In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the incredible privilege believers have in having instant and constant access to God through prayer. He highlights the contrast between being able to talk to God, the sovereign of the universe, and not being able to talk to other influential figures like Clinton. The speaker also discusses the importance of understanding the grace of God by considering who Jesus is, what he did, the type of people he did it for, and the results of his actions. Lastly, the speaker briefly mentions the seven requirements for a plan of salvation and emphasizes that God's salvation is offered to all and is sufficient for everyone.

We have a system here where the young people memorize scriptures. They can earn certificates for McDonald's hamburgers. And one of our, I know, I don't blame you for laughing, it's not Burger King, it's McDonald's. And David Bellis is going to come up today. He has memorized the Ten Commandments, David. Okay, and Uncle Matt's going to take over from here. And we don't have to worry about David because he speaks out good and loud. Ready, David? I'm up. Okay, thank you, Matt. Exodus 20, 3 through 17. You shall have no other blessing for me. You shall not make for yourself any carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not, by doubt, you shall not, by doubt, send no servant. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in faith. The Lord will not hold him guiltless if he takes his name in faith. Remember the Sabbath days, keep it holy. The six days you shall labor and do all your work that the seventh day of the Sabbath of the Lord your God. Unto your father and your mother that your days may be long on the land which the Lord your God has given you. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife. Nor his mansions, nor his ministers, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's. Don't go until you get the certificate now. I'm looking for a young assistant today to help with the overhead projectors. Do I have an assistant? Mike, did you decide? I talked to Mike ahead of time. You're going to do it, Mike? There you go. I knew you would. You can just get the seat here, and I won't be ready for a little while to come to it, but I'll tell you when we're ready. We started a series called the Grandeur of Grace. You know, there's nothing greater than the grace of God, you know, and so we wanted, actually we could spend weeks on this and never exhaust the subject, but just to give you a little review about the material that we have been over, especially for those who are here for the first time, we mentioned that in devising a plan of salvation, there was a problem, and the problem was the attributes of God. God is a holy God, and that means he must punish sin, and God is a loving God, and that means he loves the sinner, and how do you reconcile these two things? The problem, isn't it? How can God be a just God and a savior at the first time, at same time? It's a hard problem. Well, we found out that there's only one answer, and the answer is in the word substitution, and we're all familiar with that idea of substitution. You watch a football game, you watch a basketball game, you watch any other game, and you see the coach sending in a substitute. One man comes off the floor or the field, another man goes on to take his place. Okay, now, we found out that there were seven requirements for the plan of salvation. You have to push it hard to get it up. Yeah, hard. Nope, the other way. There you go, and we can just look at those. Seven requirements for any plan of salvation. Just pull it off. You can show them all at once. Since this is a review, we'll show them all at once, Mike, okay? First of all, since God loves everyone, his salvation must be offered to all. Naturally, he doesn't want anybody to be left out. God doesn't desire the death of anyone. Secondly, it must be sufficient for all. Whatever God's plan of salvation must be, it must meet the needs of every person without exception, right? And then, of course, it must be something for which everybody's eligible. A lot of societies on earth really have very strict entrance requirements. Not anybody can get in. You know that. If God's going to devise a plan of salvation, everybody must be eligible for it, and I like this. It must be simple enough for everyone to understand. When you think of people in the world today and all different kinds of grades of education and knowledge and all of that, and some people have very little intellectual ability. Whatever God does, it must be simple enough for anyone to understand. And then, of course, it must be something that anyone can receive. Put a price on it, you've immediately limited it to some. So, the true religion must not have any requirements that some people couldn't meet. And in devising a plan of salvation, it must be a plan of salvation where human boasting is eliminated, because it wouldn't be heaven if there was boasting there. Boasting is the parent's sin, as we said before, and can you imagine a heaven where everyone was boasting about his own prowess and how he got there by his own bootstraps and this sort of thing. And finally, the plan must be one which God does not force on a person against his will. I think we're ready for the next one now, Dave, Mike. So, we found out that the only way that God could ever do this would be having a substitute die for the sins of the people. There are certain requirements