[0:00] I greet you in Jesus' name this morning. It is good to be here. We miss those that are not, but know that it is in the Lord's plan and that He is using them elsewhere.
[0:31] This morning, I want to talk about the grace of God. Many times we think of grace, we also think of law, and we might bring in a little bit of that.
[0:53] But as we look at this this morning, a lot of times, like in Galatians, it talks about how they were going back to the law.
[1:13] That was the law of Moses, and that's not our problem today as much. But we do have tendencies to go back into a type of law.
[1:30] We will probably be looking at some of that. You can turn to Ephesians. I want to start in Ephesians. We'll be looking at some of these.
[1:45] But a very familiar verse in Ephesians chapter 2 says, For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast.
[2:01] For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained, that we should walk in them.
[2:22] There's three aspects of grace that I want to look at this morning. The first one is saving grace that came to us by our Lord Jesus coming to earth as a man and giving his life for us.
[2:42] The second one is the power, the power to live this life, which comes by the power and anointing of the Holy Spirit.
[2:53] And the third one would be the gifts of the Spirit, which is vitally connected to the Holy Spirit and his work in us and with us, through us.
[3:09] So we are saved by grace. And I want to back up a little bit, and we'll read a few more verses here.
[3:20] You know, chapter 2 here in Ephesians, he says, You he hath quickened. We are quickened by our Lord Jesus, by the Spirit of God.
[3:34] Quickened, we are made alive. We are translated out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his dear Son. You know, it says we used to walk in the course and the power of the world and the power of the prince and the power of the air.
[3:54] But now we are of a new kingdom. Now we are of the kingdom of God. In verse 4, it says, But God, but God, you know, we were in that old condition.
[4:07] We were lost and in bondage to the world. But God, who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, he hath quickened us together with Christ.
[4:25] By grace ye are saved, and hath 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 us through Christ Jesus.
[4:49] Now let's notice, you know, he doesn't just say grace, but he says the exceeding riches of his grace. And as we go through this, as we look at this this morning, we will see some of the exceeding riches of his grace.
[5:10] Hopefully we will. But we will see also the other side of things. In chapter 1 and verse 6, verse 5, it says, We are having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.
[5:55] It is by the grace of God. You know, I had to think. I had to think of the children of Israel and how they were in Egypt.
[6:07] They were slaves in Egypt. And they were in bondage there. And they had, I don't know, did they ever even think that they could be free?
[6:20] I don't know if they ever thought that somehow they could leave Egypt and be set free. But God, in his grace, he, you know, the Bible tells us that God remembered Israel.
[6:38] And he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And he looked down and he saw them. He had compassion on them.
[6:51] And he saw them there laboring, struggling, hard labor, and slaves to the Egyptians.
[7:05] And so he goes to Moses and he tells Moses, he says, I have come down to deliver Israel.
[7:18] Now you go. And I believe that when God called Moses to go to Egypt, his grace came upon Moses to fulfill the task that he was sending him to do.
[7:34] And it's such a good example, such an example for us to see how that God's grace came to deliver Israel.
[7:49] And God's grace came on Moses that God could use Moses to do his work for him and to lead Israel out of Egypt.
[8:01] And that's how God's grace works today. God wills to deliver us from this world. And God wills to endue us with his grace and with his power by the Holy Ghost that he can use us in his kingdom, that he can use us for the further deliverance of others.
[8:26] That is the grace of God. Now a few more verses.
[8:41] So in 2 Timothy, let me get a couple of verses out of 2 Timothy. chapter 1. Let's start in verse 7.
[9:01] For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. These are things that he gives us by the spirit of God.
[9:18] Without the spirit of God, we have the spirit of fear. But having the spirit of God, he gives us power and he gives us love and he gives us a sound mind.
[9:31] Be not thou, therefore, ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.
[10:06] Now notice how he lays this out. He says we have been saved and we're called with a holy calling and we're called not according to our own works, not according to the things that we have done, not according to what we have earned, but according to the grace of God and his purpose.
[10:33] God has a purpose for each one of our lives and he has called us to that and he will give us his grace to fulfill that purpose, just like his grace came upon Moses to fulfill the call of God, so also his grace comes upon us to fulfill the call that God has upon each one of our lives.
[11:04] He has called us with a holy calling and this calling is not according to our works nor even according to our abilities, but it is according to the purpose of God and his grace as he has chosen and we will see more of this later.
