Trespasses and sins.
Where women's time passed, we walked according to
the course of this world.
According to the prince of the power of
the air, the spirit that now works in
the children of disobedience.
Among whom also we all had our conversation
in times past, in the lust of our
flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and
of the mind, and were by nature the
children of wrath even as others.
But God, who is rich in mercy, for
his great love, wherewith he loved us, even
when we were dead in sin, hath quickened
us together with Christ.
By grace he was saved, and has raised
us up together, and made us fit together
in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
But in the ages to come, he might
show the exceeding wishes of his grace, in
his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
For by grace are you saved, through faith.
And that, not of yourselves, it is the
gift of God, not of work, lest any
man should thirst.
Isn't that wonderful?
And you know, as we've already seen, the
one who has asked these words would have
known that very, very well.
He knew that he was saved by grace.
Let's go back a little bit biographical.
Let's go back into Acts of the Apostles.
Let's look at chapter 9, just for a
moment, very briefly.
Chapter 9, and you get this point, verse
3.
As he journeyed to Cana near Damascus, and
suddenly there shined round about him a light
from heaven.
Well, let me ask you, what has he
done to deserve that light?
Nothing.
Now, you may say, well, oh, somebody was
praying for him.
Okay, somebody was praying for him.
God.
Certainly, Jesus was praying for him.
That's certain.
But even if somebody was praying for him,
why was the prayer answered?
Because of the grace of Jesus, which had
made it possible for someone to pray for
him.
Going a bit further forward, back a bit
further, we'll get away with it.
Chapter 2 of Acts.
Verse 2.
Suddenly there came a sound from heaven over
the rushing mighty wind, and it filled all
the house where they were sitting.
What had they done to deserve it?
Nothing.
Why did they receive it?
For only one reason.
They were in the right place, at the
right time, by the grace of God.
By the grace of God.
We are saved by grace.
You could look at anything there.
Let's go to where we were this morning,
and let's look into chapter 19 of Acts
of the Apostles.
Chapter 19 tells us, verse 6.
When Paul had laid his hands upon them,
the Holy Ghost came on them.
And they spake with tongues and prophesied.
Why did God pour out the Spirit there?
By grace.
Sheer grace.
We are saved by grace.
And I want to talk about this grace
tonight.
Go back into Ephesians chapter 1.
I want to put a bit of background
to it.
Because you see, we are saved tonight, not
by anything we've done, but because of something
that God has done.
In his mercy.
If you look into this chapter 1 of
Ephesians, I want you to notice the tense
of the chapter.
I remember things about this chapter, but look
at this.
Look at this, the tense is first.
Look at this verse 3.
Blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
Now notice the sense, he has done it.
God has blessed us with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places.
He has done it.
Look at verse 5.
Having predestinated us.
Verse 8.
Wherein he is abounded toward us.
With all wisdom and prudence.
Look in verse 11.
In whom also we have attained an inheritance.
Look down to verse 19.
What is the exceeding greatness of his power,
to those who believe, according to the working
of his mighty power, which he wrought in
Christ, when he raised him from the dead.
Chapter 2.
Verse 4.
We've read this already.
God who is rich, blessed God who is
rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith
he loved us, even when we were dead
in sin, has quickened us together with Christ.
By grace are you saved.
In other words, he did it when we
were in sin.
He did it when we couldn't pray.
He did it when I couldn't do a
thing about it to help myself.
He did it before I ever had any
sense to pray.
He did it before anybody prayed.
He did it before anybody fasted.
He did it before any of us lifted
a finger for ourselves.
God did something.
And it's because of what he has done
that tonight, and listen very carefully, tonight it
is very easy for you to be saved.
It is easy for you to be saved.
It is easy for you to receive the
gift of the Holy Ghost.
It is easy for you to receive the
gift of the Spirit.
It is easy for God to reveal himself
to you.
Everything that God wants to do in us
is easily obtained because God has already done
it.
Amen.
Now that's a revelation.
To get that you need a revelation.
Not a lot of work.
You just need to receive.