that a substitute must meet, we thought. First of all, the substitute must be human. I mean, it must be a fair exchange. A man must die for a man. A human being must die for a human being. An angel couldn't die for a man, because that wouldn't be fair, you know, it would be unequal. Or an animal couldn't die for a man, that would be unequal. It must be a human. And secondly, the human must be a sinless human, otherwise he'd have to die for his own sins. It's getting more restricted all the time, isn't it? Thirdly, he must be God, because this substitute has to die for, how many people are in the world right now, five billion? That's only those that are in the world now. Think of all the people that have ever lived and who will live in the future. His work must be of sufficient value to cover all the people who've ever lived, who are living, and who will live in the future. Amazing, isn't it? And not only that, he must be, he must be, he must shed his blood, because the divine law says that without the shedding of blood, there's no forgiveness of sin. And God said it, this is the way it is, the life of the flesh is in the blood. God says, I've given it to you upon the altar. And finally, I think this is tremendous, he must be willing, he must be willing. It's marvelous to me, it's marvelous to me to think that the one, the only one who was human, and God, and sinless, and said he was willing to do it, didn't have to be that way, did it? He didn't have to be willing, he didn't have to leave the heights above to come down to this scene of muck and mire to die for us that he did it. He must be willing, otherwise God could charge, I mean, Satan could charge God with an involuntary victim dying in the place of ungodly sinners. Now, next we see that the Lord Jesus qualifies on all of these things. I think that's one of them. The only person in the universe who meets the conditions is the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice, he became man, he's human, he became man at Bethlehem. Born of the Virgin Mary, he's perfect man. As the Christian hymn writer says, our God contracted to us man, incomprehensibly made man. Not only that he's God, we saw two weeks ago that he has the names of God, he has the titles of God, he has the attributes of God, he's equal with God the Father in every way. That's wonderful. Thirdly, he's without sin. You know, nobody during those 33 years here on earth was successfully able to accuse him of sin. The record stands, he was without sin, he knew no sin, he did no sin, there was no sin in him. He shed his blood as a substitute for sinners on the cross of Calvary. It was not a bloodless sacrifice. He poured out his life's blood for the sins of the world, and multitudes down through the years have availed themselves of that cleansing flow. And you know, the wonderful thing is he did it willingly, as I said before. There was no reluctance on his part. Isn't that marvelous? The eternal Son of God, he came and he wasn't dragging his feet. In fact, on the way up to Jerusalem, he was out in front and the disciples were following him at a distance. Their legs were like lead, and he was leading the way to Jerusalem where he was going to suffer and bleed and die. He could say, lo, I come in the volume of the book that is written of me, I delight to do thy will. Oh my God. We saw that the truth of Christ as our substitute is found in the whole Bible. It's seen in pictures, it's seen in types, and it's seen in words, too. Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. And that's repeated over and over again in the New Testament. The Apostle Paul says, the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Peter says, he himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree. And the Apostle John said, he himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world. So the Lord Jesus qualifies on all counts, and because he qualifies on all counts, God's plan of salvation qualifies on all counts. This is beautiful to me. Notice, notice that this salvation is available to all. The gospel invitation is, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, whosoever believes on him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. It's available to all. Dear friends, if it depended on money, the poor would be left out. It doesn't depend on money. Whosoever will may come. It's sufficient for all. The death of the Lord Jesus Christ was of infinite value. There's no way you can measure the value of that blood that was shed there on the cross of Calvary. Just think of the cleansing power of that blood. All the sins, potentially all the sins of all the world could be blotted out by that blood. Marvelous, isn't it? When you stop to think of it. Then everyone is eligible for God's salvation. You know why? Because everyone's a sinner. And this tickles me that God in his wonderful plan of salvation has ordained it so that it's our unfitness that qualifies us for salvation. Now that isn't true if you were going to join the Masons, or if you were going to join a college fraternity, or something like that. They don't go by your unfitness. They go by your charm and what you can add to their society. It's not so with God. It's our unfitness that qualifies us for God's salvation. It's a good thing, as I said before, that God's salvation is not just for the intellectual, or for the good-looking, or for the wealthy, or the famous. Most of us here would never qualify. Even if