I shared with those at the conference.
And I've shared this with you folks many, many, many times
over and over again. Our pastor, Gene Harmon, just
loves each and every one of you. So much so that he wants me to
remind you every chance I can. You're his family. You know,
Mike, you're his family too, and Julie, yes. He loves us as he does his own
children. That's how close we are to him.
That's how much he means. That's how much we mean to him
and Judy. I've encouraged him to pick up
writing articles again. I told him that we're bringing
devotional time. Instead of bringing an offering
plate like we used to, we now have a box in the back. If the
Lord is leading you in any way to support this ministry, please
feel free to leave that support in the box. Your attendance is
as much support as anything that can be left in that box. I need
people to preach to. If I was just preaching to two,
it would still be the same, but it's nice to see the Lord bringing
in some people to hear His Word. However the Lord leads you, may
God get the glory for it. This morning's article or devotional
is brought again by Pastor Gene Harmon, where he writes, every
believer is robed in the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ.
By his perfect obedience unto death, even the death of the
cross, our redeeming Savior established a righteousness for his chosen
people that makes every believer as righteous as the spotless
Lamb of God. God sees no iniquity in His chosen
blood-bought children because He sees us in His perfectly holy
Son. Christ, our exalted Savior, God's
preachers are here to say to those who have been cleaned from
every spot and stain by the precious blood of our Lord and blessed
Redeemer that it shall be well with them. Comfort ye my people, it says
in Isaiah. As long as Jesus Christ, our
blessed surety, is on His sovereign throne of power, and He will
always be, it will always be well with those who are in Him. If we know this to be true, and
every enlightened saint should, we will give our great triune
God all the glory. And I say, Amen. Would you bow
with me, please? Our Heavenly Father, what a blessing. What grace. What love and what
mercy You have to a people so undeserving. We thank You, Father, that by
Your sovereign power, through Your Spirit, You have come to
Your children through the preaching of Your Word and taught us of
what we are before our thrice holy God. You have taught us, Lord, of
what we were, dead in trespasses and sin. And knowing that fact, knowing
what it was that we deserved, knowing what it was that we have
earned, we see Your grace and Your mercy raised up like the
serpent. Grace and mercy in our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ. You did not leave us to ourselves,
Lord. You gave us life to see the truths
of your word. And we praise you and thank you,
Lord, that you did not leave us to ourselves. I thank you,
Lord, for giving all of those who traveled to be with us last
weekend a safe journey home. We thank you, Lord, for the messages
that were preached. I cannot express in words the
love that I have for those men who were here. A love for the gospel that you
gave them to preach, Father. What blessings it was to my heart. To many of those who are here. Lord, I ask you now that you
would be with me. Once again, I come to you for
strength, because I have none in myself. I ask, Lord, that You would take
the words that You've laid upon my heart and feed Your children. Lift them up in their Savior,
the Lord Jesus, so that He would receive all the glory. Be with us, Father, and open
our eyes and our minds and our ears to the Word that we're about
to look into. And help us, Lord, to praise.
Praise our Savior with all our being. In the name of Christ
Jesus, we pray. Amen. Once again, we turn to the letter
of Philippians. A letter that was written by
the Apostle Paul to the saints at Philippi. But as it is with
all of God's Word, as I mentioned in Bible study a little while
ago, this letter was written to all the saints throughout
all time. This is for you and I, as well
as any of God's children, throughout all of time. Paul was inspired to write these
words for our edification, our learning. Written by the hands
of men, yes, but inspired by the Holy Spirit of God. Moved
by God to pen these words. Either this book is the Holy
Word of God, it's either the book and the Word of God Almighty,
or you and I are just wasting our time. The writer of Hebrews puts it
this way in Hebrews 1.1. You don't need to turn there.