[11:29] You know, what is the definition of grace? Here we see that we see part of it, but another way to say it is grace is God's unmerited favor.
[11:46] We have not earned it, but he has given it. It's a spiritual blessing that he's given us. It is the blessing of God that he has given us that we have not earned it, but he has given it to us through our Lord Jesus.
[12:12] Another thing to notice here in verse 9, he says, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.
[12:30] You know, there's another verse that says that Jesus was the lamb slain before the foundation of the world. So the grace of God was already begun and already decided before the very foundation of the world.
[12:49] What an awesome God that we serve. Let's turn to the gospel of John.
[13:14] We're going to see a couple of verses here in the first chapter. It starts with, in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God.
[13:27] But we'll just skip over these. We'll go down to verse 14. John bear witness of him and cried saying, this was he of whom I speak.
[14:01] He that cometh after me is preferred before me, for he was before me. And of his fullness have all we received and grace for grace.
[14:15] For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. So this was predetermined before the very foundation of the world that Jesus would come into this world and he would live here as a man and he would give his life for us.
[14:39] You know, the wages of sin is death. And all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Let's turn to Romans and we'll look at a few of those things.
[14:50] The wages of sin is death. You know, and thinking of Jesus, the spotless, perfect Lamb of God, he came here and the Bible tells us that Jesus lived a sinless life and he condemned sin in the flesh by doing so, by living a clean and a perfect life.
[15:17] And, all have sinned. Let's read a few verses here in Romans 3, starting in verse 20.
[15:28] Therefore, by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. For by the law is the knowledge of sin.
[15:40] Now notice what it says here. By the law is the knowledge of sin. There's another verse says, the law is a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ.
[15:51] So what the law does is it shows us that we are guilty. It shows us that we cannot live a life pleasing to God in our own strength.
[16:03] It shows us that we are lost, that we are sinners. That's what the law does. It says, By the law is the knowledge of sin.
[16:17] And no flesh can be justified by the law. Verse 21, But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe.
[16:41] For there is no difference, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God, to declare, I say at this time, his righteousness, that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
[17:23] So we believe in him. We are justified freely by his grace through the redemption because he shed his blood.
[17:35] You know, you know, the wages of sin is death. And we'll read a few verses here in chapter 6.
[17:50] Let's see. Well, we'll just read. We'll just read a couple of these verses.
[18:02] We might look at more of it later. Just read verse 22 and 23.
[18:13] But now being made free from sin and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life.
[18:24] This is the heritage of the children of God. If we are servants to God, we've been redeemed from that old life and now the fruit that comes out of us is a fruit of holiness and the end is everlasting life.
[18:42] For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Now let's read verse 1 in chapter 5.
[18:57] Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
[19:17] We have access to this grace through faith and Jesus made this all available by giving his life for us.
[19:27] Now, think with me. The wages of sin is death and all of us had the death penalty upon us. Someone had to pay for it.
[19:42] You know, you know, there's, just recently I read this story about a man. The young boys were playing softball or baseball, whatever it was, and they hit one of his windows and they broke it.
[19:59] And of course, all the boys ran away. But one of the fathers came and talked with the men. And the men said, yes, I can forgive them, but someone needs to pay for the window.
[20:13] You know, we are forgiven of our past. We are forgiven of our sin. We are forgiven of our rebellion. But someone had to pay for it.
[20:25] And that someone was Jesus. Jesus. Jesus paid the penalty. And how did Jesus qualify to pay for our penalty?
[20:37] It's because he had no sin of his own. You know, and think with me. Jesus lived a sinless life.
[20:48] And Satan and all his hosts, they were working against him and trying to get rid of him. And what can we do to get rid of this guy?
[20:59] How can we get rid of the Son of God? How, you know, he's living a perfect life. And look at all the damage he's doing to our kingdom. He's healing people.
[21:09] He's casting out devils. He's, you know, and people are being baptized and following him. What can we do? And so finally they decided to kill him.
[21:26] But Jesus, there was no penalty of death upon him. All humanity had the penalty of death on them. But our Lord Jesus did not because he lived the sinless life.
[21:41] And so he shed his blood. He gave his life that we to pay for us. To pay for us. Oh, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[21:54] The grace of God. And by faith in his blood we have access to this grace. By grace we are saved.
[22:05] We are saved. Now let's go to 2 Corinthians chapter 5.