it were only for those who could read, walk, climb, run, see, hear, some would be eliminated. Who could have ever devised a salvation like God has devised? And next, it's simple enough for everyone to understand. William Cooper said, How unlike the complex ways of man, God's easy, artless, unencumbered plan. And it really is. God says, Repent! Anybody can repent. God says, Come! Anybody can come. Nothing complicated about that, is there? Nothing at all. Simple enough for anyone to understand, and anyone can receive it. I like the fact that grace excludes boasting. You say to a believer, Are you saved? And not a word of boast will come out of his mouth, if he's a true believer. He'll say, Well, I'm saved, but by the grace of God I'm saved. There's nothing in me. I stand upon his merits, not my own merits. I don't deserve to be saved. There's no boasting there, huh? If you're a well-saved soul. But, you know, you talk to the people of the world, and you say, Well, I'm doing my best. And a lot of people are worse than I am, and they think of life as a totem pole, and they're somewhere up toward the top, boasting. And then, man is not coerced into accepting God's help. Look, man is a free moral agent. If he wants it, he can take it. If he doesn't want it, he doesn't have it. So, God's wonderful plan of salvation qualifies on all counts. It's absolutely perfect. You know, I'd like to suggest to you this morning that God himself couldn't have devised a plan of salvation in any other way. The true gospel of the grace of God is the only way it could be. And if you deny that, if you doubt that, come up to me with some other plan that would fit all the requirements. You won't. It's the only way it could ever work out. I tell you, God's love is satisfied, and God's righteousness is satisfied. God's righteousness is satisfied because the penalty has been paid. The price has been paid. And God's love is satisfied because now anybody can come and be saved. So, the psalmist said, mercy and truth have met together, righteousness and peace have kissed each other, the blending of those great attributes of Christ that took place at the cross of Calvary. And then, last time, we mentioned that there are two verses in Romans 4, verses 4 and 5, that say it all, and they say, Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted unto him for righteousness. And I mentioned to you that there were two shockers in those verses. The first shocker is that God saves people who don't work for it. To him that worketh not. And the second shocker in that verse is the only kind of people God saves are the ungodly. To him that worketh not, but believeth on him. Now I've lost the train of thought. To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly. That's it. His faith is counted unto him for righteousness. And do pay attention to that word believe, because this is what makes it available to all. Anybody can believe. There's nothing more sensible than believing your Creator. We mentioned last time that grace is not the same as mercy. Mercy means that you don't get what you deserve. Grace means you get what you don't deserve. And we mentioned that grace is not the same as justice. The judge hands down justice. He delivers the sentence. Grace does more than that. It acquits the guilty. It acquits the guilty. It's really marvelous when you stop to think of it. We mentioned last time that grace is a greater principle than law. Grace says believe. Law says do. Grace says done. It was done on the cross of Calvary. The work is finished. And then we mentioned last time, and here we're coming up to date now, we mentioned last time that in order to appreciate the grace of God, you have to think about four things. You have to think about who Jesus is. You have to think about what he did. You have to think of the type of people for whom he did it. And you have to think of the results that have come to us as a result of that. You have to think about who Jesus is. The eternal Son of God, the one who dwelt with God the Father and was the object of angelic worship from eternity past. The one who shares all the attributes of God and is equal with God the Father in every respect. The creator who designed, look, he designed those hinges in my little finger. The one who gives us breath at this very minute. Take a breath. That's because God gave you that breath. The Lord Jesus Christ gave you that breath. He's the sovereign who has all power, all knowledges in all places at one and the same time. He's the holy one to whom sin is utterly foreign. The one who's rich in glory, majesty, everything desirable. And what he did, he came down to this place of sin and woe and he died on a criminal's cross as a substitute for sinners. He suffered as no one has ever suffered. We mentioned last time how they kicked him, they abused him, they covered his face with shame and with spitting, with the song of the drunkard. They finally roped him in and took him off to a mock trial and finally they led him out to the cross and suspended between heaven and earth. He died there as a substitute for you and for me. Wonderful, wonderful Jesus. The savior did not deserve the vile treatment he received. And we're not worth the stupendous price he paid for us. If you and I today could really understand Calvary, our hearts would dissolve in thankfulness and our eyes would melt with tears. It's really amazing, amazing grace. For whom did he do it? He did it for ungodly sinners. He