In this sermon, the preacher discusses the concept of coming to the cross and seeking forgiveness from God. He emphasizes the importance of acknowledging one's sins and humbly approaching God for redemption. The preacher uses the story of Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, to illustrate how God shows kindness and mercy to those who repent. He also highlights the significance of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross, emphasizing that it is not the number of good deeds that make someone a true follower of Christ, but rather the willingness to surrender to God's will and accept His forgiveness.

Now I want to read you, first of all, a passage from the 2nd book of Samuel, chapter 9. The 2nd book of Samuel, chapter 9. And we're taking in to the most moving portion of the Old Testament, at least to me. And it's the story of this lovely, lovely man, after God's own heart, David. And David is to be taken invariably as a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. A view that's designed by the Holy Spirit. Jesus came in the line of David. And his forefather David foreshadowed him in so many matters. And at last, after many tears and troubles, David has come to the throne that God promised him. And he had many years fleeing as a fugitive from Saul, the first king, who received Jonathan. But Saul is slain in battle, as is also his son Jonathan. And the people have acclaimed David as their king. And his first act was to say this. And David said, Is there not any that is known to the house of Saul, that I may show him kindness, that Jonathan say? And there was at the house of Saul a servant who was known as Zeba. And when they had called him unto David, the king said unto him, Art thou Zeba? And he said, Thy servant is he. And the king said, Is there not yet any of the house of Saul, that I may show him the kindness of God unto him? And Zeba said unto the king, Jonathan hath yet a son, which is lying on his feet. And the king said unto him, Where is he? And Zeba said unto the king, Behold, he is in the house of Mashiach, in the son of Ammon, in Mogedar. Mogedar, in Hebrew simply means no dead. It is very significant that this man was living in a place called Moged, hiding there for fear. And that starving of his. Now when David sent him out of the house of Mashiach, the son of Ammon, from Mogedar. Now when the figure showed the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, was coming to David, he stood on his face and did nothing. And David said, With permission? And he answered, Behold thy servant. And David said unto him, Fear not, but I will surely show thee kindness of Jonathan thy father's sake. And he restored thee all the man that saw thy father. And thou shalt eat bread at my table continually. And the God himself said, What is thy servant, that thou shouldst look upon such a dead dog as I am? Then the king called to his other son's servant and said unto him, I have given unto thy master's son all that pertain to Saul and to Philip or his house. Thy daughter and thy sons and thy servants shall kill the lamb for him. And thou shalt bring him the fruits that thy master's son hath been to eat. But before Mashiach thy master's son shall eat bread continually at my table. Now Zuba had fifteen sons and twenty servants. Then Zuba said unto the king, According to all that my lord the king hath commanded his servant, so shall thy servant be. As for Mephibosheth said the king, He shall eat at my table as one of the king's sons. And Mephibosheth had a young son whose name was Micah. And all that dwelt in the house of Zuba were servants of Mephibosheth. So Mephibosheth dwelt in Jerusalem for he would eat continually at the king's table and would lay on both his feet. And so we have just read of a table at which David was head. And of which the only remaining descendant of the house of Saul which had so persecuted David was given an honorable place. Now having read that story, the story of the table of which David was the head, I then turn you to another story. In a few chapters before, we took those words before, the story of another table at which Saul was head. When Saul treated David very differently from the way in which later David was to treat his only descendant. And I then return back to the verse of the Samuel chapter 20. There then is the story of the table at which Saul was head. We then turn to the story, David is interested in verse 24 of 1 Samuel 20. So David hid himself in the field. And when the new moon was come, the king sat him down to eat meat. And the king sat upon his seat as in other times, even upon a seat by the road. And Jonathan arose and Abner sat by Saul's side. And David's place was empty. Nevertheless Saul spoke not anything that day. For he thought something was to fall of him. He was not clean, surely he was not clean. And it came to pass on the morning, because the second day of the month, that David's place was empty. And Saul said unto Jonathan his son, Therefore for a cup is not the sum of dresses to eat meat, neither yesterday nor today. And Jonathan answered Saul, David earnestly asked leave of me to go to Bethlehem. And he said, Let me go, I told you, for I found you had a sacrifice on the city. And my brother, he hath commanded me to be there. And now is I have found favor in thine eyes. Let me get away, I told you, and see my brethren. Therefore you come as not unto the king's table. Then Saul's anger was kindled against Jonathan. And he said unto him, Thou son of a perverse, rebellious woman, doest thou know that thou hast chosen the sum of dresses to thy own conclusion, and done to the conclusion of thy mother's nakedness? For as long as the sum of dresses liveth upon the ground, thou shalt not be established in thy kingdom. Therefore now send them fresh