The amazing thing about the reading of scripture,
as it dawns on you as you read
and poke in this book, what dawns upon
you is that it is so easy.
It is so easy.
You know that I was talking this morning
about the Apostle Paul and I was saying
that he was about 37, 38 when he
was saved.
In chapter 9.
He died, was executed around the age of
64, 65.
So that meant that he had approximately 30
years, just under 30 years, 27 years of
Christian life.
Not very long was it.
He accomplished an enormous amount in those 27
years, an enormous amount.
He accomplished more than it would be humanly
possible to accomplish.
Nobody could do it.
Nobody could pray enough to get those blessings.
Nobody could fast enough to get what he
got.
Nobody could actually work and earn what he
got.
It's like a child who is the son
of a millionaire and he's a millionaire and
he's driving a, I don't know what kind
of car, at the age of 17.
At the age of 17, on the day
he gets his driving licence, a couple of
boozes, whatever.
He's got that, he's just got a facade.
Anyway, not quite a Lamborghini.
He didn't earn it.
There's nothing he did to earn it.
He just got it.
He was in the right place at the
right time and he got it.
He hated it.
It was given to him.
Now everything that God is going to do
in us is given to us by grace,
through faith.
And that, that of yourself, it, that is
faith, is the gift.
The gift of God.
Isn't that wonderful?
It's the gift of God.
God is going to pour out his blessing
upon us.
In fact, God is very desiring to pour
out his blessing upon us.
There is at this moment a great desire
in God to do the things that many
of us are longing for him to do.
And all we have to do to unlock
the great riches of his grace, is ask.
Amen.
That's all we need to do.
It's very simple.
What I find is this, that many people
realise very easily and quickly their sins.
Very easily.
And so, it doesn't take long before someone
realises that they don't deserve anything.
And because they realise very quickly that they
don't deserve anything, they very also, also very
quickly come to the realisation that they also
feel very sorry about their sins.
And if they feel really, really sorry, God
might help them.
And so people come to the position where
very soon they are there telling God how
bad they are and realising and beating themselves
and doing extra special sorry, depending on how
bad you feel it is, you feel extra
special sorry.
And you might even go a little bit
further day after day in saying how sorry
you are and you'll wake up the next
day expecting that if you are sorry enough,
God might forgive you.
If you can really bring up enough penance,
God will say, good, I'll forgive you.
Now let me tell you, God will not
forgive anybody because we do penance.
Repentance, yeah, but not penance.
Repentance is not penance.
Repentance is not even fundamentally feeling sorry for
all the things you've done.
That part of it's part, but not always.
Repentance can be just a gentle realisation that
there's something far better and you don't want
what you're in, you go for the good.
There's an example of that in scripture, you
know, when a woman, a woman of Samaria,
talks to Jesus and after a conversation lasting
probably a bit longer than the time it
takes to read it, but not very long,
maybe a half hour, she sat and talked
with Jesus and surely we only have seconds
of the conversation, but she talked with him
and at the end of her conversation she
ran with joy into the city.
She had repented.
She hadn't done any penance.
She hadn't felt sorry for two minutes.
She'd just been in a flash that there
was something wonderful right there before her, so
what she got, and took it.
And it was hers.
And she didn't deserve it.
Now you and I think, oh, oh this
is terrible what I've done.
The Lord knows about it.
I'll go away and I'll weep a night
or two, pray a few weeks about it,
and then maybe God will be prepared to
do something about changing my situation.
The reason is that people do easily get
aware of their sins, but people don't easily
get aware of what God has done about
your sins.
You realise you're not saved by repentance.
You're saved by faith.
And you're not saved by faith in repentance,
excuse me for putting it a bit like
that, but you're not saved because you believe
you've repented enough.
You're saved because you believe in the grace
of Jesus Christ.
You've seen something in God, not something in
yourself.
The whole point of salvation is that you've
seen something in God, and you've transcended yourself
altogether, and you've received it by a sheer,
undeserved free gift of the grace of God.
And it's easy.
It is so easy to receive from God.
Let me just show you another thing about
this chapter, or these chapters.
