Now then, if you have your Bibles
open to the book of 1 Corinthians chapter 15, I want to speak on
the subject this morning, how a Christian looks at himself,
how a Christian is to view himself. And I have this morning four
texts of scripture, and I want to share them with you quickly,
and we'll get into the message. I begin with verse 4 here in
1 Corinthians chapter 15. Paul is talking about the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the historical fact of it. And so
he says, and that he was, or in verse 3 it is, for I delivered
unto you first of all that which I also received, how? That Christ died for our sins
according to the scriptures, and that he was buried and that
he rose again the third day according to the scriptures, and that he
was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve. After that he was seen
of above five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater
part remained unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. After that he was seen of James,
then of all the apostles." Notice verse 8, and last of all Last
of all, he was seen in me also as one born out of due time,
one abnormally born. For I am the least of the apostles,
and that am not meet, or I do not deserve even to be called. an apostle because I persecuted
the precious people of God. I persecuted the church of God
which he had purchased with his own blood. I am the least of
the apostles and a meet to be called an apostle, but by the
grace of God I am what I am, and His grace which was bestowed
upon me was not in vain, but I labored more abundantly than
they all, yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me."
Now, if you will, turn to Ephesians chapter 3, the chapter that our
brother read to us this morning. Ephesians chapter 3. I want to
read verse 7, beginning with verse 7, and read verse 8. 7 and 8. Wherefore, Paul says,
I was made a minister according to the gift of the grace of God,
given unto me by the effectual working of his power. Unto me, who am less than the
least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach
among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Jesus Christ. Then let's turn to 1 Timothy
chapter 1. 1 Timothy chapter 1 and I'd like
to read here verse 11 down through verse 16. According to the glorious
gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust, And
I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that
he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry, who was
before a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious, but I obtained
mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of
our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love, which is
in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying, and
worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners, of whom I am chief. Now then, let us turn,
I think we'll just turn to the book of 2 Corinthians now, for
the sake of brevity, the book of 2 Corinthians chapter 12,
and let me read to you here verse 11. Verse 11. where Paul said, this is 2 Corinthians
12, 11, I am become a fool in glory, ye have compelled me,
for I ought to have been commended of you, for in nothing am I behind
the very chiefest apostles, though I be nothing. Though I be nothing. He says, I am behind He says, for in nothing
I am behind the very chiefest apostles. I've done anything
that they've done, I can do anything they have done, and I'm doing
it. I am gifted along with them,
though, he says, I be nothing. Now then, I'd like to begin by
saying that we have heard a great deal in our time about the importance
of having a good self-image or a good, what they would call
a good self-concept. We're told by certain television
personalities and educators both in the religious world and the
secular world that we must have a healthy sense of self-esteem. Mr. Shuler, the West Coast preacher,
said some years ago that the great need of the church in our
era is a new reformation, a reformation of self-esteem. Now many modern
preachers have dedicated sermon after sermon to tell people how
to regain their self-esteem. Now I heard of a preacher recently
that would not let his congregation sing Amazing Grace. Amazing grace,
how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. He said, I
don't want to sing a lie. And he said, I'm not a wretch.
And he says, I assume that the people that I minister to are
not wretches either. Well, what he did not understand,
what he did not know, was at the very time he spoke those
words, he is a wretch. He's a wretch. Paul said, O wretched
man that I am. Paul was a wretched man, and
so I believe that this preacher is also. Now some would tell
us that all of this talk about having a good self-esteem or
a good self-concept, that it is a good thing. But it makes
some of us sick to our stomachs. It nauseates us. And you may
say this morning, why? Why would it nauseate you that
some people are saying these things? Because, beloved, it
is a gross denial of the fundamentals of the gospel. That's the reason. It is a gross denial of the fundamentals
of the gospel. This is especially so among those
who believe the doctrines of grace. They're horrified by any
talk about us having a self-esteem that is contrary to what the
Word of God teaches. Those we have fellowship with
are people that believe what we believe, and certainly they're
horrified by it. But now some may go overboard,
and I don't deny that, in the other direction from the idea
of self-esteem, they may go in the other direction. Like the
one preacher told his people The Bible says that we're all
worms, and you are, and you will be, as long as I'm your pastor. Now, of course, he made himself
quite clear, did he not? And then there was one grace
preacher that I heard about, seeking to improve upon the Bible,
and Isaac Watts. He goes even further. This preacher,
on a regular basis, tells his people, with a meek understatement,
that they're not worth anything more than a warm pitcher of spit."
