0:01 But sometimes they don't understand the full meaning of those three words. So I thought I would speak on them. Ephesians chapter 2. All the three words are in this verse. Ephesians 2 and verse 8. By grace. 0:23 That's the first word. You have been saved. That's another word. through faith. Grace saved and faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. The Bible says that 0:45 in our attitude to God, we must be like children. Humility. But otherwise in our understanding it says in 1 Corinthians 14 and verse 20 1:04 don't be children in your understanding thinking but in understanding be men be mature. We need to know where we should be children and where we should be grown up 1:24 men. In simple trust and humility, children are our example. But in understanding God's word, children are not our example. Grownup, 1:43 intelligent men are our example. 1 Corinthians 14:20. I say this because a lot of Christians never grow because they don't seek to go into the depths of God's word. 2:01 They live on the surface. There are riches on the surface, but there are greater riches in its depths. It's like on on the earth, you know, there are some wonderful things on the surface of the earth like fruit, beautiful flowers, 2:18 but the real really valuable things like diamonds and gold are not on the surface. They are in the depths. And that's a parable the way it is in scripture. If you read scripture superficially, you'll get a certain amount of wealth. It'll be like the 2:38 fruit and the flowers. You can enjoy them, but you never become rich with fruit and flowers. You dig deep, you get golden diamonds in scripture. And because a lot of Christians are too lazy to dig deep. 2:57 They never become spiritually rich. And if you're not spiritually rich, you can't help others. If you're a poor person, you can't help others. The only people who can help others are those who become spiritually rich through going 3:10 into the depths of God's word. And that takes effort. You know, the Lord told Adam, by the sweat of your brow, you will earn your bread. So that principle applies in scripture as well. That is by the sweat of our brow. That 3:29 means by really seeking to understand God's word and going into the depths of it that we can get spiritual bread for ourselves and for others. And it's not God's will that we should forever be just feeding ourselves. 3:48 When you were a child, you fed yourself. But as you grew up and became a father or a mother, you thought a lot about feeding others. your children and it's a great blessing to have children. Those of you who are parents 4:05 know that. Why don't we have the same passion spiritually to grow up and have children spiritually to bless them to be a to be a witness to people around us and to share with them 4:24 the riches of God's word. Very very important. It'll take effort but it's well worth effort. Think of the effort we take to get an education. Many of you have got a good job today because you took pains to have an education in 4:44 your younger years. Otherwise, you'd be a drifter and a homeless person today. Or think of the effort some of you have taken to establish your business. If you were lazy, you'd be a homeless drifter. 5:03 I say why don't we put in the same effort that we do to get an education or to make money or to establish our business to study the scriptures. That is the test of whether we believe 5:21 that God is more important than money. Every one of us will give the right answer. If I were to give you a question paper here and say tell me is God more important than money? You'd all write God, but the proof is in how much you prove 5:40 that by the way you live, by the things you give importance to, and particularly the study of scripture. Those who get academic degrees would never get it if they didn't study. Why did they spend hours studying, sitting 5:54 up late at night? because they felt it's worth it in the long run. Why do business people work till late at night keeping their accounts and things like that? Cuz they know it's important. 6:11 Do we ever have we ever sat up late at night studying God's word? That's a challenge I want to encourage all of you to take. Not to ease our conscience with a little bit of Bible study Sunday morning. but to do it ourselves and say, "Lord, 6:30 I don't want to always be spoonfed by others." One who is always spoonfed by others is a child. You can be a 70year-old child. And one who is grown up is one who's 6:48 feeding himself. How soon we teach our children to feed themselves? We need to teach ourselves spiritually too to feed ourselves and then to go one step further and start feeding others like mothers feed their children. 7:08 So that's why I want to encourage you to study God's word. It's something that will stand you in really goodstead in the long run and I'm very thankful that I started doing it when I was 20. So if you've been late in starting start 7:26 now and there's so much of you know if you want help in the days when I was 55 years ago when I was converted we didn't have internet we didn't have access to material 7:42 that we could study or listen to and it was very difficult to find which is a good book by which I could study the scriptures. But today it's so much easier when you have found confidence in someone who's taught you the word. You 8:00 can go whoever that is and there are many good teachers of God's word that have been there in that God has raised up in Christendom. You can always go and listen to their message on the internet and uh study the scriptures verse by 8:15 verse. So to think of these three words, let's begin with faith. Now each of these three words, I want to share three things with you concerning each of them which I help I trust will help you to remember. First of all, faith. 