did it for ungrateful wretches. He did it for undeserving worms. We were lost, helpless, hopeless, hell deserving sinners. We richly deserved hell and there was nothing lovable about us and we didn't want anybody to interfere with our lives. We desired not the Lord or a knowledge of his ways and we just thought of him as a big cosmic brother who was trying to interfere with our own plans. That's what we thought. I think I mentioned that at our very best, the best that could be said about us, our righteousness, were filthy rags. The worst that could be said about us is that we were capable of murdering our God. Now who but God would ever bother with people like that, would you tell me? I tell you, it passes understanding. No one can know the depths of depravity of the human heart. You read it in the newspapers every day and you think, I thought I had read everything and now I read something else. You think you're shock proof and then something else comes out, the depravity of the human heart. Tom and Angelo see it all the time in their work as police officers. Enormous, really, when you start to think of it. Now here you have to distinguish between the way we look at people and the way God looks at us. You see, you might have nice neighbors and kindly, amiable people and nice people, nice people to have as neighbors. You have pretty decent folks. We use that expression, decent neighbors, but that's not the way God looks at us. God sees us as we actually are. He sees that what we are inside is worse than anything we've ever done. The only reason we haven't done it is we're afraid of the police. That's the only reason. We would do it if we thought we could get away with it. That's the kind of people that the Lord Jesus died for. And I think what makes it so remarkable is that we're so insignificant. We're not even amoeba in this universe. I mentioned this morning, already five billion people in the world. What is one among five billion people? And yet God's love is individual to every one of us. Marvel. What it means for the believer. Now we're really exploring new territory. I said, you have to know who Jesus is, what he did, the ones he did it for, and now what it means for us. Now let me just say here that grace could have done a lot less than it did for us. God could have said, well, I love these people. I'll send my son to die for them and just deliver them going to hell. Period. Huh? Period. They'll live their lives on earth. They'll die. That's all. Period. That would have been good. That would have been great. God wasn't satisfied with doing that. God wasn't satisfied until he was assured that he would have us in heaven for all eternity as the bride of his lovely son. It boggles the mind when you start to think of it. He wasn't satisfied with any halfway measure. He gave the greatest gift at Calvary, and now there's no lesser gift that he would withhold from us. Therefore, the moment sinners received the Lord Jesus, first of all, Mike, they are, number one, recipients of eternal life. Recipients of eternal life. Now, eternal life is not the same as endless existence, because everybody has endless existence. But eternal life is a quality of life. It's the life of Christ. It's the life of God in us. Nothing less than union with God. Adam didn't have it before he sinned. Adam didn't have eternal life. As long as Adam didn't sin, he would have kept on living on the earth. But he had no hope of heaven. Unfallen Adam, no hope of heaven, whatever. He did not have eternal life. But we have it through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Eternal life comes by the new birth and is deathless. Secondly, we're forgiven. By a miracle of grace, by a miracle of grace, God forgives and removes sins as far as the east is from the west, never to remember them again. You tell me that isn't wonderful. I often think of that man back east, and on his tombstone, there's only one word on his tombstone, forgiven. I can relate to that. That was a good word to put on it, wasn't it? It just captures something of the wonder of it all, that a sinner on his way to hell could be saved by the grace of God, and all his sins wiped out. All the charges against the penitent were nailed to the cross. A poet, a hymn writer named Samuel Gandy wrote, I hear the accuser roar of ills that I have done. I know them well, and thousands more. Jehovah findeth none. That's the miracle of forgiveness. When a person is saved, God can look down, he can't see a single sin on the believer for which to punish him with eternal death. Can't see it. Can't see it. He's forgiven them all. Third, redeemed. These are all some of the marvelous blessings that God showers upon us. Unfallen Adam didn't know what it meant to be redeemed. And neither did the angels. Neither did the unfallen angels. Angels never felt the joy that our salvation brings. It's true. Redeemed. What does it mean? It means that at the infinite cost of the blood of God's well-beloved son, God's unique son, we're bought back from the slave market of sin. What a price, huh? What a price to pay for you and for me. It's enough to make us worshipers for all eternity. No purchase ever made in history was as costly as this one. None was ever as mind-boggling as this. What a wonderful exchange. Never have so many people owed so much to one person. As the redeemed of all the ages owe to the wonderful Lord Jesus Christ. Saved. Saved. Not only are believers delivered from eternal