unto me, for he shall surely die. And Jonathan answered Saul's father and said unto him, Therefore shall it be so that it be done. And Saul cast a devil upon him, to smite him. Whereby Jonathan knew, that it was the commandment of his father to slay David. And so it shall be subject to this evening two tables, two banqueting halls. The first one is the table of which Saul is the head. And the second, that of which David is the head. That's the way of the story, what a story this evening is. The story of the feast, the table, at which Saul was head. I must give you a little bit of the background of the story, I trust you will be interested, because most stories like these are interesting stories. They're terrific. Saul, the name of God's first king, of Israel's first king, He firmly wanted him to be king over Israel at God's command. Jonathan understood then that Saul was to be king only under God. He was not to be a king in his own right, simply God's vice-regent over Israel. But it seems that Saul never understood that. Perhaps he never wanted to understand it. Because it's quite obvious he assumed that now that he was king, he was king in his own right. And this was made manifest when God gave him various commissions to carry out. And Saul chose how far he would obey God. When the king came, Saul, then he would obey God, but no further. And in various matters which we won't go into now, Saul transgressed the commandment of the one who was his rightful king. And in so doing, he violated the whole terms of his appointment as king over Israel. The result that God sent Samuel to Saul with that solemn, solemn message, because God has rejected me, I have rejected thee from reigning over Israel. He said further, I have lent the kingdom from you, Saul, and I have given it unto another, a noble of thine who is better than God. And so Saul from that day, though he continued to reign as king, was nonetheless pronounced by God as an rejected king. And told that God intended to take away the kingdom, to give it another, to another, and of course that other was David. Now the fact that Saul was the rejected king was a fact that Saul would never accept. He didn't quite know who the ruler was, but no, this I don't know, but then he should appear. He was not going to accept himself as the rejected king. He was not going to step down for anybody. And so he had years in which he still, after this damnation of himself, tried to be king. And here is the story. You see him as king, sitting at the head of the table. Now that's the story of Adam, and it's the story of you and me. That's how we have been anointed by God to be king over a territory. Everyone has been anointed by God to be king over some territory. If you're a father, you've been anointed to be his king over that family. If you've got some sphere of influence at work, you've been anointed to be king over that sphere. If you've got some piece of service, he's anointed you to be king or queen in that particular territory that he's given you. And if it doesn't seem that God's given you any territory to rule over, he's got one certain he has, and that is the territory of your own personality. He's anointed you to rule that life of yours for him. But he's understood that in anointing us to be king, we are kings only under him. He is the king of kings. In actual fact, we're nothing more than his vice regents. That was how God arranged things for our first father Adam, who was anointed to be king over the whole of the earth, to leave it to God, to be God's vice regent. But the fall for Adam consisted that he took it into his mind that he was to be king of his own life. And he chose how far through the day, showing that in the final analysis, he had decided to be king rather than God. And our first father Adam violated the whole terms of his appointment as king of God's creation. And what happened in Adam's life has happened in each one of us. It certainly happened in mine. I've been anointed king over this or that territory, but I have to confess, I violated the whole terms of my appointment again and again. I've considered that I'm the king in my own right. That I can do what I like in that sphere and opportunity. I'm not God's vice regent. I make the final decision. And because that's been your attitude and it has, it's been pretty obvious, hasn't it? You didn't get the impression in home or elsewhere that you're only carrying out God's orders. You're only a vice regent. You may not see self, wearing itself up and reacting and resenting as if the wrong done to, God has been done to you, rather than you represent. Of course, we've all done this. We've all violated the terms of our appointment and so as with Saul, so with us. There's a sense in which God says, because you have rejected the word of the Lord, I also have rejected you from reigning over Israel. I'm going to take that territory which I gave to you, to you, to me, in which you've proved such a complete failure and I'm going to render it from you and I'm going to give it to a neighbor of thine which is better than thou. You say, what do you mean? Who's giving it to a neighbor who's going to take all this from me? Well, your neighbor is Jesus. He became neighbor to the human race when he took upon himself our flesh and our blood. And this is the situation in which we all begin now. Every one of us. Because of our failure to submit, because of putting self under fail, we have violated the terms of our appointment and we are rejected kings. And God's purpose is to take the kingdom from us and give it to a neighbor of ours, to the Lord Jesus. So then he does the ruling rather than us. I don't believe to see this. You know, we love to extol the fact that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. Yes, how lovely that is. But he's