8:30 Faith is first of all, as I understand it, to believe in God's love for us. That's very, very important. You know, when the Lord told Peter, "If you're going to deny me, and I'm not 8:49 going to pray that you won't deny me because you got to learn a lesson. You're too proud of your self-confidence." So, you that has got to be shattered. And it was to shatter Peter's self-confidence that God allowed him to 9:06 deny Christ three times. Now, some of us don't think realize how serious denying Christ is. Jesus never said, "If you commit adultery, I'll deny you before my father. If you commit murder, I'll deny you before my father." He never said 9:21 that, but he said, "If you deny me before men, I will deny you before my father." So, that was pretty serious. And those disciples had heard it. So, think of Peter's sin as something worse than adultery or murder. Imagine a man who 9:35 committed three murders in a day. And this is something worse than that Peter did that night. Why did God allow Peter to do that? Because he was such a proud self-confident person. And you can never come to faith if you're a proud 9:54 self-confident person. God has to shatter it. And I want to tell you if you if you've accomplished something in life or if you're very intelligent or you're rich or you're good at something, good with your hands or good with your 10:09 mind and your business has prospered or you brought up a good family. All these things tend to make us very proud and self-confident. And one mark of it is we look down on others and God has to you know the spirit of Peter though all men are like 10:27 this I'm not like this all men may deny you I won't deny you others may be other Christians may be like this but I'm not like this self-confidence that has to be shattered and that's why the Lord never prayed that Peter would not fall. Now I 10:44 want to tell you something. That is the reason why God has allowed you also and me to fall sometimes. It's to shatter our self-confidence. And if he really loves you, he allow you to fall and fall and fail and fail and fail and fail until it's completely 11:01 shattered and you hit rock bottom. And that's when Peter, the Lord told Peter, "When you hit rock bottom, I'm praying that your faith will not fail." And that is that when you hit rock bottom after you denied me three times, 11:19 that you will still remember that I love you and God loves you. That'll make you turn back to him. And he said, "Then Peter, when you're converted, you'll be able to strengthen your brothers. When that self-confidence is shattered 11:37 and your confidence is God is built up, that God loves you even when you have hit rock bottom and failed completely." So from there, I learned that faith is to believe in God's love. That's the most important thing to know. 11:53 Uh it is the greatest message in the Bible. If someone were to ask me what is the greatest message in all the 31,000 and more verses in the Bible is John 17:23. My father in heaven loves me as much as 12:16 he loved Jesus. That's the greatest truth in the Bible. And if you're gripped in that truth, you have understood the greatest truth in the Bible that everything God does is out of love and goodness. 12:34 One day we will discover though if our minds are not understood that fully yet. You know people will say how can a God of love send people to hell. I'll tell you that one day you will discover it is the love of God that sends people to hell. 12:52 If you don't understand that, it's because you're immature. You're a child in understanding. I've begun to understand it a little bit already. I did not understand it when I was less mature. And if you don't understand how 13:05 a God of love can send people to hell, just say to yourself, "It's because I'm still immature. I can't understand it. One day when I grow up, I will understand that it is the love of God that sends people to hell. It's a good God who sends people to 13:21 hell. It's a good judge who puts a murderer in prison. It's a good judge who sends a sexual predator and those who molest little children to prison. It's a bad judge who lets them out on the street. 13:38 Is God a good judge or a bad one? So many people who complain that sexual predators and those who molest little children are released too early from prison would still complain that God punishes people. They can't understand 13:57 God is a good God. And there are many things about him you may not understand. But if you are rooted and grounded in one thing that God's love is perfect that he loves you when you've hit rock bottom that in that story of the 14:10 prodigal son and the son came back with his he had a big lecture to give to his father. I'm not worthy and I want to be just in your servants's quarters. I don't want to live anywhere else. I don't deserve anything. The father 14:22 stopped him. He didn't let him complete. He just said father I've sinned. And the father said stop. That's enough. I've seen you and I love you. And like we sang in that song, it's the only time in the Bible where you read of God 14:38 running to welcome every one step that that boy took, the father took 10 steps towards him. If you can believe that in when your worst moments and if you can be assured of that, you'll never be discouraged and you will 14:56 never condemn yourself. That is faith. to believe in the unchanging love of God and uh it's absolutely unconditional. God's love is not dependent on any condition. That doesn't mean he won't punish you. It doesn't mean he won't 15:15 send you to hell. Some people think unconditional love means you do what you like and God let you go. It's a loving father who disciplines his children. It says the rod of correction will drive foolishness far from a child 15:29 and that is the love of God. So faith is first of all to believe that God loves me as much as he loved Jesus and never to be moved from that because if we don't begin there we don't really have faith. Many people think of faith 15:46 as trying to believe some verse and I don't have faith to believe this verse and I don't have faith for healing and they try to claim some verse. Faith doesn't begin there. Faith begins in knowing God loves me perfectly. And 16:01 everything he does for me is out of love. It looks as if a very simple thing to say, but I've discovered that so many believers are not rooted and grounded in that fact. Now, I'll tell you this. You'll not only never be discouraged, 16:19 you'll never condemn yourself. You'll never be anxious. If you really believed that God loved you as much as he loved Jesus, and if you're anxious, say to yourself, "My problem is, I don't believe that God loves me as he loved 16:37 Jesus." He loves me but maybe a little bit less or so the way to you think the problem is your anxiety. It's not that. It's faith. Lack of faith that God loves you as much as he loved Jesus. Ask God to open your eyes to see that. You know 16:57 like the blind man said to Jesus, "What do you I want to open my I want my eyes to be open, Lord. I want my eyes to be open to see this most amazing truth. Imagine I can read the whole Bible and know so many verses in it and yet not be 17:11 rooted and grounded in the most important truth that is in this book. So that's the first point about faith. And the second thing about faith is it's receiving God's gift. That's the second meaning of faith. 