Now that, my friend, there's no doubt where this brother stands
on the issue at hand. And while the statement may be
true, yet wisdom, I think, would dictate to us that we ought to
let people find this out on their own. Wouldn't you agree? Well,
I'd certainly believe that this morning. Now in the text that
we've read, to you the Bible speaks to this issue. The Bible
is speaking to this issue on the text that I've read to you
already this morning, and these are only samplings of the many
texts in the Bible that we could use on this subject. What are
we talking about? Well, the thing that we're talking
about is how believers look at themselves, and I believe the
way Paul looked at himself is the very way that we ought to
look at ourselves. And what we're talking about
today is vital to how we think and how we live in this world
and how we carry on a conversation with people around us. Now then,
are we okay? I believe this morning that we're
saints without question, but are we without fault? Are we
not yet living in a body of sin? Could we not say that we're as
good as the best and as bad as the worst? Well, certainly we
could, because that's the truth. I think that is indeed the truth.
But now I would feel safe in leading you to think exactly
as Paul thought about himself. I feel safe in doing that. I
do not believe that I'm going to be misleading anyone if I
tell you you're to look upon yourself as Paul did. I want, if I can, to guide you
into the right mindset. So in doing that, I think I should
comment a little bit on 1 Corinthians chapter 15. And so if you have
that place in your Bible marked, or if you can turn back there,
I would like for us to look a little bit at what Paul had to say.
I believe this will give us a good starting point. Paul is talking,
as we mentioned, about the historical fact of the resurrection. And here's what he has to say
in light of that fact. because Paul has seen the resurrected
Christ. But now, when did he see the
resurrected Christ? Well, was it not after the other
apostles did? Well, it certainly was. And he
says in verse 7, after that, after he had appeared to 500
brethren at once, and many of them remained to this present,
some have died, but after that he was seen of James, and then
of all the apostles. And last of all, he says, he
was seen of me as one who was abnormally born. Meaning that
others, the other apostles, and one of the things that had to
be true about an apostle was he had to see the resurrected
Christ. And so Paul, he says, I was abnormally
born. In other words, I was born after,
born again after the others were born again, because they were
born again during the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. But
then I was born afterwards on the way to Damascus, and there
I saw the resurrected Christ and heard His voice. He says,
for I'm the least of the apostles. I came in last on this thing,
and he said I'm the least of the apostles, and I don't deserve
to be called an apostle because I persecuted the Church of God. Hear what he says in light of
this fact. He carries with him, I think,
a deep abiding sense of his unworthiness. He has persecuted the apple of
God's eye. He has persecuted that church
for which the Lord Jesus Christ has laid down His life. He has
persecuted the sheep of God's pasture. And therefore, He has
this deep abiding sense of His unworthiness. When God has opened
His eyes, when God has made Him to see the truth about Himself
and to see that the era that He was on that this errand was
wrong because he thought that he ought to do all things contrary
to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. So he carries with him this deep
abiding sense of his unworthiness. Paul the Apostle could not forgive
himself. Though he was forgiven of God,
he could not forget what he had been forgiven of. Is that your
state? Can you forget all that you have
been forgiven of? Now I certainly believe that
God has forgiven and that he has cast our sin behind us back
as far as the east from the west and that he remembers them no
more against us. I believe he's buried them in
the depth of the deepest sea. and He will never dredge them
up. He will never bring them to the surface. But my friend,
can we forget what it is that God has forgiven us of? Well, certainly I do not believe
we can. We could never get over, and He could never get over that
as an undeserving as He was, that as undeserving as He was.