punishment in hell, they're saved as far as this present evil world is concerned. That's a miracle. That's a miracle to think of Christians going through this sift pool known as the world and being preserved for God's heavenly kingdom. We're saved from the penalty of sin right now. We're being saved from the very power of sin, those who are believers in the Lord Jesus. And then, of course, as I said before, God won't be satisfied until we're saved from the very presence of sin. We shall see him. We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Next, accepted in the beloved. Adam never knew what it was. Unfallen Adam never knew what it was to be accepted in the beloved. What does it mean? It means God now sees the believer, not in himself, but in Christ. And that clothes him with all the acceptability of Christ. God sees him as he sees his own son. Really, it's too much. It's too much, friend. But that's what the Bible says. God sees my Savior, then he sees me in the beloved, accepted and free. It really means that anyone who's saved by the grace of God stands before God in all the acceptability of his beloved son. And that's what makes us fit for heaven, because we're in Christ. Not because we're in ourselves. Forget it. Because we're in Christ. In the person of the Lord Jesus, but it's true of everyone who is cleansed by the precious blood of Christ, he's complete in Christ. What does it mean? It means he doesn't need anything else as far as fitness for heaven is concerned. Christ is his fitness for heaven. Marvelous. If a person has Christ, he's absolutely eligible for the Father's house. On a scale of zero to ten, the believer is ten as far as fitness for heaven is concerned. You like it? I do, too. And I mentioned this before, but I mention it again. Loved as Christ is loved. The Father loves us with the same love with which he loves his son. This is an awesome truth, and it really deserves to be better known and better believed and better enjoyed. And then we're justified. Wow, getting better all the time, isn't it? We're justified. When an unrepentant sinner stands before God, there's only one verdict that's guilty. He's unrepentant, unbelieving, and guilty. But you know, when a repentant believer stands before God, the whole picture changes. The whole picture changes. God is still the judge, but the Lord Jesus is the defense attorney. And you know, there's something special about having a defense attorney who's the son of the judge. Now, it wouldn't work in life today. It wouldn't work today. That defense attorney would have to excuse himself, you know, conflict of interest. Why? Because we're not righteous people. That's why. Because his mind wouldn't be pure in the matter. But it works wonderfully with the Lord Jesus, because he's absolutely sinless and perfect in all his ways. And he is our defense attorney. And you know, when the charges against me are read, the Lord Jesus steps forward in the court, and he holds out his hands, and there are the prints of Calvary in his hands. And he said, I took care of that. Charge that to my account. I took care of his sins 1,900 years ago at the cross of Calvary. You know what the judge says? Justify. What does justified mean? It means acquitted. Acquitted. What does acquitted mean? It means the records in the court are as if there never was any charge against me. That's what it means. People say justified means just as if I had never sinned. It doesn't mean that. It doesn't mean that. It's a cute paraphrase of it, but it doesn't mean that. It means acquitted. It means God reckons me to be absolutely righteous. It means God takes his righteousness and clothes me in it. God has made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. God says, I reckon that man to be righteous. I cannot find a single sin on him. I think it was this heartwarming truth that caused Noelle Tompkins to write, Reach my blessed Savior first. Take him from God's esteem. Prove Jesus bears one spot of sin, and tell me I'm unclean. Wonderful, isn't it? Really wonderful. Sanctified. Sanctified. God not only justifies us, he sanctifies. This is a doctrinal marvel, meaning that when I'm saved, God takes me and sets me apart from the world to belong to himself alone. He puts me in that position. I am sanctified. Now he says, go and live a sanctified life. If he had said to me, look, if you live a sanctified life, you'll be sanctified. I never would have made it, because there's no power there. But he says to me, I sanctify you by my grace. Now you go and live a holy life, and I'll give you the power to do it, and when you do it, I'll reward you for doing it. I can do that. Next, we're served by Christ as our great high priest, as our intercessor, advocate, and helper. This is a wonderful thing. This has to do with my present condition down here in life. I'm weak, I'm stumbling, I'm prone to wander. But you know, there's somebody in heaven right now that's living there for me, and his name is Jesus. He's living at the right hand of God. He's praying for me. And I don't know, I have no way of realizing how much his prayers mean to the fact that I'm still standing here before you today. He's my advocate. You know, Satan has access to heaven, and Satan is the accuser of the brethren day and night. The Lord Jesus is there day and night, and when Satan comes, he's, ah, that McDonald, that rascal. I just undo such and such. I have an advocate there to plead my cause, an intercessor, an