17:30 In John 1 and verse 12, it says, "As many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe." So that verse tells us receiving and believing are really the same thing. If you 17:50 believe without receiving, that's not really faith. So faith is first of all to believe in God's perfect love for us. Secondly is to receive God's gift. Now some people are too proud to receive a gift. And that's the reason why all the 18:08 religions in the world teach that you have to do something for your salvation. It can't be completely free. That's impossible. God cannot love me so much. We have to do something. And that's why religious people in the world go on 18:24 pilgrimages. They burn candles and they pray to the saints and um they roll on the ground and do all types of things because it can't be free. It can't be a 100% gift. Maybe partial gift but I got to do something. No, faith is to receive 18:43 God's gift. It requires humility. You know when somebody gives you a gift you can there uh there's a certain amount of humility required in receiving a gift particularly when you have more than 19:01 enough I mean if you're a homeless person you just accept it but if you're a very wealthy person and somebody gives you a gift you you say why do I want it this is a pittance compared to the amount of money I have I mean supposing 19:16 you have a million dollar and somebody gives you a gift worth $10. I tell you, it really requires humility to receive it. There is a humility involved in receiving a gift. And it's because of pride that people won't receive that. 19:33 It's a wonderful thing to recognize that faith is receiving. If grace is God's hands stretched out from heaven saying, Here is my gift. Faith is my hand just reaching up and 19:52 taking it. If uh I don't take it, I don't have faith. It can be stretched out towards me. I can say, "Yeah, I believe in it. I believe in it." But if I don't take it, I've not exercised faith. There are about a billion Christians in 20:10 the world and they all believe that u God so loved the world that he gave Jesus Christ to die for their sins but they're not saved cuz that is not faith. They believe in their head. The devils also believe but they don't receive. And a lot of things 20:28 like that where God offers us something and you don't receive it. You don't have faith. So think of it like that. Or to use another example, if you look at the promises of God like a check somebody has sent you 20:45 and you don't go and deposit it in the bank, you just keep it at home or frame it up or something. You're going to be poor. But when you put it in the bank, it gets credited to your account and you can use it. The promises of God are like that. 21:00 That's one reason why for some time now I've been praying Lord before I leave this earth I want to claim every single promise for for for believers for New Testament Christians I don't want to claim the promises for Israel there are many 21:17 promises for Israel in the Old Testament they're not for me but every promise that God has given for his children for Christians I want to claim every one of them before I leave this earth I mean that's not such them. Great thing to do. If somebody sends you 21:34 10 checks, how many of them will you put into the bank? It's as simple as that. Would you put nine and say, "Well, I put most of them in." You would never say that because money is so important for us. Why aren't the promises of God equally 21:50 important for us? Why Why is even one promise in scripture left out that you've not encached? See 2 Corinthians 1 and verse 20 says 2 Corinthians 1:20 as many as the promises of God are yes 22:09 and amen are yes in Christ and when we say amen to that then it is for the glory of God. So there are two things in that verse. We we I can read this verse like this. Every promise has been signed by Jesus Christ. But if I don't endorse it at the 22:28 back and give it in the bank, I don't get it. And my endorsement is amen. Amen is a word which means it's a Hebrew word. It means it shall be so. So I look at a promise of God in the Bible and say it shall be so. I receive it. That's 22:42 faith. The third meaning of faith is dependence upon God. So first of all, it's believing God's love. Second, it's receiving God's gift. And the third is depending upon God's power. You see, one of the best examples of this is John 15. I think this is one of 23:01 the most beautiful illustrations of faith. And verse four, abide in me and I in you. As a branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. So here is a picture of a branch in a 23:20 tree. Can you think of anything more helpless than that? Even a child, a one-year-old child can do some things on its own. Can walk. It can do number of things on its own. But a branch 23:36 can do zero without the tree. It just dries up immediately. It's it's one of the pictures of absolute helplessness. More helpless than a child, more helpless than anything, a branch in a tree. And it's 23:53 that helpless dependence upon God that is faith. Where a branch says, I can't produce a single fruit on my own. Even if I've had 50 years experience in producing apples, I can't produce even one on my own 24:11 today. Experience doesn't help. And the branch says, "You new branch is not born one apple yet. I'm as helpless as you." Do you recognize even after being a believer 24:28 that you need that same simple helpless dependence upon God that a person converted today needs? It's when that goes away from our life