I've chosen a very short article
for a devotional today and it was written by John Newton who
lived between 1725 and 1807 and he writes, the gospel rightly understood
and cordially embraced will inspire the slothful with energy. and the fearful with courage. It will make the miser generous. It will melt the grouch into
kindness. It will tame the raging tiger
in the breast and in a word expand the narrow selfish heart and
fill it with the spirit of love to God, cheerful unreserved obedience
to his will. and benevolence to mankind. It's called the gospel of peace,
end of quote. It's called the gospel of peace. But it must be understood rightly,
as he said. It must be understood according
to scriptures, not according to what men's desire is, for
men's desire is, what can I do? What shall I do to be saved? That phrase has been cried out
many, many, many a times, has it not? Men will take the word of God
and twist it to their own destruction. You know that's in scripture. I'd like to ask you to turn,
if you will, once again to the letter that was written to the
saints at Philippi. We are in a series of messages
considering the things of Christ, as we do in all of Scripture.
Just as the Lord expounded to the two disciples on the road
to Emmaus all the things considering Himself, our prayer is that our
Lord may, through the Holy Spirit this morning, expound unto you
and I. through the reading of His Holy
Word. In our last look at this letter, we considered the war
that we battle in the flesh, as well as the world. We battle
with our sin, which is ever before us. And we battle the world's
religion, which hates the truths of God. And it hates His Gospel. And we who stand in defense of
His gospel, we looked at the armor that our Lord provides
us with and to defend ourselves. Now, I'm not going to go into
too much detail over last Sunday's message. It's recorded, if you'd
like. I believe it's posted on YouTube
and on Sermon Audio. And I encourage you to go look
at it. But it's worthy, once again, for us to mention this
armor. Number one, it says, gird about your loins with truth.
And I hold this book up just as I did last week. Here's your
truth right here. I'm not looking to these men
and women who sit in this building downtown Sacramento and rule
over the people for truth. I'm not looking to the man standing
in this pulpit for truth. I'm a sinner. You know, I've heard Pastor Gene
say, time or two in the past, I'm not a counselor. I've never
been trained to counsel people. He didn't go to school to learn
to preach. The Lord taught him through the
Word. We're sinners. You want to find
truth? Is the man standing before you
talking about the Word of God and from the Word of God, or
is he talking to you about something else? Something that doesn't
match. I remember one of the things
Mike Lovelace shared with me in his testimony of how he came
to the Lord. He said, I was reading things
that just couldn't, didn't make sense. They just couldn't come.
He says, and then I came here to this church, and a man was
preaching from God's Word, and the truth just jumped right out
at me. And from that time on, he could
not go back to another. Gird about your loins with the
truth of God's Word. The breastplate of righteousness,
not a breastplate that we can put on of our own, but the righteousness
of Christ as our breastplate. Our feet shod, prepared with
the gospel of peace. Be ready! Look into your Bibles. Don't just set it on the shelf
when you go home. Look into it once in a while. When somebody
comes to you and asks you, why are you so happy in this time
of chaos? Oh, it's because my Lord says
He rules everything. You want to see it right here
in the Word? Be shy. to put shoes on, to walk through
this world, we'll put the scriptures on to fight the things of this
world and to fight the inner flesh. Above all, it says, the
shield of faith. Oh, above all. All these other
things we need also, but above all, put on the shield of faith. In John 3.16, what does it say?
Whosoever believeth. Whosoever has faith. Whosoever
has the gift God gives as faith. The helmet of salvation. Remember
that it is not of us, but salvation is of the Lord. And the sword
of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. The bottom line is this,
folks. Keep looking to Christ. All these
pieces of armor point us to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,
for this is the subject of all of God's Word. Christ the Lord
and Him crucified. Look, if you will, once again
at verses 3 through 11, please, of Philippians chapter 1. I thank my God upon every remembrance
of you, always in prayer of mine for you all, making requests
with joy for your fellowship in the gospel from the first
day until now. Being confident of this very
thing that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform
it until the day of Jesus Christ. even as it is meet for me to
thank this of you all, because I have you all in my heart, I
have you in my heart, insomuch as both in my bond and in the
defense and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are partakers
of my grace. For God is my record, how greatly
I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ, and this I pray,
that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and
in all judgment, that ye may approve things that are excellent,
that ye may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ.
being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by
Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God." Now let's remind
ourselves of this. Paul was imprisoned under house
arrest and he was imprisoned for this very thing. Spreading
the gospel. Doing what you and I do. That's it. He didn't steal. He didn't go out and harm anybody.