You see, one of the things that he
prayed for, and you know that little phrase
in verse 17 of chapter 1, that the
God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father
of glory, may give to you the spirit
of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of
him, the eyes of your heart being enlightened,
that you may know, and he goes on
to talk about what you may know.
He wants us to see something.
He doesn't want us to work at something.
He wants us to see something.
Now look at this chapter 6, chapter 2
verse 6, And it raised us up together,
and made us fit.
Now tonight, a good number of us stood
up.
Well, that's very nice, that's good.
I like to stand up.
But you do realise that on the day
of Pentecost, though the dressing is very great,
it did not make them stand up.
It made them sit down.
In a sense.
It says in Acts chapter 2 that they
were seated as they received the Holy Spirit,
and Peter stood up in the midst to
preach.
They sat, they received, and they remained seated.
They didn't do anything.
They just received.
It was a mighty outpouring of the grace
of God.
They just received.
Now, you and I know, we know that
they prayed for ten days.
And they didn't pray for ten days only.
They also did a few things, like appointing
another apostle.
A bit of a bad thing to do
really, when you look at it.
They drew straws for him.
Maybe you should appoint that message for appointing
your next elder or whatever.
They drew straws in the church.
They gave God a choice, of course.
They said, Lord, you know, which of these
two?
They chose the two and they let God
have the final say between the two.
Very good of them.
But for ten days they prayed.
I don't know what they prayed for ten
days.
God said to them, stay in Jerusalem.
Just stay here.
So they stayed.
Credit to them, they're obedient.
They stayed.
And in ten days time they were seated
at nine o'clock in the morning.
And God poured out the Holy Spirit upon
them.
That's a sheer grace.
They hadn't deserved it.
They didn't know what was coming.
They just received.
Now, I want us to know tonight that
God has a great fund.
And He's desiring to pour out.
He'd want Him to bless.
Now, you see, each of us knows, we
realise that there must be some grounds for
God to bless us.
This is why we do our penance.
Because we know there must be a grounds
for God to bless us.
If there isn't a grounds, He can't bless
us.
And that's true, we realise it.
That's why we think that if I give
Him something, He will reward me.
Now, God is a rewarder.
He's a very great generous rewarder.
But you see, salvation is not a reward
for you, it's a reward for Jesus.
Your salvation is not a reward for you,
it's a reward for Jesus.
And we'll look at that.
Your salvation is not because of what you
did, it's because of what Jesus did.
But we know that there's got to be
something done to get us blessed.
We know that salvation must have a righteous
foundation.
We realise that.
And so we tend to suspect that much
of the Scripture is actually drawn into a
hard, laborious struggle in order for God to
righteously pour out the Spirit.
In fact, if you read certain books and
have certain ideas, you might come away with
the idea that God will only give us
an outpouring of the Spirit if we've come
into some frame of mind that is particularly
agonising, particularly costing, particularly hard on us, that
after several months or years of hard slog,
God will then say, you've reached the point,
gosh, I'll give it to you.
And then He pours it out.
I want you to see that when we
pray, and we must pray, don't forget that,
we must pray, we don't pray in order
to build up a debt of blessing with
God that God owes a blessing.
We pray only for one reason, to put
ourselves in the positions where God may give
to us all that He wants to give
to us and has already determined to give
to us in Jesus Christ.
None of our praying, none of our devotions
will earn us the blessings that God pours
out.
They're only put in the place where God
will give us them.
And remember, the time taken is not the
time in order to obtain the blessing, it's
the time for you to see what God
has done.
Turn with me now to chapter 5 of
Ephesians, verse 1.
Be therefore followers of God, and dear children,
and walk in love, as Christ also hath
loved us, and hath given himself for us
an offering and a sacrifice to God for
sweet-smelling favour.
Now, if you went back in the Old
Testament now, you'd find that that scripture refers
to the sacrifices that were given in the
Old Testament.
They gave sacrifices.
They would bring their sacrifice to God, God
had ordained it, and as they brought their
sacrifice, they knew that if they brought it
there and killed the lamb, and they all
did it, they all brought a sacrifice to
the priest, and the priest offered the sacrifice
for them.