that we begin to have confidence in ourself which is the enemy of faith. You know in the Old Testament 24:47 circumcision was a very important commandment. If you were not circumcised you were cut off from Israel. The New Testament meaning of circumcision is no confidence in myself. Philippians 3:3. We are the true circumcision. It says 25:03 there who have zero confidence in ourselves. So old testament circumcision was a physical cutting off of confidence in cutting off of the flesh. That's circumcision. In the New Testament it was cutting off confidence in the flesh. Whereas that was cutting 25:21 off of physical flesh. The spiritual meaning is cutting off confidence in our flesh. No confidence in myself. Even if I've been a branch for 50 years producing wonderful fruit cut off from the tree, I get zero. So I'm just like a 25:38 newborn believer when it comes to helpless dependence upon God. The thing is that newborn believer may not realize it as much as a mature saint. The more one way to discover whether you're growing to maturity is are you discovering more and more your 25:53 own helplessness without God? Are you more and more free from self-confidence? I tell you, my brothers and sisters, self-confidence is like uncircumcision. It'll cut you off from God. The Lord 26:12 said that anyone who's not circumcised in Israel is cut off from me. So remember that all your life when it says in the Old Testament, Jeremiah 4, be circumcised in your heart and not just on the outside. have no confidence in ourselves. So this is the 26:29 pictures help me a lot. You know what does God require of me? What does the tree require of the branch? Nothing. Just depend on me. Let my sap flow into you. The sap that flows into the branch is a picture of being filled with the 26:45 Holy Spirit that automatically produces fruit. The br it's effortless. It's really effortless. The branch just opens up without any of its channels blocked. Opens up everything inside for the sap to flow in. Fruit is effortless. 27:04 And that's what the Bible says about being at rest in God. There remains a rest for God's people. The branch is at rest in the tree. And it's possible for you to come to that life. He who believes, Hebrews 4 says, has entered into rest. That's one 27:23 way we know that we have come to real faith. If you don't uh if you're not familiar with that verse, it's Hebrews in chapter 4 and u verse 9. There's a Sabbath rest for the people of God. And then one who has entered into his rest is ceased from his 27:41 own works. And we who believe, that's that whole section from verses verse three. We who believe enter into that rest. So what is that? It's the rest that the branch has in the tree. I'm utterly dependent on God just as 28:00 much as I was the day I was first converted. Everything. I I could never get one sin of mine forgiven without God doing it all. Not even one. If I've done a million sins now, I couldn't get even one forgiven without God doing it all on the Calvary. It's 28:19 the same way all through life, God has to do it. So that's faith. Helpless dependence upon God. So let's go to the next word. The next word in Ephesians we want to look at is grace. So let me say three things about grace. 28:37 Now first of all Ephesians 1:7 says grace means forgiveness of our sins that's we have to begin mercy which is mentioned in the old mercy which is an old covenant word is a part of grace grace is the big thing that 28:56 covers everything but it says here in Ephesians 1:7 we have the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace So it's by grace that we are forgiven. 29:13 So grace brings forgiveness. We think of what grace does for us. It brings forgiveness. A blotting out of our past sins. Grace says, "I will not remember your 29:29 sins anymore." Hebrews 8:12. There's a not that God forgets it but he says I will never look at you that that's the way I understand it. I'll never look at you as one who violated my law so many times in your past life as one who 29:45 disobeyed me so many times. You know, so many people are hesitant to go before God because they think, "Oh, I I've done so many wretched things." And maybe it was yesterday that you did some wretched thing or did something that hurt God. 30:03 And do you believe God accepts you today and says, "I won't remember what you did yesterday or last week or anytime." That shows how much you believe in the blood, the power of the blood of Jesus Christ and in his promise. We confess 30:20 our sins. He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness and to say to us, I will not remember your sin anymore. The reason why we uh find it reluctant, we find ourselves reluctant to believe 30:39 that God will not remember our past is because we think that God is like us. You know in Psalm 50, God says, "You thought I was somebody like you." God says, "I'm not like you. We find it very difficult to 31:02 ignore what somebody did to us. I mean, maybe with some grace we can overlook what they did to us 20 years ago, but what if somebody did to you something last week? You'd say, "Well, I've got to remember that for some time before I ignore it." 31:18 Or if somebody did something to you this morning. But God's forgiveness is so complete. If you sinned this morning and you confessed it and you turned around from it and say, "Lord, I'm sorry about what I did and I want to turn away from it." 31:31 God says, "I won't remember it." That's grace. Complete forgiveness. Where there's God says, "I won't remember that one. I'm not going to look at you as the one who behaved badly this morning." It's wonderful to live with a father 31:48 like this. They'll tell you people may say, "Well, brother, if you preach that, people are going to take advantage of God and keep on sinning." There will always be people, evil, wicked people who take advantage of God. 32:04 Aren't there evil, wicked people who take advantage of you? So, what does that mean? You stop being good. God is good. And if people take advantage of him, they're ones who going to suffer loss, not God. So just because some people take 32:21 advantage of God's goodness and u misuse the message of grace doesn't mean we're going to stop preaching it. I have understood that if I'm preaching grace correctly and I preached it properly, what should be the question that people 32:43 should ask immediately? Turn with me to Romans chapter 5. When I preach a message like this, Romans 5:20, the middle of that verse, where sin increased, 33:00 grace abounded all the more. So as sin reigned in death, grace will reign through righteousness. Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. The logical question then is verse chapter 6 verse one. Shall we then 33:18 continue in sin? So if you have preach preached grace correctly as far as forgiveness goes the logical question everybody who's heard you will say oh then we can continue in sin right 33:36 then we go to the next step that grace is more than forgiveness. Romans 6:14. No, sin shall not be master over you because you're under grace. You misunderstood grace, brother. He's answering verse one. What shall we say 33:53 then? Shall we continue in sin that grace might increase? No, never. Because grace is supposed to give you power over sin. It's not just that he forgives you and ignores what you have done, but sin shall not rule over you anymore 34:10 for you under grace. So when you have understood that the next question is what then verse 15 shall we sin even once see there's a difference between verse one and verse 15 verse one says shall we continue in sin 34:28 and verse 15 says shall we sin even once from now on so when a person has understood the second aspect of grace the first aspect is forgiveness full and free. The second is power to 34:45 overcome sin. Verse 14, sin shall not rule over you because now you're under grace. Grace gives me power to overcome sin. And if I've really understood that, then I will say, 35:02 shall I sin even once? Verse 15. And I want to say to all of you dear brothers and sisters that you've re if you've really understood grace as not just intellectually because you've maybe heard me speak so often 35:19 about it but really been gripped by revelation in your heart that when I'm under grace sin cannot have power over me. If you really understood it by revelation in your heart, you will say, "Well, then I don't want to sin even 35:36 once in future." Think of that going to live another 30 years. Let's say you say, "I don't want to sin even once in the next 30 years." Or do you say, "Well, of course I'll 35:55 sin." You haven't understood the message of grace. I'm not saying will you sin? That's not my question. My question is what is your attitude to sin? Is your attitude sin? Well, of course, we'll keep on sinning. We've heard this 36:12 message about overcoming sin so many times, so for so many years in this church, but we still keep on sinning. And I believe it'll it'll be like that in the future, too. Well, then I agree. According to your faith, be it unto you, 36:24 you will keep on sinning. But if your attitude is sin shall not have dominion over me because I am not under law but under grace. What shall I say then? Shall I sin even once? Take verse 14 and 15 together. Then you've understood it properly. Otherwise 36:44 you haven't understood it properly. That's the problem. Then you look at the past and you say well it hasn't worked so far. It won't work in the future. Don't speak that language of unbelief, brother, sister. No matter how many 37:01 times you've been defeated, no matter for how many years you've thought you understood the message, you thought you understood, you didn't really understand it. If you did understand it, if you did really understand, let me repeat it. I 37:14 never get tired of repeating it. If you really understood Romans 6:14, you will go to Romans 6:15. Shall we sin even once then? We need to hear. Some people ask me, "Brother Zach, why you always preaching about overcoming sin?" 37:31 It's like the guy who asked D Moody, "Why you why do you always preach about being born again?" He says, "Because you must be born again. That's it. So why do I always preach about overcoming sin?" Because you got to overcome sin. You got 37:44 to hear it until you overcome it. You got to take that medicine until it's cured you of the disease. You don't say just say well I took it for one day and no you take it until you you get rid of that disease. Think of some medicines you keep on taking until 37:59 you completely overcome a sickness. It's like that I got to keep on hearing the truth till it's gripped me and laid a hold of me. Like Paul says that I may lay hold of that for which Christ laid hold of me. He says that in Philippians 3. And I 38:18 pray that all of you will say that that I may lay hold of that for which Christ laid hold of me. Christ laid hold of me that he may save me from all my sins. He did not lay hold of me just to forgive me and leave me in the muck of 38:34 my sins. No, he laid hold of me that he may deliver me from sin in actions, in words, in thoughts, in attitudes towards people and even in motive. 38:53 He laid hold of me that he might free me completely from sin in all these five areas. Deed, word, thought, attitude, motive. Are you passionate about that? You know, the Bible speaks about the pig 39:18 that's cleansed and then goes back to wallowing in the mire and the dog that vomited out something, then goes and picks it up again. What's the picture there in second Peter chapter 2, the last few verses? You've been cleansed from something and then 39:36 you want to go back to it. Or you vomit out a bad habit and then you go and pick it up again. And that's a dog going back to its vomit. It's terrible pictures the Holy Spirit uses. Imagine he's speaking to believers there 39:51 in second Peter chapter 2. Second Peter chapter 2. It speaks about verse 22 of a dog returning to its vomit. That means you gave up something which 40:10 was inside you and then after a while you went back to eat it up again. I mean think of the horrible picture you we got to paint some horrible pictures of sin in our mind to learn to detest it. That's why the Holy Spirit pictures. Now you 40:29 picture in your mind a dog vomiting out something and then going and eating that. Now you'd never do that as a human being. You'd never vomit out something and go and lick it up again. That there you see a horribleness of 