God, who at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in time
past unto the fathers by the prophets. He came to those in
the Old Testament by the prophet. The prophets wrote down things
on scrolls, but they didn't carry those scrolls around with them
and preach from them all the time. They came to the people
and they gave the Word of God to them as God spoke to their
hearts. But it says next, half in these
last days, in these last days since the Lord Jesus Christ walked
this earth and fulfilled everything of the Old Testament, everything,
He fulfilled it. Half in these last times spoken
unto us by His Son. In the beginning was the Word,
as it says in John 1.1. Everything was created by the
Word in the beginning. And the Word was made flesh. He speaks to us by His Son, whom
He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made
the worlds. who being the brightness of His
glory and the expressed image of His persons, and upholding
all things by the word of His power when He had by Himself
purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of
God of the majesty on high." We left off last time, we came
together in this letter at verse 14, considering the boldness
of God's people, the boldness that we have in declaring His
truths. I have no problem telling you
that God came to this earth, became a man, became flesh to
save His people. He shall be called Jesus, for
He shall save His people. Not maybe, not might, not possibly,
but shall. I take a great joy in that because
I know that if He had left me to myself, I'd be right where
I was when I was 40 years old. Yeah, 40 years old. Wandering
around in the world, living the world according to John. John's
little space there. You know what I'm talking about.
You all pretty much experience the same thing. We speak without
fear of what men can do, for nothing can be done outside the
will of Him who is God. Our Lord is sovereign over all
things. You know, the world says that.
But then they come to the will of man and they say, no, we have
a free will. Folks, I'm here to tell you this
morning with boldness, the God of Scriptures rules all things. All things are of His will. Knowing this truth, we take comfort
in our trials. and in the troubles that surround
us in this world, as well as the blessings that He sheds upon
us. Paul was under house arrest for doing that very thing, for
preaching Christ and Him crucified, for preaching who He is, God
Almighty in the flesh, for preaching what He has done. He had put
away sin by one offering of Himself. Not one offering plus this or
plus that or plus this. It was one offering. He purged
the sins of His people forever. Do you realize that that means
God looks down on us right now, each and every one of us that
belong to Him, whose blood or whose sins are covered under
His blood, and He sees us as perfect as His Son. Right this
minute. And I've said this before, but
that's awful difficult to see. especially dealing with John
in the flesh. Paul was preaching who Christ
was, what He has done, and where He is right now. He's sitting
on His throne, just as He has always been, doing exactly what
He likes to do. Call His children out of darkness.
give them life when they were dead in trespasses and sin. Lazarus,
come forth! And Lazarus came forth. John,
come forth! It was painful. I don't know what it was for
Lazarus. He just kind of floated up there until the Lord wrapped
up in those burial clothes. It wasn't until after he had
come out of the tomb when the Lord said, loose him. giving
us a clear picture that it wasn't by, OK, I'm coming, Lord. I'm
coming to the Lord today. Today's my day. I'll decide to
come to Him today. No, He came. Just as the disciples
got up immediately and came to the Lord and followed Him when
the Lord said, Come, follow Me, and I will make you fishers of
men. This morning I'd like to pick
up once again in chapter 1 at verse 14. Would you read with
me? And many of the brethren in the
Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to
speak the word without fear. That was our message for the
last time we came, speaking without fear. Some indeed preach Christ,
even of envy and strife, and some also of good will. The one
preached Christ in contention, not sincerely supposing to add
affliction to my bonds, but of the other, of love, knowing that
I am set for the defense of the gospel. What then? Notwithstanding every way, whether
in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached, and I therein do
rejoice, yea, and will rejoice. For I know that this shall turn
my salvation through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit
of Jesus Christ, according to my earnest expectation and my
hope, and that nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all
boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in
my body, whether it be by life or death. For me to live is Christ
and to die is gain. But if I live in the flesh, this
is the fruit of my labor, yet what I shall choose I want not.
For I am a straight betwixt two. Having a desire to depart and
to be with Christ, which is far better, nevertheless to abide
in the flesh is more needful for you. And having this confidence,
I know that I shall abide and continue with you for all your
furtherance, and joy of faith. Now there's a lot in what I just
read. And we may come back to some
of that, but this morning I would like
to spend a little time talking about what we just read there
at the very end. Joy of faith. Man, we take joy in little children
watching their innocence. Kathy and I, we were watching
out here the other day. And we've actually been watching
for a couple of weeks a young buck. Just barely got the nubs
there. Doesn't even have any points to him. He's jumping around
out here. I don't know if he gets scared
with something. He kind of hops around. It just brightens your heart
to see those kinds of things here. She saw two little babies. Just born. She goes, there's
where the mother is! We haven't seen her. They kind
of come up missing sometimes around here. They get out in
the road and get hit or something. But that's where the mother is.