Everybody did it.
In fact, everybody in the nations also touched
sacrifice themselves, not only the priests, because in
the Passover, they all took the lamb, they
all killed the lamb, they all applied the
blood to the doorpost, they all entered into
the house, and they all ate the lamb.
So there was a sacrifice which made them
all to taste.
There were sacrifices in which only the priests
could offer.
But there was one sacrifice, the Passover, in
which they all became priests, because they all
offered, and they all ate of the sacrifice.
They all were involved with the sacrifice of
the lamb.
And it tells us here, that there was
an offering and a sacrifice to God, for
a sweet, sweet favour.
It tells us that when that sacrifice was
made, the age of the sacrifice ascended, and
it pleased God.
And because it pleased God, God accepted the
people, because of the sacrifice.
He said, I accept you, I receive you,
I will bless you, because of the sacrifice.
But you see, when we turn to the
New Testament, we find that there is one
sacrifice, and it is Jesus.
He offered up himself.
We didn't offer him up.
He offered up himself, and more to that,
the Father offered him up.
If I took you back now, in history,
right back to that day of Calvary, and
I took you to stand by the cross,
and we went there, and listened and observed
all that took place in those moments, we
would see that there was a great offering
up of the Son of God as a
sacrifice to God.
It was a sacrifice without blemish.
It was perfect.
That sacrifice, the Lord Jesus, he was absolutely
perfect in himself, as he had offered up
to God.
And he offered up himself.
As he went up that hill, and was
taken there, and more to that, she.
We don't know all the agonies.
It isn't even the central point of the
Scripture.
All we know is that she offered up
himself.
We know that Father, from his point, did
not intervene.
We know that Father willed that sacrifice.
We know the truth of John 3-16,
that it was God who so loved the
world, that he gave his only begotten Son.
It was God giving his Son a sacrifice.
And when that sacrifice ascended, and went up
to the Father, you realize that there was
this awesome moment as God received the sacrifice
of Jesus.
What did the sacrifice of Jesus say?
Of course, it wasn't just a smile.
The smile was only a picture, an image.
It was all that that sacrifice said to
Father, because the sacrifice said this to Father.
First thing it said was, Father, forgive them,
for they know not what they do.
Then the sacrifice said, and this is the
favor that reached Father, Why has God forsaken
you?
Why?
What's the reason for it?
It was not a question as much as
an agony.
But it's also a question, because there was
a reason for his sacrifice, and that reason
was to be seen later.
If you like, it was this question, why
is this sacrifice being given?
It's the question we have to ask ourselves,
because when we say, what is this sacrifice
for?
Do you remember when the woman came to
Jesus, and the disciple said, what use is
this waste of this ointment?
Do you remember the ointment that smells so
sweet to Jesus?
And he received the offering that she brought
to him, that precious ointment, she poured it
out, she broke it open, she poured it
out on him, and it pleased him.
And so on that cross, Jesus Christ went
all the way, he didn't hold back, he
went all the way and offered himself up,
broke himself out, and poured out his life,
and the sacrifice ascended to God as a
sweet smelling savor.
Just as that woman's ointment, it reached the
Father.
Now don't imagine that the Father, when I
was first converted, people told me that the
Father was angry, and that Jesus was holding
back the anger of God.
I don't believe that.
The Father was not of a different heart
to Jesus.
He offered his Son, she gave him.
Jesus gave himself, the Father gave his Son.
They were one in the sacrifice, they knew
it had to be made.
And as that sacrifice went up, the Father
sat there as pleased and as delighted in
the sacrifice of Jesus as Jesus was in
what that woman did for him.
When that woman poured out that ointment, and
Jesus received it with joy, and with pleasure,
he received the worship.
As Jesus offered himself up to God, there
was this great joy in God, but also
there was this great determination.
You see, the Father received the sacrifice of
Jesus.
There arose in his heart what there always
arises in his heart in sacrifice to God.