40:43 sin. Or another picture of a a pig wallowing in the mire that's been taken out and cleansed. It's clean now and then going wallowing in the mire again. I mean, as a human being, you wouldn't do that. If somebody picked you up and 40:56 threw you in in the sewage, um turned I mean, translate me as sewage. and somebody picked you up and cleaned you up and then you want to go back into that. You got to see some horrible pictures like um I I picture sin as going and licking the toilet 41:14 bowl. Licking it. Licking a toilet bowl. Do you look at sin like that? I believe it's worse than that. See, unless I paint some horrible pictures in my mind of what sin is, 41:34 licking a toilet bowl, eating my own vomit, going back into the sewage drain, I won't take sin seriously because we are living in a world where sin is beautified and glamorized in the movies 41:52 and in TV and um on billboards And everywhere there's so many pictures, why not put some other pictures into our mind so that we learn to detest this anything that God hates. I tell you, it'll really help you. If the Bible uses such pictures, why not we 42:11 use it? Sin, grace is to free us from sin's power. And just like that, grace forgave my sin. I didn't do one thing for it. He paid it all. Jesus paid it all. All to him I owe. 42:30 We say that about forgiveness. When you experience victory, you'll say that about victory also. Jesus did it all. You mean to say, "I've got to do nothing." Well, did you have to do nothing to get forgiveness of sins? You had to do something otherwise 42:47 everybody in the world would be forgiven. But yet, you know that Jesus paid it all. He paid the full price. All you did was accept it. Grace that forgives in the same way grace that gives us power to overcome sin. Jesus will do it. But you got to 43:06 accept it. You got to allow him. And then thirdly, but before I go on, let me show you Hebrews in chapter 4, which teaches the same thing. Hebrews 4:15 and 16. In the same point, grace is not only 43:25 forgives our sins. Grace also is help to overcome sin. Power to overcome sin. It says here in Hebrews 4:15, Jesus was tempted in every point but did not sin. Therefore, therefore, what is there a therefore? 43:44 Therefore, let us admire him. No. That's what a lot of people do. Jesus was tempted and did not sin. Let us therefore admire him. No. Let us therefore go to the same throne of grace that we also can get grace to help us in the time when we are 44:03 tempted. That is verse 16. What is the time of our need? The time of our need is not financial need. Financial need is a pittance compared to spiritual need. In the time when we are tempted, let us go to the throne of grace to get grace. 44:22 Why? Because Jesus was also tempted like us. And he got grace to overcome. How did Jesus begin his earthly life? Let me show you Luke chapter 2 and verse 40. 44:39 Luke 2:40. It says uh the child grew. referring to Jesus and the grace of God was upon him. Do you know the first human being, the first human being who walked on earth who was under grace? 44:58 It was Jesus Christ. Luke 2:40. What does it mean when it says the grace of God was upon him? When something is upon me, I'm under that. Sin shall not have dominion over you. 45:17 Because you're under grace. Why did sin not have dominion over Jesus? Because he was under grace. The grace of God was upon him. See lot of Christians they read the Bible so superficially that they never the devil 45:34 blinds their eyes to the truth. We read legal documents more carefully than we read the Bible because that involves money. But this involves only a spiritual life and we don't care for that. Shame on every person who reads a legal 45:49 document more carefully than he reads the Bible. I definitely say shame on him. Such a person will never God will never never lead him into a lie because this guy despises God's word. He reads money documents more carefully than he reads 46:04 the Bible. How in the world can God honor me if I honor money more than him? Ask yourself, do you read money documents more carefully than you would read the Bible? The grace of God was upon him. How did he die? Is it easy to die on a 46:22 cross to be crucified? How did the martyrs face the lions and the burning being burnt at a stake by grace? What about Jesus? Hebrews chapter 2:9. Hebrews chapter 2:9. 46:41 The last part, it was by the grace of God that he could experience death, taste death for us. We read in Luke 2:40 that he began as a child with the grace of God upon him. We read in Hebrews 2:9, he ended his life on a cross by the grace of God. This is 46:59 how he lived his whole life with the grace of God upon him. And the word was fulfilled. When you're under grace, sin will not rule over you. Therefore, he did not sin. Now, you understand Hebrews 4:15 and 16. He was tempted, but he did 47:15 not sin. Why? Just as we read, because the grace of God was upon him. Therefore, since God loves us as much as he loved Jesus, let us also go to the throne of grace. First of all, to receive mercy for our past sins. Jesus 47:29 never needed mercy because he never sinned. But we can but we need the same grace that he got to help us in our time of temptation. Then the third thing grace does for us one 2 Corinthians 12:9 47:49 gives us sufficiency to face every situation in life. My grace is sufficient for you. And in this particular case, Paul had a physical weakness. It was a sickness, a thorn in the flesh, he calls it, which he prayed and prayed and prayed and 48:09 prayed and God said, "No, I'm not going to remove it, but I'll give you grace." This was not sin because God will not say no to removing sin from our life. It was obviously not sin. It was not some type of demon possession or some devil 48:24 sitting on him. God will never allow a devil to sit on us. It was a trial. It was a type of thing which many people in the world face which has got nothing to do with sin. Trials and difficulties, you know, physical sicknesses, 48:41 financial difficulties. Believers and unbelievers can go through that. But grace is sufficient to help us in every situation in life. So it first of all deals with our past, forgiveness of our sins. It deals with our inner 48:58 