She's been having babies. She had two little fawns. What
joy that was! We have a small inkling of what our Lord is telling us
in His Word. He gives us love. Love for each
other. Rick Warda wrote a letter to
all of us. If you have time, please stop
and take a read of it in the back room in the foyer. He brought
his daughter. He brought the ceremony for his
daughter and her wedding last weekend. And part of what he
brought out was what it means to be a husband and a wife. Do you know what Christ, our
husband, has done for you and I, his bride? We spit in his face. Yet when we didn't know him,
he died for you and I, because he has loved us from before the
world was. My title this morning is Joy
of Faith. What is it about our faith that
brings joy to a believer? Turn back just a few pages to
the left, if you would, to the second chapter of Ephesians. What is it about our faith that
brings joy to a believer? Begin with me, if you would,
in verse 1 of chapter 2. I realize these are familiar
verses. We refer to them often. But folks, I don't know about
you, I need to be reminded of this often. I can't tell you
how often. I can walk out that door and two minutes after I
get out that door, I've just preached a message to you all
about trusting the Lord and being saved by His grace only, not
of our works. These very words that we're about
to read, and all of a sudden John forgets. I assume that all believers are
as weak as I am. And you hath he quickened, made
alive. You who were dead in trespasses
and sin, just as everyone who ever comes into this world outside
of Christ were dead in trespasses and sin. You who were quickened, given
life, who were dead in trespasses and sin, were in times past ye
walked according to the course of this world, according to the
prince of power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversations
in times past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires
of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature. It was natural
for John to walk the way he did. The things of God are enmity
against natural man. I don't want to have anything
to do with God as I was growing up. I was raised in a church
where, as I understand it now, the true gospel was preached, found out Last weekend, while
Norm and Nancy were here, Norm Wells actually was going to go
to college at O.C. Harris' church over there in
Orangeville, where I grew up at. O.C. Harris had a little
private college, Bible college. And Norm was going to go to church
there, or go to school there, and he didn't. Instead, he went
on to go into the, what was that he called that? I can't remember. It was a free
will, worse religion. And it wasn't until Henry Mahan
came along years later that he heard the true gospel preached.
But I grew up in that very thing. I know what my nature was before
the Lord gave me a new heart. Verse 4, But God, who is rich in mercy
for His great love, wherewith He loved us." Us. Us. I pray not for the world, He
says. I pray for them that Thou hast given Me. Us. Joy of faith? I know where I'd be if it wasn't
for His love for me. Do you? Do you know where you
would be today if it was not for the love of God? We'd be
lost. Even when we were dead in sins,
in verse 5, hath quickened us, given us life together with Christ,
by grace ye are saved. And hath raised us up together
and made us to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Why? It tells us in the very
next verse, that in the ages to come, He might show the exceeding
riches of John's free will in getting up and coming to the
Lord. No, that's not what it says. The exceeding riches of
His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not of works,
lest any man should boast." Not of works. Not of anything man
can conjure up in his own imagination. True faith comes by the grace
of God and by the grace of God alone. Salvation is of the Lord. In Romans 9.16 it says it this
way, and you can't get any more clear than this. This is why
most churches don't preach from Romans 9. It says, so then it
is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth. It's not
of anything you can do. It's not of getting into this
bathtub back here, or tub of water, and getting baptized. It's of grace. I take a great joy in the faith
of knowing that my Lord saved me despite me. I take a great joy in knowing
that He who has all power in heaven and earth came to save
me despite me. I'm not saying I don't come to
Him willingly. I come to Him willingly now because my original
will would not come to Him. He came and gave us a new will,
one that willingly comes to Him because He first loved us, now
we love Him. So then it is not of Him that
willeth, nor of Him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. You can't misinterpret those
words. According to God's Word, man can do nothing to earn God's
mercy. You know what grace means, don't
you? It means unmerited. It means you can't do anything
to deserve it. It means you can't do anything to buy it. You can't
do anything to earn it. It comes despite what you are. For by grace are you saved through
faith." I am comforted to know that when I was dead in trespasses
and sin, God came to me through the preaching of His Word and
He quickened me. He gave me life. Why did He come
to me? What was it about John? What
was there about me that led Him to give me life? I take a great
joy in telling you this. God has loved a people. for before the world was. A people
that He chose to redeem by the works of His Son, the Lord Jesus
Christ, and that Christ shed His blood, paying the penalty
for their sins. Standing in our stead, He made
Himself our substitute. He who knew no sin was made sin,
that we would be made righteous in Him. God provided Himself
our sacrifice. That's what Abraham was talking
about when his son said, dad, we have the fire. We have the
wood. We have everything we need. Where's
the sacrifice? Oh, don't worry about that, son.
