My granddaughter asked me if
I was nervous. I poked my wife and I said, I just told John
Reeves, who has aspirations to preach, a member of our church,
God help us if we never approach this time without being nervous. May you all pray for me. I hope
I don't bring a dud. It's just good to see all of
you here. People we've met over the years and get to see again,
and some we've met for the first time. This is truly a family
reunion, and we're just delighted and honored to be here. I do
bring greetings from our little church and rescue, but some,
like Dawn has mentioned, some of our members bring their own
greetings. We have Dawn and Shirley Jukic,
Art and Jean Olive, Shirley Reeves, Her husband didn't come with
her. He said he'd take care of things back home, mow the grass
and water the flowers and open up the building Sunday morning,
turn the air conditioning on. And I said, Lee, I sure appreciate
you doing that. He said, oh, I should be thanking
you. You're taking my wife away for a while. Oh, he might not have wanted
me to tell you that, Sherry. Someone said, you going to tell
that story about running away with your secretary again? It's
getting worse. I got the Deacon's wife with
me this year. We have two of our daughters, Shelly
and Judene, and Judene's husband, Chuck Huffman, and four of our
grandchildren. We've been enjoying them immensely.
We haven't seen them for a year. And you all know if you have
children, grandchildren, there's people who have great-grandchildren.
All of ours are great, but we're looking for some great, you know,
the regular type great. But they're all great. Oh, my wife's with me, too. I
better mention her. Don and Shelby are dear friends
of ours. We just thank God that He caused
our paths to cross. And we thank you, folks, these
two and the members of this church, for all your labor of love, all
that you do in preparing for these conferences and during
these conferences and after the conferences. A lot of labor,
and we just appreciate each one of you. We're so thankful that
we can be a part of this. I want to ask you to turn to
Hebrews chapter 1. I started to title this message,
The Message. It's a long title, but maybe
we could title it, You in Christ and Christ in You. One of the common ungodly excuses
from those who deny the truth, they say, that's your interpretation
of the Bible. You ever heard that? God's preachers
declare the truth that is clearly set forth in the Holy Scriptures.
In this country, for the most part, we're English-speaking
people who can read English. This is an English Bible. Why
would we need to interpret it? In an article written by Brother
Don Fortner, and I use a lot of his articles, at least one
every Sunday, and then sometimes more than one, but in an article
that he written, that he written, that's good English, that he
has written, titled Stick to the King James Bible, Pastor
Fortner said, the problem is not that people do not understand
the language of the Bible, the problem is that they do and they
don't like it. So preachers and religious leaders
have done their best to come up with a translation of the
Bible that makes God look weak and man look good. A translation
that makes redemption accomplished look like redemption attempted.
And makes God's operations of grace appear to be God's offers
of grace. Sinners do not need a new translation,
they need a new birth. And I say, Amen. Have you ever had someone ask
you to explain this passage of Scripture in Romans 9? Jacob have I loved, Esau have
I hated? Let me see if I can help you
all out with that. God loved Jacob and he hated
Esau. But, says one, shouldn't that
mean that God loved Esau less? Our daughter Judene called me
here five or six weeks ago from Tennessee way out to California.
We were having a nice little conversation. I told her I was
going to tell her. And one of the things that we
raised our children up with is, I love you the most. You all
never probably said that, but I've said that to our children.
I love you the most. Our youngest grandson came back
with a good answer. I love you more than the most. But anyway,
I told Judene, I love you the most. And she said, I always
knew I was your favorite. That's not what I meant. I didn't
mean that I loved her more than her siblings. We have six children.
We love them all the same. But you know, she is my favorite.
All of my children are my favorite. And that's the way it is with
God. He loves all of us the same. Can you imagine God doing anything
less than perfect? Esau I love less. God's love
is like Himself. It's perfect. It's unchangeable. It's eternal. And His love is
in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And He loves every one of His
children in His Son as much as He loves His Son. Isn't that
good? God loves us with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving
kindness, He draws us unto Himself. I was with a small group Wasilla,
Alaska, years ago, they asked me to come up early and
perform a wedding and then preach for them on Sunday,
which I was delighted to do. And during the wedding rehearsal
on Friday night, the father of the groom, after the rehearsal,
they were decorating, we were sitting around watching, and
the father of the groom He had to come over and let me know
how much he knew about religion. Well, his son was with the group
there in Missoula and he was a little concerned about his
son being led off on the wrong path. And so he starts telling
me that he has studied all of these religions. He said some
older than Christianity. I said, well, wait a minute.