as sinful as he was, deserving of everything but the grace of
God, he still had been made a recipient of God's grace. And he never
got over it. He couldn't get over it. The
fact that he, this man, after all the sinfulness and wretchedness
that he had committed in his life, that he yet has become
a recipient of God's grace. So he carries with him this deep
abiding sense of his unworthiness. And this is true in the other
text that we have read. I mentioned Ephesians chapter
3 at this time. He says there that he is less
than the least of all saints. He says I am less than the least
of all saints. Yet I was given the privilege
of preaching the unsearchable riches of Jesus Christ. Now, I want you to get what he
says. Now, beloved, we would not put Paul where he puts himself. No, we would not. We would not
say of the great Apostle Paul that he was less than the least
of all saints. We certainly would not. We would
put him among the best because we believe that he had all of
the right stuff, if you please. We believe that he was indeed
a man who was God's servant, a slave of the Lord Jesus Christ,
a bond slave of Christ. And he did that which God called
him to do and he kept the faith And he honored the Lord even
to the point of giving up his neck to be cut off, his head
to be cut off by a knee rope. And I am, he says, not only now
the least of all saints, but I'm less. I'm less than the least
of all God's people. Now, brother, sister, if Paul
were to walk in this place this morning, if he were to open the
door and come in, a man who was a dwarf of a man, whose outward
presence was weakly and sickly, but if he were to come into this
place this morning, I tell you, he would think about you and
treat you just exactly like he said that he felt about himself
in this verse here in Ephesians 3. He said, I'm less than the
least of all saints. That's how he would treat all
of you, the Lord's people. He wouldn't come in here like
a big shot preacher and come strutting up the aisle with all
decked out and all of his finery and putting on airs. No. He would say, I am less than
the least of all you dear sheep of Christ and I'm here to try
to minister something to you because I have been given the
privilege of preaching the unsearchable riches of the Lord Jesus Christ. And God has given me the mystery
of the gospel, the revelation of the mystery of the gospel
according to His eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus,
and I'm here to share it with you this morning. Now the Apostle
Paul, my friend, was just that kind of an individual. And so
I think that we should take a look at that because sometimes I'm
ashamed to be even called a preacher because of the hypocrites that's
in the ministry and because of the big shots and those that
run around with their egos and they always got to be looked
up to, you know, as being something other than what they really are.
But the Apostle Paul said, I am less than the least of all God's
saints. And then in 1 Timothy 1, 13-15,
he says, but I obtained mercy. I was a persecutor. I was injurious
to the people of God. I was a rebel against God and
against Christ. I hated Christians. I hated what
they stood for. I thought that Jesus Christ was
a fake and an imposter. And I thought that if I could
rid the world of these people that claim to believe that He
was the Son of the Living God, the Messiah, if I could rid the
world of them, then I'd be doing that which would please Jehovah
God. But my friend, he says, but I
injured the people of God. I persecuted them unto the death. But, he says, I obtained mercy. I obtained mercy because I did
it ignorantly and in unbelief. And then it went on to say that
this is a faithful saying. After saying that the grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ was exceedingly abundant with faith and love,
he said, but this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners And I am
he. I am he. I am number one of the
bunch. I am the worst of the bunch.
And the Lord came to save sinners, and I'm that one that he picked
out, that he said, well, I'm going to have mercy on you, which
will be a pattern of my long-suffering to others that come after you,
so that everybody will be able to know that if I forgave you,
that I can forgive anybody. I can forgive any sinner because
I forgave Saul of Tarsus. of his persecuting of believers. And so the Apostle Paul says,
I'm he, I'm a sinner. Now if you would turn to 2 Corinthians
chapter 12, we'll look there at verse 11 hurriedly, where
he says, I've become a fool in glory. Paul, he was not comfortable
in glorying in anything except in the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ. And when he would talk about
his infirmities, when he would talk about the reproaches that
came upon him and the necessities and the persecutions that he
endured and the distresses that he had in his life for Christ's
sake, then, my friend, he would say, well, I've become a fool
in glorying. You've compelled me to do it,
For I ought to have been commended of you. You ought to be doing
the talking instead of me, because you've seen the power of God
fall whenever I preach to you, and you've experienced the new
birth, and I'm your Father in Christ, and therefore you ought
to be commending me. For in nothing, he says, am I
behind the very chiefest apostles. Anything that happened when they
preached has happened when I preach. and anything that happened through
their ministry, then it's happened in my ministry. He says, though
I be nothing. Though I be nothing. Now, my
friend, that is a tremendous statement. Now, this is astounding
that Paul would make all of these statements that we have read
to you this morning. It certainly is astounding. This
is the Apostle Paul's own estimate of himself. This is his estimate
of himself. Now this is a very great change
in his original estimate of himself. Now when he was going down to
Damascus and you know he was a Hebrew of the Hebrews and he
was a Pharisee and he was one who said that he served the law
of the fathers and he tried desperately to keep the law and he thought
he was somebody. He had much, much in his life,
he said, I've done this, I've done that, I've done something
else, and so therefore he was a bragging person about what
he had done and so on. But then, this is, when he comes
to the place where he'd say, I'm the least of the apostles,
I don't deserve to be called one, when he would say, I'm less
than the least of all saints, When he would say that I'm a
sinner, the chief of sinners, and when he would say I'm nothing,
then this, my friend, is the corrected estimate that resulted
from the enlightenment which he received at his conversion.