[22:17] What is our response to this grace?
[22:34] 2 Corinthians chapter 5. Let's read verse 14. For the love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that if one died for all then we're all dead.
[22:54] Jesus died for all humanity because we were as good as dead. We had the death penalty upon us. And so he gave his life for us that we can have life and that he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which died for them and rose again.
[23:21] This is the least that we can do is to live for him because he gave his all for us. Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature all things are passed away.
[23:38] Behold all things are become new and all things are of God who has reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation to with that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing their trespasses unto them and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
[24:09] So Christ God was in our Lord Jesus the Lord Jesus he was he was God incarnate he was the almighty God come down to this earth and lived here as a man.
[24:25] He came for this purpose to reconcile lost humanity back to a holy God. he says that God in Christ he is he is not imputing our trespasses why because we believe by faith in the blood of Jesus and now he's committed to us this word of reconciliation you know Jesus is back at the right hand of the father and he sent the holy ghost and and he gave us commandments to take this gospel out to a lost and a dying world to bring to reconcile them now then we are ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christ's stead be reconciled to God for he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him
[25:35] Jesus the righteous one laid down his life that we can have his righteousness what an exchange we then as workers together with him we are now labors together with God we are now labors with him and he beseeches us the apostle here writing he beseeches us that we receive not the grace of God in vain we have received the Holy Ghost we have the gifts of the spirit we have the calling of God in our life and he beseeches us that we have not received the grace of God in vain but that we live for him and we labor for him and we labor in this great work of reconciling a lost and a dying world back to a holy God now we all know the
[27:02] Galatian letter and how the apostle rebukes them he asks them the question in Galatians 3 he says how who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth you began in the spirit but now he asks the question do you think you are perfected by the flesh you know and we look at this and we think it's not us but I see that there are tendencies in all of the professing church in all of Christianity there are tendencies to get into this trap that the Galatians were in yes they were going back to the old law but let's look at some other ways you know how easy is it to get into a form you know do we do we read our bible and pray every day because we have a love and a hunger for our lord jesus we have a hunger for righteousness and we love our lord or is it because we have to because it's the thing to do because we know that if we don't then we'll backslide well if we do it because we have to we probably already backslidden we've already lost our first love so how is it with us what how is our life how is our life are we living our lives for the lord jesus like we read there in corinthians that if one died for us what less can we do but to live for him now the apostle paul let's read here his testimony in galatians chapter 2 you know he he's talking here and and says in verse 16 knowing that a man is not justified by works but by the faith of jesus we're not justified by anything that we can do but we are justified by the blood of jesus and our faith in him not by the works of the law not by keeping some tradition not by not by the things that we can do not by going to church on sunday not by praying every day not by but by living this life believing in our lord jesus by faith now verse 15 verse 17 but if while we seek to be justified by christ we ourselves also are found sinners is therefore christ the minister of sin god forbid for if i build again the things which i destroyed i make myself a transgressor you know in in the book of jude he talks about men ungodly men who have turned the grace of god into lasciviousness they justify living in sin because of the grace of god you know you know
[31:03] you know you know in romans you know you know it was a very prevalent thing in those days and it's a very prevalent thing in our day for people to claim the grace of god and to live a life of sin instead of a life of victory over sin he says if we seek to be justified by christ but we are found to be sinners we are found to to be committing sin is christ the minister of sin god forbid no he is not he does not he does not accept that he does he is not the minister of sin but he will deliver us from it he will destroy the works of the devil for if i build again the things which i destroyed i am a transgressor for i through the law am dead to the law that i might live unto god now let's see verse 20 here i am crucified with christ nevertheless i live yet not i but christ liveth in me christ liveth in me does christ live in you today does christ live his life through you or are you living your own life and trying to add a little bit of jesus along the way christ liveth in me and the life which i now live in the flesh i live by the faith of the son of god who loved me and gave himself for me are we living our life by the power of god are we living our life in service to him and are we are is is that is what comes what comes out of our life is it the outflow of the life of christ the spirit of god or is it things that we have to we we see that we need to do this so we'll go do it you know what we see on the natural there's a fine line between those two are we living the life that we live because it's the thing to do because it's the right thing to do or are we living the life that we live because of the power of god and the presence of jesus in our heart do we live this life because of love for him or do we live this life because we have to the life which i now live in the flesh i live by the faith of the son of god who loved me and gave himself for me i do not frustrate the grace of god for if righteousness come by the law then christ is dead in vain you know we cannot live this life good enough to earn the righteousness of god we cannot live this life good enough to be righteous in his sight but as we are surrendered