God's going to take care of it. And he did. Yeah, there was a,
there was a, What was it, a goat? Caught in
the thicket? With the horns? A ram? Yeah. Caught in the thicket. But it was still just a picture.
For the blood of bulls and goats never saved anybody. It was nothing
more than a picture of He who would provide you and I a sacrifice. And that's exactly what our Lord
and Savior did. A perfect sacrifice. The perfect
blood of God was shed on that cross. And anyone who says that
God died for everybody, doesn't know God. If God died for everybody, then
everybody would be saved. Not a single person would go
to hell, because that's the power of God's blood. And shame on
men for taking the power of God's blood and making it common. But that's exactly what I would
be doing if it wasn't for His love for me. And exactly what
you and all the rest would be doing if it wasn't for the love
of God for us. God provided Himself our sacrifice,
the blood of God was shed on that cross, and God's blood is
effectual. You know what that means? It means He got the job done. Plain
and simple. Knowing the way I was before
the Lord gave me eyes to see, we sing the song, Once I was
blind, but now I see. Amazing grace. Man, that was
such a good song Mike sang at the conference. Woo! Wonderful. You can sing that again every
Sunday if you want, brother. Once I was blind, but now I see.
Knowing the way I was before the Lord gave me ears to hear
a new heart that loves Him, I am filled with joy that God chose
to be merciful to me. He didn't have to. I remember my thoughts of God
before He called me. Can you? There were none in John Reeves. I could care less about the One
who created me and all that is. I had no desire for the true
and living God. I had no desire to bow before
the One who rules over everything, this One who is called Jesus. I'm here to tell you folks this
morning, the day will come when all will bend the knee to Him. to Him who rules according to
His purpose, all will confess with their tongue that He is
God, He is Lord of all. And most will go through that
door marked death, and that is when they will know who He is." But some, some, He calls them a small remnant. A chosen generation, a predestined
people will be called out of the darkness that we are all born into and
will be given life to see the truth, to hear the truths of
God. Look at verses 3-14 of chapter
1 of Ephesians. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places." In whom? In Christ. "...according as He hath chosen
us in Him." chosen us in Christ Jesus before the foundation of
the world, before anything was ever made, before God said, let
it be, and it was, He had chosen people, written their names down
in a book called the Book of Life. Christ is that Book of
Life. And all the names of His people
were engraved in the palms of His hands. according as He has chosen us
in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before Him, in love, having predestinated
us into the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according
to the good pleasure of His will." Notice the will. Notice whose
pleasure it was. to the praise of the glory of
His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved, in
whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of
sins according to the riches of His grace, wherein He hath
abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known
unto us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure,
which He hath purposed in Himself." Do you see any works of men here,
folks? Whew! Salvation is of the Lord. Verse 10, "...that in the dispensation
of the fullness of times He might gather together in one all things
in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth,
even in Him, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance
being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh
all things after the counsel of His own will. That we should
be, why has our Lord done all this for us? That we should be
to the praise of His glory who first trusted in Christ. In whom? Ye also trusted, after that ye
heard the word of truth." How are you going to call upon the
Lord Jesus Christ if you've never heard the word of truth of who
He is, what He's done, and where He is now? The gospel of your salvation
in whom also after that you believed, you were sealed with the Holy
Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until
the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of
his glory." His word tells me that I was predestined that because He loved me and
chose me before the world was, I was predestined to be one of
His. I was chosen in His Son before
the world was created. My faith, my belief, the gift from God
Himself brings joy to my heart to know that He chose me. His Word tells me I was in my
Savior when He gave Himself as my substitute in the death of
the cross. It tells me, as we saw in Bible
study this morning, that He willingly took upon Himself all my sin. Not just the ones I've committed.