In the first place, Christianity isn't a religion. It's the believer's
life. Christ is our life. But if you want to call it a
religion, there's nothing older than Christianity. Oh yeah, I
studied a couple that go way back before Christ came. I say,
Christ didn't become a being when He was born 2,000 years
ago. He's the eternal Son of God.
He has always been. And we were chosen in Christ
before this world was created. And Jesus Christ is declared
to be the Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world.
You can't get any older than that. He said, I think I might
come and hear you preach, son. Well, he did. But he didn't receive
the message. But he told me this. He said,
you did right. You just searched out the strongest
opponent in the congregation. You preached right at me. So
that was good, you did it. But he went away. Just as empty
as he came. Well brethren, that's what I
want to talk about. You in Christ and Christ in you.
Or the message. The message has been around ever
since the fall. Before the fall. The message
was in Christ before the fall. And way back yonder. When Adam
fell, God clothed him and Eve with animal skins. A sacrifice
had to be made. Blood had to be shed. So I know
that God preached the gospel to Adam and Eve. And they knew
that seed that was to be born of a woman that would crush the
serpent's head was Christ. They knew that. And Adam taught his children
The Gospel message. Because Cain did not receive
it, but Abel did. Abel brought a little lamb. He
knew the only way he could approach God was through a substitute. Cain didn't believe that. He
brought the works of his own hands. So the Gospel was preached. And that's what we read here
in Hebrews chapter 1. Starting at verse 1, God who
at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in time past unto
the fathers by the prophets, and He did. He spoke through
Adam. He spoke through Noah. Not too many believed Noah. But
they heard the gospel. Noah was a preacher of righteousness.
Only eight people went aboard that ark. And there was only
one door into that ark. That ark and everything about
it typified Christ our Savior. Eight people went aboard. Noah
believed the message. But how many people didn't? God
brought in a flood on the ungodly and destroyed everything that
had breath in. The only thing that he didn't
destroy that had breath in was those in the ark. God spared
him. So he preached. God preached
through the prophets. Moses had the message. Moses
wrote of Christ. He preached Christ. Our Lord
Jesus said, search the Scriptures for any of them you think you
have eternal life. And they are they which testify of Me. All
of those Old Testament prophets, they knew Christ, they had the
message, they preached Christ. How many of the adults that came
out of Egypt under the leadership of Moses, who were 20 years old
and upward, how many of them believed the message? We read
in Hebrews 4, verse 2, that the gospel was preached unto them,
but did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them
that heard it. And they died in the wilderness. In the days of Elijah, he thought
he was all alone. God said, no. I have reserved
unto myself 7,000, have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. Well, I don't know if that's
a literal number or if that's a number representing God's elect. That was a remnant. I know it
was a remnant. Paul said so. Quoting God's words to Moses,
he said in the 11th chapter of Romans, even at this present
time also, there is a remnant according to the election of
grace. So the message was preached. But in these last days, it says
in verse 2, God has spoken unto 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 express image of His
person, 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 the Majesty on high." So we have the message right here in
the opening verses of Hebrews chapter 1. And it's all through
the Scriptures. In these last days, God has spoken
unto us by His Son. That's what Paul is saying. Our
Creator walked on this earth and He preached Himself. Christ
preached Christ. Not too many people heard Him
with the ears of the heart. A few did. Our Lord Jesus asked
His disciples, He said, whom do men say that I am? They said, well, some say you're
John the Baptist. Some say you're one of the other
prophets. He said, but whom do you say
that I am? Peter, being the spokesman, said,
Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Now listen
to these words from the lips of our Master. He said, Blessed
art Thou, Simon Bar-Jonah. Blessed art thou, Simon, son
of John. For flesh and blood hath not
revealed that unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven."
Now sometimes we read over something and it just doesn't register. I don't know how many times I
read that and knew what he was saying, but did not really look
at it this way. He wasn't even drawing attention
to his humanity. He could have said, I've revealed
that to you, and he would have been telling the truth. But it
wasn't the words, the audible sound of the words. That's important.