[35:03] to him and crucified with christ we receive his righteousness now hopefully hopefully this is coming through clear enough to understand let's turn to hebrews and let i want to look at hebrews for a little bit here hebrews chapter 3 and 4 here he's talking again about the children of israel and he warns us to not harden our hearts as they did you know and and they they as we as we spoke before they were delivered out of egypt by the grace of god by the power of god they were brought out of egypt and and the grace of god was upon moses to lead them well they came to the red sea you know and and and in the process through those plagues god was dealing with the gods of egypt and he was destroying them and he was showing himself to be above those gods he was showing himself to be more powerful and that those gods were were not were not did not have the power of god and they should not be worshipped but so here he talks about the children of israel and how they provoke god they questioned god you know after such a great deliverance out of such a great deliverance out of slavery and they came up to the red sea and and god had told them exactly where to go and pharaoh thought now i have them they're trapped they're up against the red sea and i'm behind them with my army and and by the way as i was saying god had dealt with their with the gods of egypt however it was there was yet the god of the sea there and there were high places close by there by the red sea where they were at and so pharaoh thought well my god is delivering them into my hand i'll go up there and we'll bring these people back to be my slaves well god again showed himself mightier than the gods of egypt and he opened up the sea and they walked through it and he drowned pharaoh in the sea after all of this after all of this they tempted god and they questioned god they tempted him by questioning him can god provide a table in the wilderness can god provide for such a multitude you know can he protect us oh moses it would have been better if we would have died in egypt and all of those things and and they even they even wanted to return to egypt now he says here they could not enter in they could
[39:03] not enter in because of unbelief let's read in verse verse 12 of chapter 3 take heed take heed rather unless there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living god but exhort one another daily while it is called today lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin for we are made partakers of christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end while it is said today if ye will hear his voice harden not your hearts as in the provocation and and it goes on he talks about the children of israel and how god was grieved with them for 40 years and and they all died in the wilderness except joshua and caleb now chapter 4 let us therefore fear lest the promise being left us of entering into his rest any of you should seem to come short of it for unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto them but the word preached did not profit them not being mixed with faith in them that heard it so when we hear the word of god we need to receive it by faith that's what he's saying here that it it was they they did not it was not mixed with faith when they heard the word for we which have believed to enter into rest as he saith as i have sworn in my wrath if they shall enter into my rest although the works were finished from the foundation of the world you know so god had god has provided a rest for us just like it provided for the children of israel but they did not enter in because of unbelief now let's go on let's start reading again in verse 9 there remaineth therefore a rest to the people of god for he that has entered into his rest he also has ceased from his own works as god did from his let us labor therefore to enter into that rest lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief and and so let's look at this verse 10 have we entered into the rest that god has for us there's a rest for us here in this life and it's not that we just sit down on the easy chair and we coast on into heaven no but that rest that we enter into when when when we are endued with power and the grace of god like like paul wrote i am crucified with christ nevertheless i live but the life that i now live i live through the power of the son of god christ living his life through him is christ living his life through you today you know if we have ceased from our own works our own works i would look at as those works that we have to do this we have to do that we we we we have to go
[43:03] we have to go pray we have to go read the bible we have to go to church we we do this and we do that we have to do these things or are we are we living the life of freedom the life that that that christ is in us and his life is working through us and his life is bringing fruit and we are living in peace we are living having found a rest in our god we we desire to have fellowship with him we desire to read the word of god that we might be full of the word of god we desire to pray that we might have fellowship with him we desire to pray that that that we can intercede and we can fight the battles against the enemy that the enemy will be defeated and the kingdom of god can be advanced have we found this rest you know moses there was no way that moses could deliver the children of israel on his own he tried that before he left egypt he felt i believe he felt the call to deliver the children of israel and and so he smote the egyptian and he killed him that was in his own strength but when god came to him there at the burning bush the grace of god came upon him when god called him to this great work of delivering the children of israel and moses went to egypt and moses and aaron brought the people of israel out of egypt not in moses strength but in god's strength yes god used his rod to do miracles god used god used his rod to bring to bring the plagues and to part the red sea and to bring water out of the rock and all of that but it