not only come to save us, he's not satisfied until he has supplanted us. And that's the process that begins with our first salvation. And from that moment, the Holy Spirit is working to overturn the rule of faith and for Jesus to supplant us progressively. And therefore, he wants us to be willing for that process. He wants us to be willing to accept ourselves as rejected kings. He's done our thing, has proved ourselves completely unqualified to be the father, the mother of that family, to hold down that job, to do that piece of Christian service. He has won our own lives. And his purpose is not to give self another chance, but to let another supplant self so that he does the ruling and that other is the Lord Jesus. Now, as this Lord showed us, we don't want to do that. It was the last thing that Saul was willing to do, to admit himself to be the rejected king and give place to another. And with us too, it's the last thing we really want to do, to admit ourselves corrupt and failures, due to be replaced by another. Instead, although we may be saved, we are still insisting on trying to be king. And to this day, we may still, not so long, be sitting at the head of the table. This is the reason why we will never repent. This is the reason why we are so slow to admit failure, because it means that we are not good. When I am king, my image must be preserved, and I must try to appear to be right, and to admit I am wrong is a method loaded. And so as with Saul, so with us. In spite of the fact we have had real experience with doubtless of the grace of God, when it comes to the fact his self is sitting at the head of the table, and we are still trying to be king, still trying to make a go of it. Then God has already decided he is not interested in us making a go of it. He has got somebody else, other than us, better than us, who wants to take over from us. But deep down, the native thing for all of us is to resist any such process. Nothing must be allowed to happen which will touch the kingship of self in our lives. And I want to say that self sitting at the head of the table is the basic sin, from which all other sins spring. The central letter of the little word sin is I. And you can see that in every sin. The sin of pride, that displays itself, that despises others, that makes ourselves suffer little others, is simply that I am still sitting at the head of the table. That sin when we feel jealous and act under it and speak under it, when another is praised or does well to have a feeling of love, no I am not always. Because self is at the head of the table. And when I am king, I don't ever see anybody else prosper than me. And that's the reason why you can be so easily jealous. Resentment and bitterness toward others simply springs from me at the head of the table, me trying to be king. How dare you talk to me like that. Why in the world shouldn't we? Who are we anyway? Well there are something in our own estimation. We don't mean without disclosure that the fact that we react to wrongs or slights as we do, shows who is at the head of the table. Where it reduces, there wouldn't have been any such reaction, but this isn't always so. Never been in some cases, where it's so, but it's us there. Our irritations, the things in the daily job, and oh how quickly all I speak for myself, my impatience, my irritation. And that shows who has taken the head of the table at that moment. It's not Jesus. It's me. In spite of the fact that I may know that I have been judged at the cross, I am still trying to be king, still trying to be a good Christian. He doesn't want even our attempt to be good Christians. And that temper, what is it that makes you fly off like that sometimes? Only himself at the head of the table. We don't like that to happen. Things must go our way, and we act accordingly. And even our grossest sins, deceitful, impurity, shameful indulgence, they all spring from self at the head of the table. For that man at the head of the table says, why shouldn't I? Because he'd rather know. And so we see ourselves like so, sitting still at the head of the table. And as long as so is sitting at the head of the table, I want you to notice, in the passage we read, twice it says, and David's place was empty. Everybody else is there, I'm telling you. But his most popular table wasn't. Because he didn't dare. His life wasn't worth anything. Just as long as Saul was at the head of the table. And though Saul wanted him there just to put on a good show, David knew he couldn't possibly take the risk. And you know that's the result when I'm at the head of the table. David's place is empty. It says it. I'm running things, I'm the one. I may be even a Christian, yet I'm doing what the head of the table may be in Christian things. But the one I'm supposed to be doing it for, his place is empty. He cannot sit at the table with a man like that. He's the rightful ruler. And in acting and reacting as I am, and I am in effect, though I may not realize it, resisting him. And I don't believe I know what it takes to be trying to do the Lord's work. With David's place empty. What a terrible thing. Trying to serve him. Trying to be the teach. But in my life, David's place empty. Indeed this was the situation when the revival first came to my own heart, back in 47. I was an evangelist, going up and down Britain. And God had been blessing me for many years, but then something went wrong, I didn't quite know, except, that David's place was empty. And I was left to struggle on in my own strength. And I later discovered why. It was because I had gone back to the head of the table. And Jesus' place was empty. Moreover, while Saul was at the head of the table, while Saul still was trying to be king, he and his country staggered on, from one problem to another, until he ended in