We must preach the gospel. But it wasn't the audible sound
of the words that made the difference between those who heard the message
and those who didn't. It was divine revelation from
God the Father right to the hearts of His people. And that's the
truth today. What an honor God has bestowed
upon us preachers. There's nothing There's nothing
greater than that honor of being able to preach His gospel, unless
it's the honor of hearing His gospel. The honor of hearing
it is just as precious, just as important. But all of God's
preachers will tell you, we cannot reveal this to you. Who Christ
is. What He has done. Who He did
it for. Where He is now. That's the message. It's Jesus Christ. We must preach
Him. But if all you hear is a preacher's
voice, you'll go out of this building as empty as that man
that left the services up there in Mosella, Alaska. You must
hear the voice of Jesus Christ. He said, My sheep, hear My voice,
and I know them, and they follow Me, and I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them
out of My hand. My Father which gave them is
greater than all. No man is able to pluck them
out of My Father's hand. I and My Father are one. We must hear Him. We must hear
Him. Verse 2 tells us that Jesus Christ
is our Creator. Also tells us that He is the
heir of all things. God has put all things into the
hands of His Son. All things are under His feet.
Jesus Christ is the sovereign despot who rules over this whole
universe and everything in it. And He has the right and He exercises
the right and He has the power to send His Spirit into the hearts
of His elect to reveal His gospel to them. And He does that. He is our Creator. That's just
a wonderful truth. Our Creator became a man and
walked on this earth. everything that you can see in
heaven above, and even things you can't see with the naked
eye that the scientists have been able to see with giant telescopes. All of these things were brought
into existence by the word of His mouth. He said, let it be.
And there it was. We live in California right at
the foothill of the Sierras. We're about 1,200 feet and about
an hour's drive We can be over 7,000 feet. We don't need snow
to come to us. We can drive to the snow if we
want to. And we love to do that. But the
beauty of that, the beauty of those snow-capped mountains,
and all those beautiful evergreen trees, and those tributaries,
those running brooks that go into the rivers, and the rivers
that run down into the valleys, all that is just breathtaking.
My Lord Jesus did that. He created it all, and you get
down into the lush valleys of California, and you can say all
you want to about the wickedness that's out there, but there's
some good crops come from California. And they're pretty tasty. And
I know this man right here says, I like my greens already processed
into beef, and that's alright. Well, just think about that.
All of those things God has created for us, and He's the one who's
given us the taste buds to love the taste of those things that
He's given to us. You ever sink your teeth? into a ribeye steak
that's cooked just the way you like it, and the juices just
go over the taste buds of your tongue, and you're just savoring
that. My Lord Jesus put that taste there, and He gave you
the taste buds. And you can go through a tomato
sandwich, bright red lush tomato sandwich on white bread with
mayonnaise, salt and pepper, and all of the food we've been
enjoying at this conference. And I haven't tasted anything
I didn't like. My Lord Jesus did. and all of
the beautiful flowers, and all of those things that we cherish,
we love, that's the beauty of creation, and the fragrance,
all of that's from my Lord Jesus. He created it all. He's the Creator. He became a man. Our Lord Jesus
became a man. That's who He is. He's Jehovah
God. God Almighty. We bow down to
Him. But listen to what he did. It
says in that third verse, but let me just, I'm getting way
ahead of myself. He's the brightness of God's
glory. He's not just God's glory. He's the brightness of God's
glory. We heard about Saul of Tarsus getting a glimpse of that
glory when he was on the road to Damascus and it blinded him
for three days. Brethren, when we get to glory,
we're going to see Him in all of His glory. There's no need
for the sun there. He's the light of that celestial
city. But He's the brightness of God's
glory. And it says that He's the express
image of His person. I have three sons. They all look
a little bit like me. And I don't know whether they
like that or not. But they can be thankful for this. They're
not the express image of me. But Jesus Christ is the express
image of God. Whatever you can imagine in your
mind as far as the greatness of God is concerned, that's in
Christ. All the attributes of God are
in Christ. He's a God who is lovely beyond description. How
can you put it into words? The express image of God. The
brightness of His glory. And it says that He's upholding
all things by the Word of His power. Not past tense. That's the present continuous
tense. He has always upheld all things
by the Word of His power. He was upholding all things by
the Word of His power when this was written. He is right now
at this very moment upholding all things by the word of His
power. And I think about that when I take an airplane ride.