advocate, a high priest. I have a high priest up there who's touched with a feeling of my infirmities. I think that's wonderful. You know, he's not just insensitive to it all. No, no. He's been through it, sin apart. He's been through a lot more than I've ever been through. And I can have boldness to come to him, my great high priest, and know his sympathy, and know his consolation, and know his encouragement. Day and night there he's living. And that's what it means when we read in Romans, we're saved by his life. We're saved by his present life at the right hand of God. Not by the life that he lived on earth. We're saved by the death he died on earth. But we're saved by his present life at the right hand of God. Next, we're indwelt. Indwelt. And this is a marvelous thing. Really, I wouldn't believe it if I didn't see it in the Bible. But the moment I trusted Christ and say, one of the persons of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit came and actually dwelt in this body, this body of dust, this body of flesh, and blood, and bones, it becomes a temple of the Holy Spirit of God. It's really amazing, but it's true, that this frail body becomes the temple of the Holy Spirit. And he's there as the power for holiness, for worship, and for service. And incidentally, he's responsible for the startling change that comes into the life of a person when he's genuinely saved. The minute a person is saved, the Holy Spirit is there working, working, working to conform that person to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. Wonderful, isn't it? We don't realize that. We see a person saved, and boy, he was just born running and died. He's living a life he never lived before. How do you account for it? The Holy Spirit. Then, next, we're baptized by the Spirit into the body of Christ. This ministry of the Holy Spirit makes all believers members of the most marvelous society in the universe, the body of Christ, the church. You know, a lot of lonely people in the world today, a lot of sad, tired people in the world today, they become a member of the church, made up of all true believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. I tell you, there's nothing like it. Christ is the head, and all Christians are fellow members of the body. And it's impossible for me to stand here today and tell you the close bonds that unites believers to Christ and to one another. Some here have been in the armed forces, and all of a sudden you meet a fellow believer. It's just marvelous. I can't tell you what it's like to meet a fellow. You don't care what denomination he belongs to. It doesn't make a difference. It's just the fact that he's redeemed by the precious blood of Christ. And I travel all over the world, and you meet people, and this happened within the last two weeks. You meet people, and you've never known them before, and you're with them an hour, and you feel as if you'd known them forever. That's it. What is that all about? Well, it's the fact that we've been baptized by the Holy Spirit and placed in the body of Christ, the church. There's no fellowship like it. There's no fellowship like it. Seals. You mean, has grace done all of this? Yeah, grace has done all of this. The Holy Spirit is given to us as a seal. Mike, you don't realize how much I appreciate this. When I have to speak and manipulate those overhead transparencies, I get all flustered, and it just means so much to have you there doing it. It does. I'm sincere when I say that. Another ministry of the Holy Spirit, he's given to us as a seal. What do you mean? Well, a seal is a mark of ownership and security, and everyone here today who's saved by the grace of God, given the Holy Spirit, and you know, that marks you as belonging to God. I'm glad he didn't burn a brand into our flesh, you know. That would be a seal, too. He didn't do that. No, no. The Holy Spirit is the seal, and the very fact that you have the seal today, if you're a believer, means you're going to be in heaven. It's just as sure as that. Sealed unto the day of redemption. And the day of redemption is the day when redemption will be completed, you'll get your glorified body. And closely associated with that is the earnest. The Holy Spirit is given to us in earnest, and earnest is a down payment. It means that the whole thing is going to come sooner or later. It's an engagement ring, the earnest. The engagement ring is the pledge that marriage will follow. Well, when we get saved, God gives us the Holy Spirit. It means that the whole inheritance is going to be ours someday, and that we will be the bride of the Lamb for all eternity. Then we have the anointing. The Holy Spirit is given to us as an anointing, and I think there are two principal thoughts in connection with the anointing. One is the teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit. It's wonderful how when a person gets saved, I'm speaking genuinely, I'm not speaking about nominal believers, when a person is genuinely saved, he gets an inflow by the Holy Spirit, he gets an inflow of knowledge that enables him, he gets perception, enables him to tell the difference between truth and error. I want to tell you, when a person is saved, he can go and turn the radio on and listen to that, and he can tell whether it's the voice of the good shepherd or whether it's a false shepherd. Okay, that's the anointing. And I think it means, too, equipment for service. Like the Old Testament, you know, kings