final defeat, before the Philistines, and his country, which he was trying to lead, ravaged by it. He himself, slain on Mount Deborah, with his dear son Genesis, and drove there to its lowest depths of humiliation, because this man, who God had rejected, really insisted on trying to go on being king. And all the time, did he get led? There was one in his own kingdom, God's appointed one, who by the skill of his hands, and the anointing of God, would have brought that nation out from all its trouble, but he wasn't permitted to do so, because Saul was at the head of the table. And so it is for us, while I'm at the head of the table, while I'm trying to run my Christian life, while I'm trying to run my life, I stagger on, from problem to problem. It's a step I'm soon to take, it's your own step, and it's your own reaction to other people. But I won't give in, I won't admit to failure, I'm going to get on doing it, and I only walk into more and more problems, and I believe that's the case with some of us. You've gone from problem to problem, and very often there are problems of human relationships. If you find people aren't nice and sweet to you, don't blame them, it may be they're reacting to something in you. And all the time. And it's God's appointed one, to live that life. The Lord Jesus. But we never gave him a chance. We were the same kind of failure, in contempt and passion of failure. From when we were in the pension, to surfing on the phone, we never handed over to him, had we done so. How different would have been the result. But we didn't. If only we could accept ourselves as failures, and flops. If only we could see the source of our troubles, as one miraculous ready to take over. But he can't save him, as we are, how shall we put it, broken in repentance. Then, in the words of the devil, he could take over, and be the Lord's work day and night. He can make all things new. As somebody said, Jesus not only forgives the messiah, but our mess is the mess. But he has given the throne to do it. Oh, we could offer the Lord promises, don't make any more promises, any more consecrations. Just offer him the mess. He doesn't want it, but he does. And like that pot of gold, he can make out of that mild vessel, another vessel, as seems good to the potter to make it. This is what makes Jesus famous. This is what brings him the name. Not the number of good Christians who can pat on the back, because there are some good Christians who speak as good Christians to pat on the back. But the messes he clears up. The mild vessels he makes again. When at last the mess is given to him in penitence, and the man responsible is at last willing to vacate the throne to the greater the debt. Now there then are our thoughts on that first story. Got it? The table of which Saul is head. And I needn't repeat how it is a picture of ourselves. Now we turn to that other passage which we read. It's in 2 Samuel 9. The table of which ultimately David was head. Now this is a very different scene from before. Some years have passed since that first table in which David had to vacate himself. David now is king over all Israel. And he is sitting at the head of his own banqueting house. Saul, the man who gave him such a hard time, has been slain in battle not by the hand of David who didn't lift up his hand against the Lord he wanted, but by the hand of the Philistine. Saul's house and lineage have been broken. And his lands have been forfeited. And his only remaining descendant is one called Mephibosheth. A man who is a cripple laying on both his feet and who, realizing that he belongs in this house that he repays David, his prayer and lust he will be liquidated as possibly the only remaining claimant to the throne. And he was hiding in a place of no dread, a place of no debauch. Now listen to this. One of the first acts of David when at last God put him on the throne was to show kindness to the one remaining descendant of the house of his bitterest enemy. And if David said is there still any letters left to the house of Saul? Why do you want to know that, David? Oh, I know. It's usual when a new king comes on the throne he liquidates the remaining claimants. Is there any left to the house of Saul? Oh, how different was his intention. That I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake. And this chapter 9 is the story of one of the most amazing acts of love and unity you can read. You know when I read the story of this astonishing kindness that David showed to the house that didn't deserve it? I sometimes get all soft on the inside. Magnanimous. That was the reason why David was called the man after God's own heart. Because you see God's a magnanimous God. Relentless in dealing with you about your sins. Not letting you off the hook until at last you admit you're wrong. That's what you do. Showing a magnanimity that astonishes us. Churchill said that his philosophy was in peace diplomacy in war relentlessness in victory magnanimity. And that was surely David. And David was magnanimous. And for that reason he was called the man after God's own heart. That ours is a God who is magnanimous to those who fought him to those who resisted him to those who have done to his son what Saul did to David. And once you and I had been broken in repentance and come to the foot of the cross and accept the fact without quibble that we are flops and failures and somebody else is going to take over from us the scene always changes. No man will stand at the head of the table. God is. And he's there to show kindness to the very people who have given his son from their table. If there left any of the sons of Adam that I may show them kindness for Jesus sake. The sons of Adam that they were bound to put him on the put Jesus on the cross. I want to show them kindness for the sake of