There arose in his heart the determination that
he was going to answer the sacrifice of
Jesus.
He was going to pour out upon that
sacrifice.
He was going to reward that sacrifice.
The Father said in his heart, as he
heard those cries, and those cries reached him,
some of those cries pierced his heart like
darts.
Because the agony of the Son was the
agony of the Father.
As those cries reached him, there arose in
his heart the determination that he was going
to answer the prayers of Jesus Christ as
they were prayed on that sacrificial day.
That was the sacrifice of Jesus.
He heard, and as he heard that prayer,
the Father forgave them.
There arose in his heart the determination that
he was going to forgive them.
When the Father heard those words, why hast
thou forsaken me?
The Father said in his heart, there is
going to be a reason for this sacrifice.
There is a reason for this sacrifice.
Even though in that moment of agony, it
somehow was obscured from the mind of Jesus
Christ, the Father knew that the sacrifice of
Jesus Christ would not be in vain.
He would reward it.
And it was all that offering up of
the sacrifice of Jesus.
And remember, it was at that moment, God,
and God certainly did, He ignored, He overlooked
every other sacrifice that man had ever given,
because this was the one sacrifice He wanted.
He didn't want another sacrifice.
All the history, all the lands, and all
the bullets, and all the things that were
offered, were only pointing to one thing anyway,
Jesus.
The one that somebody might believe in the
dread of a man anyway.
They were to believe in something that God
was going to do.
And so you have this sacrifice.
And you've got that glorious day of Calvary.
Glorious, it is.
It was awful.
There was something happening in God.
We could look at the agony, but let's
look at this moment at something that was
happening in God, and Jesus knew it was
going to happen.
Jesus knew that because He was dying and
offering Himself up to God, that He was
obtaining from man, and He was a man,
offering up perfect manhood, He was offering up
something to God that would provoke a reaction
from God.
The offering up of Jesus was the opening
up of a reaction from God.
Don't think of it as a purely calculated
thing.
It was calculated.
It was known what they were going to
do.
But they determined to do it, and they
did it not as a cruel calculation.
If it was a cruel calculation, Jesus wouldn't
have said why.
It was beyond reason what He was doing.
It was in the passion and the fire
of love that He gave Himself.
And in that passion and sacrifice of love,
He offered Himself up without thought to God.
And the Father in His heart said, I
will reward this.
I will reward it.
And so much as it's a bad moment,
when it's finished, He said, it's finished.
It's done.
That was the sacrifice finished.
You can almost hear the leap of day.
It's done.
Nothing further needs to be done.
And He died on that third day.
He rose right up to that throne.
It's written there in Ephesians what He did.
He rose right up to that throne.
He sat down at the right hand of
God.
And I don't believe He just sat down
there and crossed His legs.
He sat down there and almost, forgive me
my imagination.
I don't know how He sat there.
I don't know what He looked like.
But He sat there and said, now what's
going to happen?
Now what are you going to do about
it?
Now that all that took place, He knew
His Father that something glorious was going to
happen.
He knew.
He knew who Father was.
He knew that Father was going to reward
what He had just done.
Do you understand what I'm saying?
It's the same tonight.
It's the same.
That same altitude of heart is still in
God the Father now.
Do you realise that Jesus Christ is still
sitting there and the Scripture tells us He
is seated at the right hand of God
expecting.
He is expecting something to happen as a
response to what He did.
He knows.
He's the perfect part of it.
He knows that something is going to happen.
I always sing this chorus the righteous reward.
I've forgotten how the chorus actually goes.
God proclaims a just reward.
Do you know what a just reward is?
It's not a just reward for what I've
done.
It's not a just reward for anything I've
done.
It's a just reward for what Christ has
done.
It's as if on that day there was
this great bursting down.
I think of it like a if we
built a canopy now above this you know
if you were under a canopy occasionally you
have these outdoor canopies don't you?
You know these things that you build up
and you've got this this canvas and you
are there and then it rains and then
you find that this canvas is filled with
water.
Alright?
Now let's imagine that we're sitting under a
great canvas tonight filled with water.
It's there.