problem of sin by helping us to overcome it. And then it deals with our outward problems of trials and difficulties. Think of a man's got a very difficult wife. He needs grace to be an overcomer there 49:15 or a difficult husband. He needs grace to be an overcomer to to always live in a godly way. Even if your husband and wife are like the devil incarnate, is it possible? There are many godly men and women who have very difficult 49:34 partners, but they lived godly lives because they understood God's grace is sufficient. You know, many people think what'll happen if a day of persecution comes in some countries that's becoming more and more a reality. Physical persecution. I 49:53 mean here we think of prayer being stopped in the schools as a persecution. That's a lot of rubbish. There's no prayer in any government school in India. In any case, those are not the things you know or there's laws that 50:06 permit abortion are coming up in this country. In India, they permitted abortion for years. That's not the persecution we face. The persecution the early Christians faced was not that the Romans permitted abortion or the Romans 50:18 did not permit prayer in schools. You know, we when we have never experienced persecution, we think these little mosquito bites are persecution. And there are Christians caking up campaigns against these little mosquito bites. 50:31 Go to China and ask them what persecution is. When real persecution comes, what is the thing that's going to help us to say to confess Jesus Christ is Lord? when somebody's pulling out my nails or putting hot iron upon my body to make 50:48 me deny Christ, what's going to help me? That's not like, you know, prayer being stopped in schools is altogether different type of persecution. Or some people say that we preached Christ on the streets and the police stopped us. That's not persecution. 51:03 Let people pull out your nails and put smoldering iron on your body to make you deny Christ and lock you up in a solitary cell for 21 days without talking to anyone or without seeing sunlight. Yeah. What's the thing that's going to 51:17 help us? Grace. But you say, "I don't feel that grace right now." Yeah. You'll get it when you get there. It's like I remember the story of Cory Tenboom. Cory Tenboom was a godly Dutch lady. who faced problems with the Nazis 51:35 and was imprisoned there. And she tells in her one of her writings that when she was a little girl her father was a very godly Dutch man and he uh she she asked this question how will I not deny the lord and there's some difficulty comes 51:55 and he told her um they were traveling in a train and he said when do I give you the ticket to show as you when you leave the train? And he says, "When I actually need it," I mean, you give the ticket to the to your child when he's actually got to put 52:13 it at that machine to go through to exit. He says, "It's the same way. God will give you that grace at the time of your need." You're like a little child. You give that money or that ticket to the child when he needs it. I mean, you 52:26 may spend $10,000 on your child in their lifetime, but you don't give $10,000 right at the beginning. You give them as and when they need it. It's like that. Grace is like that. He's not going to give us a whole lot when we don't need 52:37 it. My grace is sufficient means it's exactly equal to what your need is. So if the need becomes great one day, we'll have more grace. And that's the faith we have. My grace is sufficient for your need. So finally, salvation. That's the third 52:56 word. Salvation has got three tenses, past, present, and future. First of all, we have been saved from the wroth of God. Turn to Romans chapter 5. It speaks here, 53:19 much more being justified by his blood, we shall be saved from the wroth of God through him. That wroth has already gone away. You know Jesus said that he's already passed from death to life. I'm not under the wroth of God now. I have 53:31 been saved from the wrath of God because Christ paid the price. The wroth of God was you singing that song satisfied when it was poured out on Christ. I have 53:47 been saved from the wrath of God. Then the present tense I can be saved right now by his life. Verse 10, the last part. But if we are now reconciled and we take delivered from the wroth of God, we shall be saved by his life in 54:04 the present tense. So the first refers to being saved from the penalty of sin. The second present refers to being saved from the power of sin. That's all the time. Now I have to be saved. So salvation is I have been saved and I'm 54:21 being saved. Both the same word. It's not just that I have been saved. Very often we are used to asking people are you saved? Well, are you talking about present tense or past tense? Are you saved? Are you saved from the 54:36 wroth of God? Yes. Are you saved from anger and dirty thoughts? Maybe. I hope you are being saved. Even if you're not completely, there is a salvation that must go on in our life in the present tense, not just in the past. So, just like 54:51 faith has got these three aspects, grace is these three aspects. Salvation has got three aspects. One, saved from the penalty of sin. Second, saved from the power of sin which is being happening in our life all the time. And we must never 55:05 be satisfied with just that past tense experience. Present health is not something we had. We must have it now. And the third is future where we're going to be saved from the very presence of sin. So it's from the penalty of sin, the power of sin, and 55:24 the presence of sin. Romans 13, it says here in Romans 13 and uh verse, now is our salvation nearer than verse 55:43 11. Now is our salvation nearer than when we first believed. Romans 13:11 last part. This is a salvation which hasn't yet come. It has come near. He says now it is nearer than when we first got saved. That talking about a 55:59 salvation that is future being saved from the very presence of sin where I will not even be tempted. You know many people don't distinguish between temptation and sin. So they get into unnecessary condemnation. I I will never 56:18 uh stop being tempted till I get to heaven. Remember this. Jesus was tempted throughout his earthly life. But a day will come when I will not be tempted anymore. That's in heaven. When I'm saved from the very presence of sin. 56:35 So what is temptation? It's a thought that's put into your mind. If you get a bad thought, that's a temptation. It doesn't mean you're guilty. That's not you, but it's sin. You reject it and say, "I don't want it. That's not me. 56:51 You haven't sinned." If you relish that thought for a little while, enjoy it, then you have sinned. But if you rejected it, you know, it's like you can't stop thieves from knocking at your door, but you can certainly keep the door closed. 