that that same one. And those of you and I have given Jesus from our table God has got a place for us at his. Indeed there is a place there with your name on it. The name of the man who has lost his temper more than any other. The name of the woman who shattered all her children. The name of the young person who has been so rebellious. Although you and I have given Jesus from our table and this place is elected Jesus has got a place for you at his table. This is the meaning, the message of this story. Now David he says in verse 3 Is there not yet any of the house of Saul that he may show the kindness of God unto him. He says I want to do this. I want to show the kindness of God unto him. David where in the world did you get that conception of God? Is God like that to his enemies? Is God a magnanimous God? Well he said it has been to me. He is high anyway. A shepherd God. And that grace found me and showed me a magnanimity that I never deserve. And I want to show the same great unhearted kindness of God to somebody else who doesn't deserve it. So that was what David wanted to show. And this kindness of God of which David speaks is the same as what the New Testament calls the grace of God. The grace of God. The grace of God is the magnanimity of God to all those that don't deserve it. For once in conviction of your likeness at the moment of death there is nothing but grace and magnanimity. The moment I admit how glad I am I find myself on the receiving end of the grace of God. And you, my very love when fully confessed becomes me a title to that grace. Because grace, do you know what grace is? Grace is different from love. When God loves the lovely it's never called grace. Because that was something to deserve it. The love of God is only called the grace of God when all it can do is bestow doesn't deserve it. It's utterly terrible, completely wrong. And that love doesn't change until you play more strongly for that love than you don't want it, love. We call it grace. God's grace. Of our love of God grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt. And this is what we become the recipient of when you admit yourself to be a Mufidushev. A one utterly undeserving completely wrong. If it be of grace then it is no more of grace, otherwise grace is no more grace. The moment you've got to deserve it grace is no more grace. But if somehow you can locate yourself as a flop as a failure as a Mufidushev lame on both your feet never being able to keep the promises never being able to make it to make the standards required once you can see yourself living in a spiritual no-go-dar a place of no satisfaction and once you've known Jesus that's when I ask, that moment you become a candidate for the grace of God. You're very moved, you're very famous I can't tell you what this means to me. Makes me a candidate. Qualifies me for this wonderful grace that flows from Calvary. Isn't that terrific? This mighty limitless grace of God that failing saints and sinners like us. And so it was when they brought Mufidushev to him he was all fearful not knowing what was going to happen and David said fear not and he said to him three things one, I will surely show you kindness he didn't expect that you need kindness none of your person house that I'm going to do he said, for Jonathan thy father's sake oh well Mufidushev there's nothing more attractive in you nor in the history of the house but your God in me and I tell you there's a time when he was my only friend there's a time when he came so sincerely in my victory that I doubted it he said, you're going to be king David and David, I want you to make a promise that when you're king and God's cup of water is he will spare my seed now that's a pathetic thing he was so he was so certain of David's victory that he was still a fugitive but wasn't David dreaming of Jonathan and of Jonathan dreaming of David, David make a pact that whatever else happens you'll spare my seed and David that day was mindful of that covenant made with Jonathan and for Jonathan's sake he was going to show him kindness and you know that's the ground of this place it's going to make all things new it's going to change everything it's going to be bestowed on you and me for Jesus sake all this blessed covenant it's been foretold about you you see Jesus knew there was going to be a seed coming from him he knew there was going to be David that believed on him and trust themselves to him and therefore he pleads with the father and makes a contact with the father that God will spare them will save them save them, meet their every conceivable need and I tell you the grace that I received the grace that has blotted out sin and made things new to me has come to me for Jesus sake that's why God's done it because the sinless saviour died my guilty soul is conquered from me and God the just is satisfied to look on him and pardon him and we're going to be blessed tonight some might be saved tonight some got out of this difficult situation although they are saved it's going to be for Jesus sake my little children I welcome you that your sins are forgiven for his name's sake isn't that good the fact that you are very much given to kill you the fact that you are given up to be buried it's going to be done for your sake but for his sake Jesus the sinless friend behind ourselves indeed God looks upon thy sprinkling blood it is our only plea our only plea but will you notice that he went on to say my little one I'm going to show you kindness for thy father's sake but I'm going to restore thee all the land of thy father he threatened with a lot he was living with a tortor although those lands had once belonged to the family of course with the old affairs stolen and taken away but David is going to get them all back and all the servants that belong to those