exalted." Listen to the words of 1 Peter chapter
5. Likewise ye youngers, submit
yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one
to another, and be clothed with humility, for God resisteth the
proud, and he giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves
therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you
in due time, casting all your care upon him, for he careth
for you. Oh, to be shown as one who has
no strength, I don't mind being meek, because
if I was standing up saying, look how strong I am, I've got
a lot to worry about. But I know there's no weakness
in me. I know that the only strength
that I can have is from my Savior. Folks, the revelation of what
we are before a thrice holy God is a blessing of care. He cares
for us. He continually brings us into
chastisement to show us how weak we are, that we cannot get out. We can't get out of that sin
that besets us. That anger that besets us. That
lust that besets us. Whatever it might be for you,
you can't get out of it. It must be the strength of God
that brings us out of it. And He does it through the chastisement. It's a revelation of grace. God doesn't have to do this for
you. There's a whole lot of people out there who are standing around
like that proud Pharisee doing exactly what he was doing. And
there's a whole lot less over in the corner saying, Lord, have
mercy upon me. You and I would be right there
with that Pharisee doing the exact same thing, but for the
grace of God, there we go we. It's a revelation of sovereign
grace. Not a grace that you can earn,
because if you could, then it wouldn't be grace. Not a grace
that you can ask for, but a grace that is given to you like that
picture of bones. We must be given life. How often have I said, Lazarus
couldn't do anything until God said, Lazarus, come forth. And
he couldn't have heard God call him unless the Spirit of God
had given him life. In John chapter 6 verse 32, we
read these words, Then Jesus saith unto them, Verily, verily,
I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven, but
my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread
of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life
unto the world. Then they said unto him, Lord,
evermore give us this bread. And Jesus answered and said,
I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. But
that's not where it stops. Oh, how the churches around the
world want to say that and then stop right there and say, see,
all you've got to do is come down to the front of the church
and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you're saved. Our
Lord says this, But I said unto you, that ye also have seen Me
and believed not. All that the Father giveth Me
shall come to Me, and him that cometh to Me I will in no wise
cast out. Folks, in the covenant of grace,
the covenant of love, God the Father chose a people for whom
He would love. an eternal love, an everlasting
love. Our names were written in the
Lamb's Book of Life before the world was ever created. And God
the Son agreed in love to redeem this people. He shed His own blood. He provided
Himself as the sacrifice, as their substitute. To accomplish, not to try, but
to accomplish. That's our assurance, folks.
Our salvation is accomplished. Accomplish what we could not
do. You could shed your blood from now until eternity, and
it will never do us any good. See, God requires perfection.
And Jesus Christ being God in the flesh was perfect in everything
He did. His blood was perfect and when
He shed it, it accomplished perfectly what it was shed for. He accomplished what we could
not to establish a righteousness for all for whom the Father had
given them that we just read about. Familiar words in Ephesians 2,
chapter 2, verse 8, for by grace are ye saved through faith. That
means it's by grace. But it's through faith. It's
through believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, who He is, what
He has done, and where He is right now. And that not of yourselves, it
is a gift of God. God's grace will not fail. I
take no joy in this flesh, but there is great joy in the grace
of my Lord. He did not leave me to myself.
That's a great joy in my heart. He calls His people with a holy
calling, a call with the power of the Creator. That's a great
joy in my heart. He doesn't have to call anybody,
but He does. He revealed His love for this
people by laying down His life for them, substituting Himself
as their sacrifice. That's a great joy in my heart.
I'm not over in the corner crying out, oh, bad is me. I'm crying
out, how great is He! Great things have He done! He assures His loved ones of
their salvation through the preaching of His Word and assures that
death could not hold Him. It cannot hold you and I. We've
died. We've died to sin, folks. Don't let it dwell in you. We're
dead to sin. Turn from it. They could not hold Him. He arose
from the dead, a great victor, our mighty conqueror. Nothing
can defeat the purpose of God, or you could not call Him God. Some ask, well, what is the will?
What is the purpose of God? Something's making my nose just
itching like crazy. Sorry. Well, it's very plain. What do
you mean it's plain? I've read scripture all through.
It's confusing me. What is the purpose and the will
of God? In John chapter 6, verses 38 through 40, it does not get
any plainer than this. For I came down from heaven,
Not to do mine own will. Now this is the words, the voice
of Jesus Christ speaking Himself. Not to do mine own will, but
the will of Him that sent me. That's pretty clear. That's pretty
clear. Verse 39, and this is the Father's
will. This is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all
which He hath given me, I should lose nothing. But raise it up
again at the last day. And if you don't get that, if
you don't get what God just said to you and I there, here's another
one, right after it, verse 40. And this is the will of Him that
sent me. Do you realize God just repeated Himself twice here?
You know why? Because we need to pay attention
to it. This is the will of Him that
sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son, and believeth
on Him, may have everlasting life, and I will raise Him up
at the last day. I ask you, if your unrighteousness
has been revealed, if God has exposed the truth of your sinfulness,
then I have good news for you. Here's the good news. 1 Timothy
3.16, And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness.
God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen
of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, and believed on in
the world, received up into glory. And let's not finish there. 1
Timothy 1.15, This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation,
that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. Yes. Some of you have been here for
a long time, and you'll recall a woman and her daughter came
into this church. And Jean, I believe, preached
a message just like this. And right about there, just before
he even had a chance to get to that good news, she got up with
her daughter, and she mumbled this on her way out, heard by
several back here in the back. I'm not that much of a sinner.
I don't need to be here. And she took her daughter and
left. She didn't know. God had not
revealed to her heart, the sinner that she was. Folks, how wonderful,
how joyful it is to know that God reveals us for what we are. And then shows us the greatness
of His grace in that very thing in saving us. Paul closes that statement. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. He closes that very statement
with this. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ. Save sinners. Of whom I am chief. Whole bunch of chiefs in God's
realm, isn't there? Folks, we all come into this
world as that picture that I described in the beginning, dry bones.
Read, oh come on, I know what it is. Read, I'm getting there, read,
that's not it, Ezekiel. Read Ezekiel chapter 37. Picture
dry bones. We come into this world just
as that. Dry bones. Yet our Lord, God Almighty delights
in mercy. He that hath an ear, let him
hear. Now look back at our text in
John chapter 5 again if you would. Do we walk through this world
in such sorrow that we're a sad Sam? Oh, all they ever do is cry.
All they ever do is beat on themselves and tell them
how bad they are. Look with me again at John chapter
5 verses 24 through 26. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent
me, hath everlasting life. I know I have everlasting life. I know because Christ is in my
heart. I know because in my natural
state, I would have never looked to Him as God. I would have never looked upon
Him as my Creator. I would have never believed Not
just part. Not just one or two words that
make me feel good, but all of it. Including, including of what
I am before Him. A worm, but saved. Isn't that what it
is all about folks? I am a worm before God, but I'm
a saved worm. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me
hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but
is passed from death unto life. Verily, I say unto you, the hour
is coming, and now is. When the dead shall hear the
voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. My Lord says to me, and I believe
it, my sheep hear my voice. You folks who don't believe me,
he said, are not my sheep. My sheep hear my voice. plain and simple. That's the
gospel. Will you stand with me?