He was preaching Christ and Him crucified. He was preaching Christ
as God Almighty in the flesh. He was preaching Christ as God. Ruler of everything. And for
that, they threw Him in prison. In John 1, 1, Paul was preaching
this. In the beginning was the Word.
And the Word was with God and the Word was God. That's what
He preached. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not
anything that was made. Everything was made by Him. By
our Lord and Savior. He preached in Him, in Christ,
was life. Everything else is dead and trespasses
and sin, but in the Lord Jesus Christ, we have life. He preached, and the light was
the light of men, and the light shineth in darkness, and darkness
comprehended it not. He preached this in verse 8 of
that very same chapter. He, speaking of our Lord and
Savior, or no, speaking of John the Baptist, was not that light,
but was sent to bear witness of that light. He's speaking
of John the Baptist. He went out and bear witness.
He proclaimed the gospel of Christ in him crucified. He proclaimed
of the one who would come from heaven and be God in the flesh. He spoke of the One that was
the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the
world. He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and
the world knew Him not. He came unto His own, and His
own received Him not. You know, I think I shared this
a couple of weeks back. I got a friend of mine at work,
a fellow employee who got a tattoo of Jesus. you know, a picture
of the long-haired guy they call Jesus. It was very nicely done
and it looked really attractive for a long-haired guy, you know. Our Lord was not attractive,
folks. The world didn't want God in
the flesh. He came unto his own and his
own received him not. but as many as received Him."
This is what Paul was preaching. As many. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. As many. God's elect, the few,
the remnant. Paul was preaching that, and
he was thrown in prison. As many as received Him, to them
gave He power to become the sons of God. And even to them that
believe on His name. That's pretty plain and simple,
isn't it? Pretty easy to understand. All those who believe in God
are because God gave them that belief. Isn't that what I just
said? And Paul was thrown in prison for that, which were born,
it says in verse 13, not of blood. Here you go free will people, nor
of the will of the flesh. You can't argue that, that's
God's Word. Pretty simple, huh? Nor of the will of man, but of
God. And most of all, most important
of all, Paul was thrown in prison for preaching this in the 14th
verse we read, and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us,
and we beheld His glory. The glory is the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth. When you talk about people in
their free will and you tell them they don't have free will,
how dare you, they will say, tell me that I'm not good enough
for God. How dare you tell me about this
one where grace is only from Him. Paul preached Christ and Him
crucified. He fought the battle well and
the world hated his message. He was a rebel rouser, they said.
He is one who stirs up the people against us. This was the religious
people of that time. He's the one over there taking
money out of our coffers. The people who stopped, you know,
they didn't even come in this Sunday. They all went over there
to hear him. They gave to Him instead of us.
Oh, it hurt their pocketbook. It hurt their pride. The worst
devil of all in all of us. He was a rebel rouser who stirred
up the people. He gave them the truth of the
only hope for peace of your sins. Nothing you can do to rid yourself
of the stain that is on each and every one of us, and you
know in your own heart what I'm talking about. For we all have
it. We all have the thing inside
of us that we don't want. And the only way to get rid of
it is to lay it at the feet of our Savior, Jesus Christ. The only one who can get rid
of it for us is Him. He preached Christ and Him crucified.
Paul declares himself as an example for you and I to walk in. Not that we have to go out into
the temples, the temples of lies, but to live our lives in faith with this knowledge and with
these truths. The knowledge is this, that Christ
came not to save the righteous, but to save sinners, of which I am chief. He came, he who is God, came
and was manifest in the flesh. He was born of a virgin and walked
this world perfectly, doing His Father's will. Exactly how His
Father wanted Him to walk it. Exactly how they had predetermined
that walk to be before the world ever was. That covenant between
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit was made
before anything else was made. The Father says, I'm going to
give you a people, There are sinful people and I can't be
in their presence. And they can't be in mine. And
the Son, I will become flesh and die for them. And the power of my blood will
wash them clean. And the Spirit says, I will go
about and give them life, quicken them and give them life that
they will hear Your Word. They will hear of the One who
saves. He who is God was made sin. He who is God died the death
of the cross. He who is God laid down His own
life, but that's not where it stopped. Aren't you thankful
He raised it up again? Oh, for he who is God now sits
on his throne, working all things out after the counsel of his
own will, ruling all that is. He who is God now sits on his
throne, making intercession on behalf of you and I, his children,
his chosen, his elect. Paul, in our reading just now,
was expressing his gratitude for the saints of God who stood
with him in this defending of the gospel. Those who stand with him in confirming
the gospel. The gospel of peace. Not a peace
of this world, not a peace in this world, but a peace which
is with God. A peace which is with God. Sometimes it dries out and the
lips just won't work, you know? Will you turn in your Bibles
with me to the book of Romans chapter 4? While you're turning there, allow
me once again to read from the book of John where we read in
chapter 16 verse 32, our Lord says, speaking, Behold, the hour
cometh. Yea, it is now come that ye shall
be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone,
and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me. These
things I have spoken unto you, that in me, in Christ our Lord,
in the only peace that we will find in this world, that ye might
have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation."