was all by the word of god it was all by the power of god it was nothing by moses power it was nothing that moses drummed up it was nothing that moses figured out a way to do it no but it was it was just simply moses being god's instrument that's what the apostle paul is talking about when he says that he's crucified with christ nevertheless i live and christ lives in me and the life that i now live i live by the power of the son of god who gave himself for me i do not frustrate the grace of god i do not try to do the work of god in my own strength but i do the work of god as he directs i do the work of god that he is already doing you know even jesus when he was here he said i can do nothing except the father do it jesus did nothing unless the father was doing it that is why jesus had a hundred percent success rate in his ministry it's because he did everything by the power of the father he did what the father wanted him to do he did what the father was doing he spent all nights in prayer he had his vital connection to the father he spent all nights in prayer not to gain favor with the father but because he wanted this fellowship
[47:04] with the father and he knew that he needed this vital connection yes our lord jesus he was anointed by the holy ghost yes the spirit of god came upon him has the spirit of god come upon you is he in you is he empowering you have you found this rest that you that you enter into when the spirit of god takes over your life and and uses you and works through you it's no longer i but christ have we come to that place have we found his grace have we found his grace hebrews 4 verse 12 for the word of god is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword piercing even to dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart the word of god it will discern it will discern the spirit of god it will discern is it is it of the spirit or is it of the soul which is it are we led by the spirit of god are we led by the spirit of god or is it the soul trying to bring an emotional experience you know one of these sundays i want to bring a message of worshiping god in spirit and in truth you know god has been speaking this to me and and some one of these sundays i want to share that let's turn to the book of acts you know we read the book of acts and there's never been anything like it since right such a great move of god such a great move of god and the devil tried to stop the church he arrested the apostles and he brought them in before the council and they commanded them not to speak in the name of jesus in chapter 4 verse 18 and then they were let go in verse 23 and they went back and they reported all that had happened to them but they did not hide in a corner they did not hide they did not try to hide in some cave that they that the pharisees can't find them anymore no but let's notice what happened here they reported what had happened to them in verse 24 they prayed when they had heard that they lifted up their voice to god with one accord and said lord thou art god which has made heaven and earth and the sea and all that in them is but who by the mouth of thy servant david has said why do the heathen rage and the people imagine vain things and the kings
[51:04] of the earth and the rulers are gathered against against thy child jesus verse 29 now lord behold their and grant unto thy servants that with all boldness they may speak thy word they weren't even asking to be protected they weren't asking that the enemy be blinded they weren't asking that the enemy could not find them but they prayed for boldness and they and and and and they prayed that they would boldly speak the word of god and by stretching forth thine hand to heal and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child jesus and when they had prayed the place was shaken where they were assembled together and they were all filled with the holy ghost and they spake the word of god with boldness and the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul neither said any of them that out of the things which he possessed was his own but they had all things common and with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the lord jesus and great grace was upon them all great grace was upon them all do you think that this same great grace would be available in our day well I believe there's a lot more available than what we walk in there's a lot more grace available than what we've experienced are we willing to give ourselves to give ourselves to lay down our life that jesus can live his life through us that is the great question today that is the question is his grace working through us have we found this rest have we found this rest in our lord jesus that we allow him to work through us we don't we don't try to do his work in our strength we don't try to do the work of god in our own way we don't try to do the work of god by our by our own human thinking and our own smartness no but we do the work of god led by the spirit of god do we do the work of god because it it just flows out from us it flows out from us there was great power with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the lord jesus and great grace was upon them all yes great grace was upon them all you know and right after this we have the the account of ananias and sapphira and and you know i've wondered many times why did god do this why did he smite them but you know you just look at this here was a church a people in one accord and there was great power and there was great grace upon them and yet there was there was this man that had the love of money he had covetousness in his heart there was love of money in