Just above us.
Within reach.
And there's a great, great, great of water
in that canvas.
What do you do to get the water
out?
You just put the canvas and you get
it if it's got a lot of pressure
in it it'll bounce back trickle all over
you not trickle it spills all over you
if you get a nice big knife and
cut the canvas you'll get a nice drenching.
Do you realise that what we are faced
with tonight is a great pressure from above
to break us?
Do you realise that grace has done something
and there's something in God that's taken place
that's made it righteous that God should reward
the son where will he reward the son?
Where will he reward Jesus Christ?
In you.
Where will the place be that will make
that question have an answer?
Where has God forsaken me?
Why do I have to be separated from
God?
Why?
So that you may simply on a day
unspecified but now known like today you might
receive from God the limitless riches that is
grace now in other words God has done
everything for you to receive all you have
to do is receive it's a bit like
it's good to tell a story of this
about a man who who owed a lot
of money he owed a lot of money
just imagine if you were a poor man
in debt I don't know if there's anybody
here in debt but if you were a
poor man in debt to a large sum
let me say let's say a million pounds
let's give you a last big sum of
debt don't worry I'm only joking a million
pounds in debt and let me say that
I was a rich man alright I owned
a Mercedes or a couple of Mercedes and
owned a great big house mansion in the
south of England and you don't know whether
it's fictional or not do you?
there you go I own this great big
house and I've got all this the riches
and I've you know I've got I've got
everything and then I hear that you my
friend you're in debt and I say well
look you're in debt you're going to go
to prison but I'm going to sell everything
I've got and I'm going to get a
million pounds together and I'm going to give
it to you pay your debt so I
go out I put my house on the
market I get only 650,000 for it
I go I go and get and I
sell my fleet of Mercedes I get 950
,000 I sell all my furniture I get
999,000 and then I sell everything else
I've got and eventually I come and I've
got a million and I say there you
are I've got a million and you say
oh good but wait a minute before you
pay your debt let me pay something too
I've still got five pounds left but I've
still got I want to put something towards
it I want to do something so that
on the day that it's made known who
pays my debt they know it was a
joint affair here's my five pounds and you
take out a guilty old five pound note
you put it on the top of a
pile and you know what you've done you've
dishonoured the whole pile you've dishonoured the whole
bunch of files and the man who read
that would say to you oh I don't
know what he'd say to you but you
would be insulting him you would insult his
country files so you see there's people who
come to the Lord and they believe that
they have contributed to their salvation there are
people who believe that they have contributed to
the glorious things that God are doing there
are people who believe that because we've done
various kinds of things we are actually the
cause of the blessings you know what you
do to cause the blessings you just receive
it well that's a bad thing to do
isn't it just receive it you know just
open up your heart and receive it oh
you do it to the Lord thank you
you realise that Jesus Christ died for you
while you were still in sin when you
couldn't deserve it then there's nothing you could
do when it has to be by grace
the thing is that when people have received
grace and so there's after some time they
begin to think oh well now it's all
going on because I'm quite good I'm good
at prayer I'm faithful in prayer I'm a
good Bible student I've read my Bible through
have you?
and they go on with all this list
of things that they've done and they think
yes I'm a candidate for much grace until
now it stops to flow it ceases to
flow because the blessings have got another bad
word none of it they're all raised by
grace they're all by grace we're all saved
by grace it's all the gift of God
all without exception and so now if you
go back we're not going to turn over
we've already turned over if you go back
to the Acts of the Apostles and you
look at that chapter one and you realise
that there's something going to happen you could
almost sense that the Jesus Chapter has spoken
about this Jesus has said you carry in
Jerusalem till you receive the promise of the
Father he wouldn't have just said it in
a calm voice a bit of disinterest he
would have said you carry till you receive
carry till you receive don't move till you
receive don't mean it's going to be very
hard no no no just carry wait sit
down relax enjoy your time just wait receive
the promise of the Father so they waited
and on that day they just waited a
short time they'd done nothing to deserve it
they'd done a lot to undeserve it and
they received it God rewarded Jesus in them
they were free to say Father I've done
all this please give me a reward what's
the reward Jesus?