Boy, that's the truth, is it not? Can anybody deny that? But be of good cheer. Be of good
cheer. For I, says the Lord, have overcome
the world. He also said this in Romans 10,
verse 13. He says, For whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall
they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall
they believe in Him in whom they have not heard? And how shall
they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of
them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings
of good things. Folks, it's not just talking
about preachers here in this verse. This is talking about
you and I. This is talking about how we
walk through this world. And I'm not talking about going
out and doing all the good deeds that most Christians think it
is. I encourage to do what the Lord leads you to do in good
deeds. Turn from sin. Absolutely. But this is talking
about how we live our life in faith. Yeah, things are all down
around us right now. But it's okay. My God's got it
under control. How about yours? That's what it's talking about.
Where is your faith? Saturday I went down there and
I worked at the church for three or four hours. I had some faith
right there. The other day I went down and
helped the poor, fed some people. I gave a bunch of money to the
Christians over at that other church. There's some faith for
you. No, no, it's in the faith in our Lord and Savior who has
done it all. It's our belief, that very gift
that He has given each and every one of us in who we put our trust
in. We all live by this gospel, and
by living so, do we not preach it. And I'm so thankful. There were many who showed up
here and able to help us that are not of our faith. My son was one of them. And he
doesn't believe. He doesn't believe. But he sees my belief. I'm not saying I'm righteous
in front of my son's eyes. He sees me in ways that my wife
doesn't even see me. But he sees where my faith is.
What about you? Does your family and loved ones
see your faith? Not in the things that you do,
but the things that you believe. We all who are born of God, born
again as you might say, live in the truth that salvation is
of God and of God alone. If God has called you out of
darkness, it's not something that you're looking to anymore
that you see in the flesh. It is God where we look for our
salvation. We see that man can do nothing
to add or to take away from that salvation, do we not? We preach
the gospel of peace by the way that we live and by the way we
walk. Look at verse 1 of Romans chapter
4. And read through with me, if
you would, to the first verse of chapter 5. It's a lot of verses,
but we've got a little time. What shall we say, then, that
Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? For
if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory,
but not before God. For what saith the scripture,
Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for
righteousness? Now to him that worketh is the
reward not reckoned of grace, but of death. But to him that
worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly,
his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also describeth
the blessings of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness
without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are
forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to
whom the Lord will not impute sin. Cometh this blessedness
then upon the circumcision only, or upon the uncircumcision also?
For we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness.
Abraham was before the circumcised ever came around. He got himself
circumcised after the Lord saved him. How was it then reckoned? When
he was in circumcision or in uncircumcision? nor in circumcision,
but in uncircumcision. And he received the sign of the
circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of faith, which he had yet being
uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all them that
believe, though they be not circumcised, that righteousness might be imputed
unto them also. And the Father is circumcision
to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the
steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet
uncircumcised. For the promise that he should
be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed
through the law, but through the righteousness of faith." Now hold your spot there for
just a moment. Turn back to our text in Philippians, will you?
The righteousness of faith. Isn't that interesting? Paul,
in his prayer, is praying. Praying for these
dear brothers and sisters in Philippi. For their goodness
in sending him supplies. monies and stuff to supply and
keep him while he was in prison there in the house. Look at verse
11, praying for them that they being filled with the fruits
of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ unto
the glory and praise of God." We're talking about the righteousness
of faith. We're talking about our faith
in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Continuing on back in
Romans 4, For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is
made void, and the promise made of none effect. Because the law
worketh wrath, but where no law is, there is no transgression.