I'm thankful that He does. I'm thankful that He is the one
who is upholding that plan. I know there's a pilot flying
and I'm thankful for him too. But I'm thankful for my Lord
and His power. And the next time we get a little
weak and start doubting, remember, we're kept by the same power.
through faith and through salvation that delivered us from the power
of darkness and translated us into His Kingdom. So, these wonderful
truths, we just don't ever tire of talking about them. But look
what it says in that 3rd verse. It says, When He had by Himself
purged our sins, not only did our God become a man, not only
did He walk on this earth in a human body, He by Himself purged
our sins. He didn't try to purge them.
He purged them. He didn't try to obtain eternal
redemption for us. He obtained eternal redemption.
That's past tense. Jesus Christ, as He walked on
this earth, He honored the law of God perfectly, establishing
a perfect righteousness for all of his people. When he went to
that cross and offered himself as a sacrifice for our sins,
he was delivered for our offenses. We've already heard that, but
I never preached it yet during this conference, so let me tell
you. He, Jesus Christ, is my substitute, our Father. made His Son, who knew no sin,
to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. All of my sins, past, present,
and future, were laid on my Substitute, and I bear them no more. He purged
them as far as the east is from the west. He's removed those
sins from God's elect. And God remembers them against
us no more. Isn't that good news? That's
good news for a sinner. And brethren, listen. God will
never charge us with those sins. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? God has justified us through
His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He, when He laid down His life,
when He said it is finished, holy justice was satisfied forever
for all of those who were in Christ. And those sins, will never be
charged to us. Never. Brethren, He reconciled
us to God by His death. We were in Christ. Let me just share some thoughts
with you, I trust will be a blessing to you, before I read that last
part of verse 3, which says, set down on the right hand of
the majesty of God. God delights in His Son. He has
always delighted in His Son. He will always delight in His
Son. And He delighted in those who
were chosen in Christ, who were in Christ, who were in His Son
before time began. Way back in old eternity. I don't know how to explain that
in the way of You can't explain it in the way of a time. God
loves us with an everlasting love. We've always been in Christ. He chose us in Christ before
the foundation of the world. That's God's purpose. We were
in Him when He came into this world. When the Father, the Holy Spirit
formed the Christ child in the womb of Mary, we were in Him. That's important because in sin
my mother conceived me. I was shaven in iniquity. I need
a Savior in my mother's womb. And when He came forth from Mary's
womb, He came forth as pure as God Himself. He was God Himself. I came forth from my mother's
womb going astray, speaking lies. So I have Christ for me when
He was born. We were in Him when He was formed
in His mother's womb. We were in Him when He came into
this world. We were in Him every second of
every minute of every hour of every day He lived on this earth. And as He pleased God in everything
that He did, and I heard it from Pastor Todd Nyberg already, but
I want to say it again. That's mind. Everything He did. Now, please God, that's mine.
I was in Christ. He established that righteousness
for me when He obeyed God perfectly. All of those who are in Christ
obeyed God perfectly. Isn't that good? God saw us in
Christ while He was walking on this earth. While our Savior
You know, it's not just the life He gave, it's the life He lived.
While our Savior walked, pleasing in the sight of God, we were
in Him. Everything He said, everything He did, everything He thought,
His motive, everything was pure and pleasing to God. That's ours.
God saw us in His Son when they laid those stripes across His
back. By His stripes we are healed. He saw us in His Son when He
poured out His unmitigated wrath on His darling Son that He may
be sin for us. He saw us. He saw us in Christ. We've already been punished for
our sins. God is a just God. He cannot
demand payment twice. He knew we were in His Son when
He turned His back on His Son. He will never turn His back on
us. Isn't that good? He knew we were in His Son. He
saw us in His Son when He was buried. He saw us in Christ when
He came out of the grave. He saw us in Christ when He ascended
to glory and sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on
high. That denotes a finished work.
Jesus Christ is at the right hand of the Father as the one
and only mediator between God and men, not man. Read it. It's M-E-N. If it said between
God and man, people might want to use that to say He's a mediator
between the whole human race. No, it's between God and men.