were anointed, priests were anointed, prophets were anointed, oil was sprinkled on their heads, invested for service. I think that you have those two thoughts in connection with the anointing in the New Testament. Singled out for service. Then, access to God in prayer. This is marvelous when you start living it. Sometimes, do you ever feel a prayer is a burden? Well, you know, sometimes it's awfully hard. Hard to have a meaningful prayer like that. But just think of it. Think of this, that because I'm a believer in the Lord Jesus, I have instant access to the throne room of the universe, where the sovereign of the universe is sitting there upon the throne, and I can talk to him. It's enough to blow you away. I can't talk to Clinton. I can't talk to a lot of other people. But I can talk to God, the Father. Instant and constant access to the sovereign of the universe. He neither slumbers nor sleeps. He that keepeth Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. So I can go and sleep at three o'clock in the morning. It's okay. It's okay. He's there, ready to listen to me. And this privilege doesn't come cheaply, you know. That privilege was paid for by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Bernard of Clairvaux suggested centuries ago, let's pray as if taken up and presented before his face on the highest throne, where thousands of thousands are serving him. And visualize heaven, and think of the angelic beings that are serving him, and the saints of past ages that are worshiping him, and just think of little you and little me being able to go right in there and talk with the Lord. In any language, it doesn't make any difference. You say, but my prayers are so unworthy. It doesn't make any difference. They'll all be perfect when they reach him. Perfect access to the throne of God. You say, that's enough, McDonnell. Quit. Couldn't be any more than that. It is more than that. We have a new citizenship. A new citizenship. That's a marvelous thing to me. From an earthly citizenship to a heavenly citizenship. People who were once earth dwellers, they're now aliens and pilgrims and strangers here. And we recognize a new ruler and new higher laws. I mean, we're still citizens down here. We still obey the authorities here, but we have something far greater than that. We realize that our old country is doomed to destruction, and our new country is eternal. We look for a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. But you know, salvation involves not only a new citizenship, but a change of parentage where it becomes children of God. Children of God. A new birth certificate, friends. I like this. A new birth certificate, and it lists God as our father. You like it? Think of it. Not the president, not the son or daughter of a president or a king or a senator or a judge or something like that, but a child of the creator and sustainer of the universe. No honor could be higher than that. Grace did this. I think grace could have done a lot less. Could have just saved us from going to hell, period. Annihilation. Could have. That would have been wonderful. But no, God couldn't be satisfied with that. We're not only children of God, but we're sons of God. They're not the fame in the Bible, you know. A son of God means that you're brought into the family as an adult, as a mature person, with all the privileges and responsibilities of sonship. We're no longer treated in the family as slaves, as minor children bossed about, but we're treated with the liberty of freeborn sons and daughters. You say, couldn't be any more. It is. Heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. Heirs. Any of you folks looking for somebody to die so you can get an inheritance? I tell you, don't spend your inheritance before you get it down here. There's many slip twixt the cup and the lip, and I know a lot of people that were expecting big inheritance, and they never got it. But, dear friend, the believer in the Lord Jesus is an heir of God and a joint heir with Jesus Christ. Just think of the assets. Just think of God's balance sheet. All his wealth. Dear friends, you and I are heirs of that. Heirs of it all. No eye has ever seen, no ear has ever heard, never into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for them that love him. Never. And you can't understand it today, and I'm just struggling for words today to even describe how wonderful it is. If you could measure it with figures, what's the biggest number in the world, Rick? What's the biggest number? What's a zillion? They have a word, but I can't think of what it is. But anyway, your computer would really blow up if you ever tried to compute the wealth of God the Father. The totals would be astronomical, and yet they are the measure of the inheritance that God has reserved for those who love him. I'm not going to hurry. There's still more. You say, it can't be more. Yeah, there's more. I've never even mentioned the joy that comes to those who belong to Christ. I've never mentioned the peace, the satisfaction, and there's more. Always more. Shall we pray? Thank you very much. Father, we just thank you. We feel tongue-tied when we try to talk about the grace of God. What wonderful thing it is that you should take such unworthy people and save them by your grace and destine them to eternal glory. Help us to take it in more and more and to bring to you the honor, glory, and majesty that so richly belong to you. We ask in the Savior's name. Amen.