Therefore it is of faith that it might be by grace, to the
end the promise might be sure to all the seed. Not to that only which is of
the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who
is the father of us all. As it is written, I have made
thee the father of many nations, before him whom he believed,
even God, who quickeneth the dead, there's that giving life
to the dead thing, and calleth those which things be not as
they were. Who against hope believed in
the hope that he might become the father of many nations according
to that which was spoken, so shall thy seed be. And being
not weak in faith, He considered not his own body, now dead, when
he was about a hundred years old, neither yet the deadness
of Sarah's womb, his wife. He staggered not at the promise
of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory
to God, and being fully persuaded, convinced,
that what he, God Almighty, had promised, he was able to perform. and therefore it was imputed
to Him for righteousness. Now it was not written for His
sake alone. No, not just for Him alone, but
for all of you and I that it was imputed to Him, this righteousness,
but for us also to whom it shall be imputed. If we believe on
Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered
for our offenses and was raised again for our justification.
And here's what I want you to read, verse 1 of chapter 5. Therefore, being justified by
faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Folks, we walk by faith, not
by sight. Aren't you thankful for that?
If I had to walk by sight, I would have no hope at all because John
Reeves is just a stumbling fool. But my faith is in the one who
does not stumble. And it's faith in Him who doesn't
stumble because He has given me that gift to believe. Just
as he had given Abraham the faith to trust in our Lord when Abraham
was way beyond the time of having a child. And his wife was way
beyond that time also. He still had faith. Why? Because
God gave him the strength to have her. Arthur Pink wrote something that
we read in Friday Night Bible Study and I want to share it
with you. He said, our business is not to reason, not to try
to figure out why. What does it mean? What does
it mean to be made sin? I don't know. And I've heard
several preachers preach on that. And I'm not so sure it was a
good idea to. Folks, there's some things in
the Bible that we're just not going to understand. That's all there
is to it. Peter saw things in heaven that
he couldn't repeat. Why? Because we can't understand
them, and we're not going to. How do we explain God Almighty
dying? How can you explain that? You
can't explain that any more than you can explain Christ being
made sin, can you? If it's not simple, just take
it for what it is. It's not our business to reason,
Arthur Pink writes, he says, but to bow. To bow to the authority
of God's word. Our first duty is not to understand. Our first duty is to believe
God's word. That's faith. I don't know how
he was made sin, but he says he was, and therefore that's
good enough for me. What does John 3.16 say? Does
it say you have to figure out what My Word says? Does it say
you have to understand what My Word says completely? Does it
say you have to do this and you have to do that? No, it says
believe. You're talking to the most uneducated
man that has ever stood before God's people and spoken. But I believe. I believe, my Lord. The chaos of this world is tribulation. But our peace is not in the things
of this world. This world is not my home. I'm
just passing through. If heaven's not my home, Lord,
what will I do? Our peace is not in the works
of this world, nor is it even in the works of our own flesh.