That limits the number. He's our mediator. He pleads
for us. He's our great High Priest who's
making intercession for all of His people. He's our blessed
surety. He's there making sure that all
of those who are given to Him in the eternal covenant of grace
will be brought to Him. He has the power to give eternal
life to as many as God the Father gave Him. We read that in John
17 too. So we know, we know He's there
doing those things for His people that none other can do. But Even
though it says He's seated at the right hand of the Majesty
on high, which denotes a finished work, it also denotes God's strong
right arm. Jesus Christ, we read in the
book of Revelation, He's in the midst of the throne. He's seated
on His throne. He's the sovereign God who's
ruling over everything. And God the Father sees us in
His Son. Now hang on. I got something
I want to share with you that's great. He saw us in Christ all
through old eternity, all through time, right up until the day
He sent His Son into our heart, when Jesus Christ sent His Spirit
into our heart. God not only sees us in Christ,
He sees Christ in us. It's Christ in us, the hope of
glory. We have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry,
Abba, Father. And by the way, we were predestinated
under the adoption of children by Jesus Christ Himself, according
to His will. But He sees us. He sees us in
Him, but He sees Christ in us. Remember when your heart was
broken And you knew you'd sinned against God, didn't deserve anything
but His eternal wrath, and you just felt the weight of sin.
God saw His Son in you breaking your heart. That's the work of
Christ in us. When we heard the Gospel, and
knew that Jesus Christ by Himself purged our sins, Knew that He
paid the redemption price in full. Knew that nothing could
be laid to our charge because God Himself found a ransom in
His Son. And we embraced that knowing
that it was ours. God the Father was seeing His
Son in us. Giving us faith to believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember when you wanted to get
baptized to make a public confession of your faith? And you knew it
wasn't sprinkling. You knew you had to get immersed.
You knew that's what the Word of God teaches as far as symbolizing
a death, burial, and a resurrection. And you went to the pastor and
said, I want to get baptized. That was Christ in us. Making us willing, not only in
the day of His power to come to Him, but to obey the ordinances
that He instituted. Joining the church. Loving the
brethren. Loving the worship services. Loving the gospel. Supporting
the gospel. Coming to the Lord's table on
a regular basis. That's God working in us. Christ
in us. Both to will and to do of His
good pleasure. God sees His Son working in us. The Apostle Paul
He said, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me. In the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by
the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for
me. He wasn't saying that it wasn't His faith. Every person
who's quickened by the Holy Spirit who has faith to believe the
gospel. It's your faith. God has given
that to you. It's a gift from God. But it's
Christ working in us. It's the faith of the Son of
God who loved us and gave Himself for us. No wonder the Word of
God says, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. Brethren,
that's our hope. Christ is our hope. That's what
I was telling that man up in Alaska. This is not a religion,
this is a life. Christ is our life. He lives
in us. You ask me how I know He lives?
He lives within my heart. He has taken up residence here.
Well, what about those people who believe in free will? You
know, I quoted that scripture a while ago. Jacob, have I loved,
but Esau, have I hated? Right on down in that same chapter,
the Apostle Paul quoted, and we heard this earlier, The Apostle
Paul quoted God's words to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will
have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
The next verse says, so then, so then, because God has mercy
on whom he will have mercy, and compassion on whom he will have
compassion, so then it is not of him that willeth. nor of him
that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy." Aren't you thankful
that God has shown you mercy? And it's all for the glory of
His darling Son. God delights in His Son. He delights
in those who are in His Son. And He delights in those His
Son dwells in. He delights in the work of God
the Spirit dwelling in us, conforming us to the image of Jesus Christ
our Savior. So what about those? who don't
believe the Gospel? If any man have not the Spirit
of Christ, he is none of His. And the Word of God, our Lord
Himself speaking, said, He that is of God, heareth God's Word.
Ye therefore, heareth it not, because ye are not of God. God's
preachers are not playing games. This is serious business. We're
dealing with the eternal souls of men and women who come to
hear us preach. What an honor. What an honor
to declare the truth for the glory of our Savior who loved
us and gave Himself for us. But brethren, I can't do anything
but preach and watch the election returns. It's God who gives the
increase. And when He does, you'll know
it. You'll know it. He delivers us
from darkness. He commands the light to shine
in our hearts. to give the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And if they
speak not according to this Word, it's because there's no light
in them. And Jesus Christ is that light. And thank God that He has, by
His sovereign power, commanded the darkness to flee and revealed
Himself in us. That's what Paul said, when I
pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb and called
me by His grace to reveal His Son in me. In me. It's Christ in us. The hope of
glory. God bless you. Thank you.