In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the concept of grace and its significance in the lives of believers. He explains that grace is what has made faith in God righteous and deserving of reward. The preacher highlights that God has done everything necessary for believers to receive His limitless riches through grace. He emphasizes that salvation is not achieved through repentance alone, but through faith in the grace of Jesus Christ. The preacher uses the example of a man in debt to illustrate how God's grace is undeserved and freely given to those who believe in Him.

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