[55:05] his heart you know he didn't have to bring this but he wanted to be looked up to he wanted position he wanted everybody to think well of him he thought if he would keep if he would say well you know i i need i need some of this because i want to you know whatever it would have been fine i believe but instead of that he led on as if he brought all and god smote him you know how many times do we say we bring all how many times do we come to the altar and we and we give our all to him but yet we don't we hold back something we hold something back we don't give our all there's some little area in our life that we're not willing we're not willing to lay down we're not willing to give to him it will hinder it will bring death it will bring death let's turn to romans eight verse fourteen for as many as are led by the spirit of god they are the sons of god john chapter one says as many as received him to as many as received jesus to them to them gave you power to become the sons of god so if you have received jesus there's the power in you to become a son of god and how does he describe a son of god here he says those that are led by the spirit of god they are the sons of god are you led by the spirit of god are you led by your own thinking are you led by the spirit of god can he lead you can he use you can he talk to you can he talk through you can he give can he put his burden on you to intercede for someone as many as are led by the spirit of god they are the sons of god jesus said john chapter six verse sixty three it is a spirit that quickeneth the flesh profiteth nothing the words that i speak unto you they are spirit and they are life the words that we speak are they spirit are they of self are they of the spirit of god are we led by the spirit of god can he use us are we led by the spirit of god jesus said that the words that he speak they are spirit and they are life but he says the flesh profiteth nothing the flesh profits nothing you know this old flesh and this carnal mind it's not subject to the law of god neither indeed can be what is motivating us what is
[59:05] empowering us in second corinthians chapter three verse five and six not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves but our sufficiency is of god who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament not of the letter but of the spirit for the letter killeth but the spirit giveth life this is what I'm talking about this morning the letter killeth if you if you live if you try to live for god because you have to if you try to live the christian life because that's what this word says it's a good try but it won't get you to heaven it is only it is only as we find that rest in the spirit of god it is only as we realize that our own righteousness is this filthy rags and that's a terrible thing but we can have the righteousness of our
[60:43] Lord Jesus Jesus said the flesh profiteth nothing the words that I speak unto you they are spirit and they are life here he says we are able ministers of the new testament not of the letter but of the spirit the spirit of god it gives life the spirit of god in in in our speaking gives life it brings life the letter killeth but the spirit it gives life yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes 1 Peter 4 verse 10 and 11 as every man has received the gift even so minister the same one to another as good stewards of the manifold grace of god if any man speak let him speak as the oracles of god if any man minister let him do it as of the ability which god giveth that god in all things may be glorified through jesus christ to whom be praise and dominion forever and ever amen if we speak let us speak as the oracles of god you know let's let's read a few verses here in first corinthians and chapter 12 the apostle paul here he was on to talk about the various gifts of the spirit and this is the beginning of that well we won't go into that this morning but starting in verse four there are diversities of gifts but the same spirit there are differences of administrations but the same lord there are diversities of operations but it is the same god which worketh all in all verse seven but the manifestation of the spirit is given to every man to profit with all if we are saved if we have been born again by the spirit of god then he also he also gives us what he calls here the manifestation of the spirit he goes on to talk about these it's the gifts of the spirit of god and it's and he names them and how he gives these gifts and they work through us by the spirit of god yes he says it is given to every man so if you're born again you're also given a gift of the holy ghost can that gift work through you can the spirit of god use you can the spirit of god develop that gift and can the spirit of god give you more gifts you know as we grow in grace and in the knowledge of our lord jesus we grow in grace let us grow in grace till we come to the place that great grace was upon them all that's the will of god i believe that's his desire that's his will yes you know we read those that verse
[64:44] in in peter are we good stewards of the manifold grace of god he says if any man speak let him speak as the oracles of god if we speak if we minister let's speak as that we what we received of him that's what we speak the message i preached to you today it is what god gave me last night and this morning that is that is how it how it is it's a message that god brought to me actually friday and yesterday and this morning when we speak if any man speak let him speak as the oracles of god the very word of god that's what he's saying if any man minister let him do it as of the ability which god giveth that god in all things may be glorified through jesus christ that is the ultimate that our god receive honor and glory yes we then as workers together with him are we co-workers co-labors together with god oh yes hallelujah you know we started i believe we started in ephesians we'll end in ephesians ephesians 119 3 thus are reading in 18 the eyes of your understanding being enlightened that you may know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us who believe according to the working of his mighty power the exceeding greatness of the power of our god and it's to us who believe yes he wants to work his power through us through the power of the spirit of god yes hallelujah you know the apostle his testimony in chapter in chapter 3 in verse 7 the testimony the apostle was this whereof I was made a minister according to the gift of the grace of god given unto me by the effectual working of his power the effectual working the grace of god worked efficiently through the apostle paul that's what he's saying can the grace of god work through you can the grace of god work efficiently through you you know we always have room to grow but let us endeavor let us labor to enter into this rest yes let us give ourselves that we can enter in to this grace this great grace that is
[68:44] available to us today let's pray