We who have been called from the darkness of the world, we
have no confidence in the flesh. No. For we know the flesh is
full of sin. Our confidence is in the only
place that could be confident in, and that's in our Savior,
Christ Jesus, the Lord. And this walk of faith confirms
the Gospel. Our confidence in who He is confirms
the Gospel. Our confidence in what He has
done confirms the Gospel. Our confidence in what He is
doing right this moment is confirmation on His Word. It's confirmation
on His word in us. Our Lord says this, He says,
My sheep hear My voice, and they follow Me. That's in John 10,
27. We don't follow Him to be saved.
We follow Him because we are saved. We love Him because He first
loved us. And because of that love, we
willingly go forth and support whatever the Lord leads our hearts
to support in the furtherance of His Gospel. We support the
preaching of it. We support our brothers and sisters
in Christ for Him. We don't need to be asked for
that support as many do. Have you seen the guy on TV who
that's all he seems to do? I never hear him preaching anything
about God's Word. It's always about if you send
me 25 bucks, you can be saved. It's always that you need to
send me more money. That guy on a Sunday morning,
I don't know who he is, black hair and stuff, just cracks me
up. Every time I see that, I'll be
flipping through and there he is. Send me your money! Next
week I'll be flipping through the channels or something, send
me your money. Man, people really send that
idiot money? God's people don't need to be
asked. We just do it. Those who stand in most pulpits
and ask for money are not God's people. Does God move the hearts of His
people and they willingly and joyfully support in whatever
way the Lord leads them? That's the way God does it. People
from all over the world willingly and lovingly sent our dear sister
Shelby Fortner money. The expenses for her with Don's
hospital bills were high. All over the world, people sent
money to Shelby to help cover those expenses. Why? Because we love her. And she's a sister in need. I spoke to her a couple times. And the thought of speaking to
her brings me to tears because I've listened and heard her cry. Not for money. She was thankful, but for our prayers. That's what she was most thankful
for, our prayers. She knows the love that we here
have for her. Brothers and sisters in Christ
from outside of our immediate church family right here have reached out and offered
support to a dear brother who can no longer work because he's
going into cancer. I'm talking about Darryl. He's
back in the hospital. As I understood his conversation,
he was going to have to go back in for another five days with
chemotherapy. He's okay financially, he has
told me. I've offered him money. I've
told him about the people outside this church who have offered
him money and he's turned everything down. But it amazes me It amazes me that people who
have only met Daryl once or twice a year when they've come here
for this conference have heard that he had cancer and offered
to help. That's what God's people do.
Have offered prayer. That's what God's people do.
That's what we're talking about here. Folks, we as a church, we're
small. Our coffer is small. But the Lord provides in such
a wonderful way. People from outside of this very
church have sent support, financial support and prayers in what we
do here, in the remodeling of the place so Kathy and I have
a place to live. It's all for the glory of our
Lord and Savior. That's what I'm told. We, you and I, have an opportunity right now to support dear brothers and
sisters in Christ all around us. Those of you who have not heard,
our brother Lance and his wife Robin are sitting next to the
side of their daughter, not knowing whether she will live or go on
to be with the Lord. We don't know what their needs
are, except for one. The same need
that you and I have. Prayers. When you go to your closet and
pray, Lord, forgive me for my sins today. will be on your heart to pray
for those two as they go through this trial. What about our sister Donna? You know that our sister Donna
sits at home with her husband who is dying of cancer? What about our sister Maxine
who sits in an elderly home down in the Bay Area all by herself
because they won't let anybody in and even when they did let
people in nobody came to see her. What about the person sitting right next to you now? Lord what can we do? I love these people, Lord, help
me to do whatever I can. Whether it be in prayer or any
other way, the Lord lead us, lead us, lead me to support my
brothers and sisters in Christ in their needs. Folks, this is this support that
I'm talking about. Whatever way the Lord has given
you to do is for the furtherance of our great Lord's gospel of
peace. Whatever our Lord lays on your
hearts to do for our neighbor, the one
sitting next to us, the one whatever, is for the confirmation of His
gospel. Whatever our Lord and Savior
lays on our hearts to do, when we stand up and say, yes, this
is what the Lord wants me to do, I want to do this. I want
to go to my closet and pray for this one. I want to pray for
that one. You know, I remember a time when Annie Robinson, you
remember Annie Robinson? She called me up one time. I
don't even think I was song leading at that time. I think I was just
the guy who rode the Harley to church and came inside with leather
chaps on. And she called me up and she
goes, I just want you to know I'm praying for you today. That
blessed me. That blessed me in a way you
can't Forgive me Roger, but I've got
to share this. Let me get myself together for it. Our dear sister, Joyce, when
she was sick in the hospital, dying of cancer, not too long before she passed,
Bill and I rode our Harleys over there. She was intrigued by Bill
and I riding our bikes. This was before Kathy started
coming here. And I don't remember what it was that led us to do
that, but something, something inspired, I think it was Bill,
inspired him and he said, come on John, let's go, let's ride
over there. She wants to hear it. What, really? And we knew
where she was, we knew what room it was. We went out and we parked
I think I got this right, Bill. Didn't we park, like, we figured
out where her room was, and we got as close to what we thought
was her room, and we sat out in front. Got that Harley all
racked up. And I remember we went inside,
and she was not well, but she glowed. She glowed with the joy of our
Savior and the fact that two brothers who had nothing in common
with her, showed up in her hospital bedroom just to say hi and praise
the Lord. You see what I'm talking about,
folks? Yeah, that's a memory brother
I will remember forever. It's confirmation of God's gospel
in us. Reaching out to those brothers
and sisters in Christ is God's way of giving us, it's for the defense of His gospel. You see, the word says this,
it says, they shall know us by our love for one another. Amen.