Not the very ones that I've committed this very day. But every one
that I will commit until the day he takes me out of this body
of death was laid upon him. What pressure that was. So much was the pressure of my
sins and all of his people upon him that he sweat great drops
of blood. And He, who is Almighty, cried
out, Father, if it be Thy will, remove this cut from me. You
and I can't even imagine. We see a little bit. We see a
little bit of the pressures of our own sin on us, do we not?
Being children of God, we don't like sin. I don't want to sin. Just forgetting about who my
Lord is for one second is enough sin to put me in hell. Just for one second thinking
that ball that goes down the middle of the fairways, woo!
Look what John did, is enough to put me in hell. My Savior took it all. My faith. And what my Lord tells
me, the gift from God brings joy to my heart. His Word tells
me that death could not hold Him. As God Almighty in the flesh,
He arose. He laid down His life, wicked
hands crucified Him, yes, yet it was by the determinant will
and counsel of God. He Himself, and He took His life
up again, and He raised Himself from the dead and seated now
at the right hand of the Father. Do you know the right hand signifies
power? The strong right hand of God?
My faith, my belief, a gift from God brings
joy to my heart knowing those truths. In Luke 22.31, you don't need
to turn there, I'll read it for you. The Lord said this to Peter. And the Lord said, Simon, Simon,
behold, Satan hath desired to have you that he may sift you
as wheat. But I have prayed for thee, he
says. Jesus Christ, prays for his people. I have prayed for thee that thy
faith fail not, and when thou art converted, strengthen thine
brethren. Then he says in John 17, 9, what I believe to be the
Lord's prayer. When our Lord got down on his
knees and he prayed for all those that the Father hath given him,
he says, I pray for them. I pray not for the world. This
is the Word of Christ. I pray not for the world, but
for them which Thou hast given Me. For they are Thine, and all
Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine, and I am glorified in them. Folks, my belief. Do you see
the joy of the faith of God's people? Do you see where our joy is?
It's not in anything that we can do in the flesh. It's what
He has done for us. My faith, my belief, my gift
from God brings joy to my heart, and I know our faith is weak
at times. I know I stumbled and sinned, the sin of this flesh,
yet my spirit is reminded that in my weakness, He is made strong. In other words, You can say it
this way, when I am weak, I see his strength. You see, and I'm speaking to myself. I'm speaking
to John Reeves. Because I build myself up bigger
than anybody else does. It's called pride. We all do,
don't we? I must decrease so that he may
increase. The pride of John must be decreased. so that my Lord and Savior will
increase. In John 3.14 it says this, And
as Moses lifted up the servant in the wilderness, even so must
the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth, whosoever's
faith, whosoever's God-given faith in Him should not perish,
but have eternal life. My faith, my belief, a gift from
God brings great joy to my heart. I ask you this morning, do you
believe? Does the Word of God bring joy
to you? Or does it cut against your heart?
I'll not have that God rule over me. I have my own free will. This is something somebody pointed
into my chest one time. A sweet little lady pounding
on my chest saying, do not take my free will away from me. Does the Word of God bring joy?
Or does it cut against your heart? Most want to believe that God
loves the whole world. They deny God's Word where it
says, as it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I
hated. The people of God knowing that
if we are left to ourselves, we would have continued to walk
the path of death and not choose Him are joyful for the gift that
God has given us. We are joyful to believe His
Word because we know it is a gift from Him and the love that He has for
His people. When we read The words like we
see in Romans chapter 8, where it says, He spared not His only
begotten Son. How shall He not give us all
things? Does that not bring joy to the
heart of God's people? We who have been given this gift,
the gift to believe, know that by the Word of God, man cannot
believe of his own free will. The truths of God must be revealed,
the truths that are enmity to the nature of man, a stumbling
block to the wise, foolishness to the prudent, are made wisdom
to the children of God through the preaching of Christ and Him
crucified. Our joy is in believing in Him. believing according to
His Word. We cry out these words, not in
us, O Lord, not in us, but unto Thee be glory forever
and ever. Amen.