come out of the Holy Ghost from them
and Father say yes that's what I want
to do too there it goes and you
see if you think now we're now 1992
that's wrong isn't it?
it's got the right year at least we're
now in 1992 that's a long time after
that sacrifice you see for God the sacrifice
has not grown old it has not grown
old for God it isn't that God said
oh that's taken place then now it's the
thing for God is that in the presence
of God for Him it is as if
the Lamb has just been slain this very
moment this great desire to pour out this
great eminence of blessings this great pressing in
on us with the blessing of God and
the grace of God is the same tonight
as it was on the day of Pentecost
the realisation comes to us that because of
what Jesus has done God is prepared to
pour out upon us just the same as
He's poured out on anybody all you have
to do is you go there with your
little heart and say Father here am I
include me in it reward Jesus in me
and you find some people then say well
yes reward Jesus in me but please do
it like this I would like you to
give me the Spirit but not in tongue,
not with tongue I don't want to speak
in tongue because I don't like that I
want to be calm but you see that
it's an audacious thing to do to tell
God how He rewards you the point is
all you do is say oh Father here
am I I see, I see my sin
I see my failure I see everything I
failed to do I see my difficulties in
prayer I see my failures in all this
if you haven't even now if God was
going to bless us this night because of
the prayers of the saints only what would
we do?
we realize God's going to bless us because
we're here and we candidate because Jesus did
it for us He did it for you
He didn't do it just for the apostle
Peter He did it for you because He
did it for you He's going to do
it for you not because you've done anything
or because somebody else did it because Jesus
did it for you He did it for
you I can't say it in proper way
He did it for you He really did
He really had you in mind when He
did it He planned it for you it
was for you that He did it let's
look in Ephesians again and we'll close because
I want us just to receive I want
us to open our hearts and just receive
now look in this chapter 2 again and
let's read these verses through verse 3 among
whom also we all had our conversation in
times past in the lust of our flesh
fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of
the mind and were by nature the children
of lust even of others that's the point
we understand but then verse and remember how
the apostle must have written this he would
think back to that day on the Damascus
road but I often think back to the
day on my Damascus road I often think
back to it and I think oh God
why me before I said why me I
said why me but then I said why
me this is it verse 4 but God
who is rich in mercy for His great
love where was He left us even when
we were dead in sins and could do
nothing nobody anywhere on the whole face of
the earth could do anything He has quickened
us together made us alive together with Christ
by grace are you saved and has raised
us up together and made us sit together
in heavenly places in Christ Jesus that in
the ages to come He might show the
exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness
toward everyone how through Christ Jesus for by
grace are you saved through faith and that
not of yourselves it is the gift of
God now you know the gift of God
may be that I should go to heaven
one day but the gift of God is
if you like it's like a package you
aren't just going to heaven it's everything that's
written in it He will raise you up
from the dust from the downhill beg us
from the downhill to sit on Prince's throne
do you realize that if you thought you
were something you wouldn't receive that grace you
start off by saying well I've done this
and I've done that and I've done that
therefore if I do this as well God
will add that to me but the better
and the better there's nothing I can do
and so God says alright then I'll raise
you up to the Prince's throne I will
He raised us up together He didn't just
forgive us He raised us up together and
made us put together in heavenly places in
Christ Jesus that in ages to come He
might show the exceeding riches of His grace
in His kindness toward us what are you
going to show it in you what are
you going to do to get it just
open up your heart and receive it it's
sheer undeserved grace Amen let's receive it shall
we let's receive grace Amen remember that there's
that great weight of blessing and determination of
God to bless you not because you've done
anything don't question whether you came here ready
tonight you didn't have to come ready God
came here ready to bless you you may
not have got yourself ready for this meeting
God got Himself ready and that is enough
for you to receive you don't need a
minute to get yourself ready all you need
to do is open your arms wide and
receive what God has prepared for you Amen
just receive it then let Him refresh it
all in you let Him refresh the riches
of His grace in you