The Apostle Paul was converted on the road to Damascus. The
Lord appeared unto him. He said that in 1 Corinthians
15 that he appeared to James, and last of all, he appeared
to me. last of all and so Paul had seen
the resurrected Christ and this corrected his estimate of himself. It took all of this bragging
out of him. It took all of this religion
out of him. And after that he said, I don't
want to be found having a righteousness of my own. I don't want to be
found that way. He said, I want to be found having
the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ down to my account. Well, beloved, what a flood of
light the Lord pours in upon a man's soul when he brings him
to himself. When God pours His light into
a man's soul, at first, like Paul, it blinds him. You remember
Paul said, I could not see for the brightness of that light.
God struck him down with this bright light from heaven, and
when this light came upon him, he saw himself. He saw what He
was. He saw exactly what He was. And
then He saw the Lord. He saw the Lord. My friend, Paul
would say in comparison with the Lord, I am nothing. I am
nothing. I am to be accounted nothing
in regards to my Lord and my Master. He saw the glory of God
in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then I believe as
he went along, the force of that estimate, which he now has of
himself, I am nothing, I am less than the least of all saints,
had increased by a growing belief in the doctrine of God's grace,
the doctrines of the sovereignty of God. and the truth of God's
grace, the truth of depravity, the truth of electing grace,
the truth of the effectual redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the truth of the perseverance of the saints, and all of these
truths as they grew on the Apostle Paul, my friend, he grew to believe
more fully that he was nothing, that he was nothing. Now, beloved,
if you wish to find the free will of man extols, you must
not read the epistles of Paul. You must stay away from the epistles
of Paul. If any desire to write an essay
upon the dignity of human nature, or to preach a sermon upon the
glory which still remains in man despite his fallen state,
or on the recuperative power of human nature despite its disease,
you'll get no help from Paul, none whatsoever. Men are dead
in trespasses and sins, and sovereign grace is the only remedy, Paul
said in Ephesians 2 verses 1 through 9. Not a word does Paul say anywhere
in the epistles about human righteousness, about human power or merit. With
Paul it was grace, grace, Grace, grace only. Salvation altogether
of the grace of God. And this is why he said, I am
nothing. In proportion as he learned the
fullness, as he learned the freeness, as he learned the richness and
sovereignty of divine grace, did he see side by side with
it the nakedness, the filthiness, the nothingness of man. And so
he who could best glory in the grace of God fought, and less
and less of himself, and said, no, I be nothing. So what is Paul's resume when
he gets done filling it out? How does it read? Well, last
of the apostles, number one on the list. Number two, less than
the least of all saints. Number three, first of sinners,
worst of the bunch. Number four, nothing. Now isn't
that astounding? Isn't that astounding indeed?
Well, why is this? Because Paul would say, I'm a
sinner. And it expressed itself in the
horrible way of persecuting God's people. I'm undeserving, I'm
unworthy of God's mercy and God's grace. Now these statements in
Paul's resume are experiential, they're experimental, they're
psychological reflections of this man on his own experience
and life. They reflect the way he felt
about himself. This is the correct view of a
Christian, and this is the view that we should have about ourselves. I am not worthy. I'm not worthy. I do not deserve what God has
done for me. Old Jacob said, I do not deserve
the least of the mercies of God. I am nothing. I'm a sinner. I'm
nothing. I'm less than the least of the
saints. I'm the very last person who should have been the recipient
of God's amazing saving grace. I'm the very last person that
should have received it. Do you ever feel that way? I
mean, God should have searched this world over. Surely there
were better people than me for Him to save. Surely! Sometimes
in our failures we look at ourselves and we say, surely the Lord could
have found somebody who would have been more diligent, more
faithful than what I've been. Surely He could have found somebody.
I'm the very least. I'm the very last person that
should have been shown the favor of my lovely Lord. Now, beloved,
I believe this is the language that Paul used, the language
of repentance and true faith. What do I mean by that? Well,
I mean that this is the way the believer sees himself. He sees
his sin. His eyes have been opened. and
he sees his sin. This is a major difference between
the Christian and the natural man. The natural man, he likes
to talk about how good he is. Oh, he's always pointing to this
and that, that he's done. He's always saying, you know,
this is in my favor, that's in my favor, I've been about this
and about that. Well, even sometimes he likes
to thank God that he's not like other people. Like the Pharisee
and the Republican in Luke chapter 18. The believer feels his sin. The believer feels his depravity.