57:10 They may knock every day. So temptation is like robbers trying to get into your house, knocking, knocking. If you open the door, that's sin. But when we hear that knock in our mind, we 57:26 can feel condemned. Oh, I heard that terrible thought. Did you let it in? That's the question. Did you open the door and say, "Yeah, I want that." If you didn't say that and you say no, I don't want it. I'm not going to open the door, you have not 57:42 sinned. Because there has to be a yielding of our will to accept that in our mind, then like James says, lust conceives and sin is burning. You see, until a woman agrees to a man, she's not going to conceive. 58:02 She may have that egg there, but the egg can never produce a baby. It's only when she agrees to give herself to a man that conception takes place. And James uses thatam example that lust has to conceive before it becomes sin. Desire. The fact 58:18 that I got a desire doesn't mean I'm a sinner. Do I allow that desire to conceive is my when a temptation comes if my will agrees with it. So as long as I'm on earth, I need to be saved from sin by keeping on saying no in the power of the 58:33 Holy Spirit by the grace God gives me. But a day will come when even temptation will not be there. It'll be gone forever from the very presence of sin. So let's remember these three words and make sure we experience them in our 58:51 life. I just want to read something which is quite not connected with this but uh something that I read which I think is very very good for us. I think most of you may already know it. some of these truths, but I thought 59:07 it'll be good to read it. You know, it's somebody it's it's not written by me. Someone I read this somewhere. He says, "There's some things I've learned in life." It'll just take a few minutes. I've learned that certificates that hang 59:22 on your wall do not make you a decent human being. It just shows how much education you got. that sometimes it's very hard to determine where to draw the line between being nice and not hurting people's 59:40 feelings and at the same time standing up for what you believe. That's not easy but it's something we have to learn. And the other thing is you know people who are very adamant about their particular position 59:57 no matter how thin you slice it there are always two sides. Remember that there's your side and there's another side that you don't see. No matter how much I care for people there will always be some people who 1:00:15 never care back. Just accept that as a fact of life. And remember this, it's a lot easier to react than it is to think and then decide what to do. So always think first. I've also learned that it takes many 1:00:35 years to build up trust in somebody, but it only takes a few seconds to destroy it by something you do. And I've also learned that it's not what you have in your life, but who you have 1:00:52 in your life that really matters. I've also learned that you cannot make someone love you, but no one can stop you from loving them. And I've also learned that you can get by with your smartness for about 10 1:01:11 minutes, but after that you better know something if you want to help people for 10 minutes. Okay, you can talk a lot of rubbish. Um, it's I've learned that it takes a long time to become the person that I really want 1:01:27 to be. So, don't get discouraged. I've learned that you must always leave your loved ones with loving words because that may be the last time you see them. You never know when the Lord will take them. I've also learned that you can still 1:01:48 keep going for a long time even after you think that you can't go anymore. I've learned that we are responsible for what we do. No matter how we feel about it, if we do the right thing, it's okay. I've learned that either you control 1:02:06 your attitude or your attitude towards people controls you. And I've learned that the amount of money you have is a lousy way of thinking how important you are 1:02:21 or how unimportant you are. And this is something good. You should never tell a child that its dreams are unlikely to be fulfilled. Let them dream. They may accomplish something that you may never accomplish. 1:02:41 Your biological family won't always be there to help you. There are others in the church who will be closer to you than them. And no matter how much you are grieving over something, remember the world is not going to stop to wait for you to get 1:03:00 over your grief. You got to get over it. I've also learned that our background and our traditions and our circumstances may have influenced who we are, but we are responsible for what we 1:03:17 become now. I've learned that two people can look at the same thing and see something completely different in it. And I've also learned that the background in which we live is not what is is not all that is offered to us. We 1:03:35 can change it. And no matter how fast or how far you go away, you can't outrun God. He'll still get you. And no matter how far away I've gone, 1:03:54 he's always waiting to welcome me back. And I also learned that if you do the right thing for the wrong reason, it's still wrong. Love is not for me to keep, but to pass 1:04:14 on to the next person I see. And finally, even if you live the most perfect life on earth, there'll always be somebody to find fault with you. So don't get discouraged. 1:04:31 Jesus walked this way. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, it's a wonderful life that you've called us to. Help us to believe in it and to live that life 1:04:50 where we are always by grace saved through faith in Jesus name. Amen.