lands and this is what grace does yes I'm forgiven but more than that he unmesses the mess he restores what I've lost and unguards the mess and heals what I've broken the relationships I want to tell you Jesus doesn't stop more than the forgiving of sins if only he would inject the rotten mixed up situation into his hands with the man who is in the middle of it repenting that mixed up situation is no problem to him at all it's the raw material for a new purpose and he'll restore all that is forfeited by our folly and make all things new as I say this is what makes Jesus famous this is where he gets his name sometimes people come up to me with a big bit of graceful mincer and Mr. Hussein I've got a problem and I'm am I going to say hallelujah because I know that's the spirit of Jesus himself he knows what it is the people around me they never come up and say they've got a problem they're kidding themselves they're blind but oh if you've got a problem and somehow you can see it isn't a problem but you've contributed to it by your own attitudes to sin and wrong and you have well I know the other person was wrong but their reactions were wrong too that only made the situation worse if you will only see you've got a problem and you have capability in it you qualify for the cross of Jesus you qualify for the blood you qualify for the expertise of the son of God in restoring and undoing this is what makes him great and that's what I think the third thing that's going to happen to you Mr. Bishop you're going to be made at my table continually as one of the king's sons you're not going to be banished you're going to be right in the capital you're going to sit at my royal table and the way you may be laid on both your feet don't you worry Mr. Bishop we're not going to babble about that you're going to be seated there for your father's sake for Jonathan's sake and you're going to take the cross if you had such faith in those days and I will have all your deformity and you'll feel completely at ease in my presence and you know that's what Jesus does for souls that make no wrong from the provisions he sits you at his table and there I said oh we gave him for our table he has a place for us which means that he now is the host it's never him at the table, never host who's going to do the providing and that's been the trouble, it's been too much for us we haven't been able to make it but if I can see that another sort of Christian life, not me sitting at the table with him sitting at my table, can we serve him but me sitting at his table, and he's the host then he does the providing and I don't need to be a thing to their table except my hunger, except my need except my emptiness that's what Paul meant when he said it's not I that live but Christ the little me I'm no longer the host he's no longer sitting at my table I'm sitting at his and he puts on the table all I need and you'll find yourself possessed and the feast isn't yours and the job isn't yours and the life of the other fellow isn't yours it's not me, of course it isn't mine you're sitting at his table he's the host and so this is the offer of grace to the bishops who's at the head of the table and you at the head of the table what an aesthetic mess you're making of it the sight of this inevitable admission of failure did you get that? the new admission of abject failure is the first step into victory where Jesus takes over, you're sitting at his table the authority is covered and forgiven and he now is the host yes, that's what we talked about this morning, coming to the cross not going to the front door and asking for the positive everything we know of this but going to the back door and repenting of the negative Lord, I've been proud, I've been resentful I've been self-indulgent I've thrown off the handles I've been running wild I've gone there and you're going to be treated with the same magnanimity as the bishops was and the last thought is this the last sentence of this day was I'm going to lay him on both his feet sitting at the table but lay him on both his feet yes, he was always there but always sitting at the table and you know there's no great promise that there's going to go to land over you and you're going to start growing wings it would be impossible if you did you're going to be a weak meagre man for the rest of your days and with no righteousness of your own that you'd have the privilege of living at the cross living at that table of grace owning up quickly to what you are and all the time finding Jesus meeting it and the blood of his and his blood cleansing it isn't that beautiful I'm certainly one mythic I'm a mythic bishop but I'm sitting at the same table that the bishop did oh such a relief to see you haven't gone to keep up with the case of the English with the other Christians you just show them how goodness you are but you also show that Jesus died for the goodness of us and the Brits are encouraged they're thinking you've graduated they've discovered you haven't graduated at all you're just at the cross and they can join you there and maybe some of us ought to get there tonight this evening, perhaps there might be some for the first time you've never really got peace with God but as long as you've known something about it oh yes, you've sold your soul but you've been on the throne so that God knows how to bring that soul to failure and so long as you're prepared not to wait not to wait for any further painful experiences to prove that you're a failure why not take it on cross tonight why not take it on cross so I'll accept what God says about me in the flesh, no good thing and tonight we can go back to the cross and say Jesus you take over that's what it is it isn't Jesus helping you, it's him taking over as we bow and confess the whole truth to him now let's pray