And he cries out with Paul, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver
me from this body of death? Now, so the believer sees himself
as Paul did. Brother, sister, let me point
out that this is not, this language is not, I want to point it out
to you, is not the product of an unhealthy mind. No, it is
not. It is not the product of a sick
mind. If you were to go down to Deer
Lodge and talk to some down there that have religious mania, who
are sick, they're sick-minded people. And we're often accused
of putting people into a state sometimes where they go off the
deep end. But I'm telling you there are people in the natural
world that go off the deep end every day. There are people in
this world who are sick-minded people. But what Paul says is
not the product of a sick mind, but the product of a healthy
spiritual mind. And don't you forget it. This
is not the sick fawning of a neurotic soul, my friend. This is the
truth about a man. Paul said, he said, I am the
last of the apostles. I don't deserve to be one. I
don't deserve to be numbered among the apostles. I'm less
than the least of all saints. Well, I'm a sinner. This is the
language of those who have stood before the cross. Hear me out.
The cross of Calvary and have understood what they've seen
there. Let me say it again. This is the language of those
who have stood before the cross of Calvary and understood what
they've seen there. Did you stand before the cross?
Have you viewed the cross? Do you know the message of the
cross? Do you know what the cross has to say? This is the language
of those who have stood before the torture stake on Gogolotha's
brow and understood the wrath of God and the love of God meeting
in the pain-wracked body of Jesus, the Son of God. This is the language
of a man who was acquainted with God and His eternal purpose of
saving His people from their sin. This is the language that
says, alas, And did my Savior bleed? And did my Sovereign die? Would He devote that sacred head
for such a worm as I, a sinner such as I? Now this is the language
that says, upon that cross of Jesus mine eyes at times can
see the very dying form of one who suffered there for me. And
from my smitten heart with tears to wonders I confess the wonders
of redeeming love. and my unworthiness. Now, my friend, listen to me.
This is the language that says, I do not deserve that God's only,
well-beloved, only begotten Son should die for me, should die
in my room instead. I am nothing. I am nothing. I
am the least of all saints. I am chief of sinners. Though
I be nothing, God has had mercy. and showing me his grace. The
question is often asked after hearing the testimony of some
people. Now, you know, they're in religion. They are invited
many, many times. They'll invite people in who
are morally bankrupt, people that have been dope peddlers,
perverts, wife beaters, drunkards, alcoholics, prostitutes, and
so on, who have been converted and they get up and give their
testimony. And they tell people about what an awful life and
give them a picture of what they were and so on and so forth.
And then after they're finished, some little girl, nine or ten
years old, maybe sitting out here, some boy out here, young
fella, he says, well, I never experienced anything like that.
How can I ever come to the place where I can glory in the grace
of God? I've never been the sinner they've been. How in the world
can I ever get to the place where I can get up and talk about the
grace of God? Is it necessary that I go through
what they went through? Is it necessary that I fall into
the slime pits of this earth like they have? Is it necessary
that I go down, down, down, down the ladder of morality? Is it
necessary that I fall into the cesspool of sin like they have? Do I have to go through all of
this to be able to glorify the true grace of God? No. No. No. You do not have to. It took
the same death. It took the same suffering. It
took the same agony. It took the same blood. to save
the morally upright as it does to save those that I mentioned
above. The same grace it takes. My friend, we all stand on the
same level at Calvary. And because we stand there, we
see ourselves as unworthy. We're all sinners. We're all
sinners. We all have failed. We all have come short. We all
have failed to measure up. to the standard of God's holy
immaculate law. We have failed to measure up,
and so every one of us stands on level ground at the cross. You're here this morning, if
you're 10 years old, if you're 9 years old, 8 years old, or
if you're 60 years old, or 50, or anywhere in between, my friend,
you say, I've not been all of that. I've not been all the preachers
said. Well, you may not have been,
but you're level ground with them. And if God saves you, He's
got to save you exactly like He saved them. Exactly. It takes the same blood and grace,
the same grace, the same power, the same converting power. All
must experience the same birth. You must have a spiritual birth.
Be born of the Spirit of God. Oh, my friend, So I asked you
this morning, can you use this same healthy, happy language
that Paul used? Can you use that language? Can
you sing with Mr. James Gray? Only a sinner saved
by grace. Only a sinner saved by grace. This is my story. To God be the glory. I'm only a sinner saved by grace. Let's all sing it together. Only
a sinner saved by grace. Only a sinner saved by grace. This is my story. To God be the glory. I'm only a sinner saved by grace. Well, we glory in this language,
don't we? Yes, we do. We boast in this language. We rejoice to sing that song. Why is it? Is it because we're
magnifying our sins? No, no. But beloved, against
the backdrop of our sin, against the darkness of our sin, against
the blackness of the undeservedness of our sin, grace has come. Grace has come. The Lord has
appeared. The Lord has come and has brought
us back out of the slave market of sin. He come to us individually
and He showed us His love and mercy in His Son, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And He's given us a SS degree. Sinner saved. That's the degree
we have. I've got a degree. Yes, I have. Sinner saved. Romans 5 verse
20 and 21. It talks about where sin abounded,
grace did much more abound. It means it did super, super,
super abound. Where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound. I'm a Christian, not because
I deserved it. I'm a Christian not because I
merited it, but because of the grace of God freely bestowed
upon me, upon my poor soul. The grace of God freely bestowed. I obtained mercy. Couldn't work
it out. Couldn't move God to give it
to me. Wasn't any way I could get it except through sovereign
grace. But I obtained mercy. I obtained mercy. Well, that'd
put a person shouting all around, wouldn't it? I obtained mercy.
I was everything. God knows what I was. I won't
spend any time telling you what I was. I don't need to do that.
If you know what you are, If you know what you are, you know
what I was. That's a pretty good way of telling it. They don't
need us getting up and start talking about our sin. Every
one of us knows what we are, and because you know yourself,
you know me. And because I know me, I know you. I know what you
are. I know we're all sinners. I know
something about this nature. But I'm telling you that if you
obtain mercy, it's freely given. Freely, freely given. freely given. Well, can you say
that? Can you say that chorus that
we sung reflects your own self-concept? That it is your self-esteem that
reflects that? That it reveals that? Well, praise
God, it sums up my self-esteem. That's it. That's it. Not only
has sinners saved by grace, but bless God, Blessed God, Paul
said in 1 Corinthians 15 and 10, he says, I am what I am by
the grace of God. I'm the least of all the apostles.
I don't deserve to be called one. But I am what I am by the
grace of God. And I'm not what I once was.
I'm not what I hope to be. But by the grace of God, I'm
not what I once was. I am what I am by the grace of
God. And beloved, that's jubilant.
That's victorious. That's victory is what that is. We are what we are by the grace
of God, and we've been made sent together in heavenly places in
Christ Jesus. Oh, what we are now. Oh, we don't
just talk about all the time that we're sinners. No, no, no.
We are that, and it's reflected in our conversation in the songs
that we sang as we've explained, but we also talk about the victory,
and we talked about the fact that if any man be in Christ,
he is a new creation. All things have passed away,
and behold, all things have come new. Behold, look, all things
have become new. If any man has received Christ
Jesus the Lord, let him walk as he walked. If any man hath
this hope, I quoted last week, of Jesus the coming one, then
let him purify himself even as Jesus the coming one is pure.
And so we've been made different. God has done something in our
lives. And truly, truly this morning, we can say and that
our self-esteem is great and healthy. We believe what the
Word of God teaches about us. The Bible says in the book of
Isaiah that all flesh is his grass, and all the glory of man
is the flower of the grass. And the grass withereth, and
the flower thereof falleth away. But the word of the Lord endureth
forever, and this is the word which by the gospel is preached
unto you. And so my friend, that's my message this morning on how
A believer ought to look at himself. I hope that each and every one
of you will be able to take something out of here with you, out of
this message, and that it will help you in your daily thoughts. You've been thinking. I know
you think all the time. Some of us think too much. Others
of us don't think enough. But you've been thinking about
yourself, satisfied that you are, and you've been wondering,
why do I feel like I do? Why do I feel like I do? Maybe
this morning that the message has answered some of those questions
as to why you feel the way you do. And it's right to feel just
like Paul felt about himself. It's right to feel that way.
And I told you at the outset I felt safe in taking you down
this road. I felt safe in leading you where
Paul had himself gone. And so I believe this morning
that the more we grow in the grace of God, the more we grow
in the truth of God, the more we're going to see ourselves
like we are, and the more sinful we're going to become in our
own eyes, the more wretched we're going to become in our own eyes.
May the Lord be pleased to own this message. Let us pray. Father,
in the name of Jesus, bless, we pray, the message and use
it for Thy glory and Your honor. May it please You, Lord, to save
some poor soul here this morning and to give them that proper
self-esteem, that self-concept, which glorifies God is the opener
mouth. Give us, our Father, that ability
to praise Thee and to feel our undeservedness. O God, we ask
it. For Christ's sake, in His name,
Amen.