In this sermon, the preacher focuses on the concept of the "manifold grace of God" mentioned in 1 Peter 4:10. The preacher emphasizes that this grace is a revelation of God's infinite resources and strength, demonstrated through His pains and sufferings for humanity. The preacher highlights that grace is not something we have to seek out, but rather it seeks us out. The sermon emphasizes the importance of yielding to this glorious grace and understanding that it encompasses all aspects of God's character, including righteousness, love, and truth.

We'll turn to scripture anyway, and let the Lord speak to our hearts. In Peter, chiefly, I want to stay, perhaps all the time, in his two epistles really, but not to spend much time in the second, but just to remind you of what he says in the last verse of the second epistle. I expect that you know this and could quote it. The last verse of Peter's second epistle. But grow in grace, and in the knowledge. Grow in grace. And what a marvellous thing this is, beloved. It's a wonderful way to end up a letter, isn't it? And of course, really, I suppose that Peter had got to the place where he couldn't really think of much else but this grace of God to him. And not only to him, but to us all. It's a wonderful thing, you know, to grow in grace. And of course, you can't grow out of it. You know that, don't you? You get out of grace and you won't grow. You can only grow in grace. Paul had to remind the Galatians, if you remember this, at the end of the third chapter, the second chapter, he had to remind them that they'd fallen from grace. They'd fallen from grace. And of course there'd been no growth. There'd only been a tremendous crash. And there'd been a smashing up of everything. And so I want to come with you then into this marvellous first letter of Peter. And it may surprise you to know that the word grace is used almost as much by Peter in this little epistle as anywhere else in any other book of the Bible. There aren't many books in the Bible where the word grace, or its connoted words, are used more than in this lovely epistle. And I suppose also then, it may not surprise you either, that the word suffering is really the key word to the epistle. The word suffering. I remember when I spent a time in Maidstone jail, for conscience's sake, this epistle was very wonderful to me. For I was suffering for conscience's sake, little more than conscience's sake, but so far as the word was concerned, it was conscience's sake. It was the direct word of God to me. And to me you can't speak opposites, but there it is. And I knew what it was to be in this position. And God opened this epistle to me those years ago, and therefore it's been a precious one to me since. Grace. Are you surprised if you read a verse like this, say, in the fifth chapter of this first epistle? Verse 10. The God of all grace. Amen. Well, that's right. If He's the God of grace, He's the God of all grace. And that's a wonderful thing. And He's all a God of grace. He's marvellous. The truth about grace, David, is that it's so wonderful, so many-hued, many-sided, it has heights, lengths, depths, and breadths. And it's applied to so many things. These early men and women of God, they could speak like this, the God of all grace. There was grace sufficient in God for everything. Amen. Everything, beloved. There's grace in God for everything. Not just everything that He has to do and say, but everything that happens to you, or what you have to do. Oh, grace is a marvellous, marvellous quality in God. You know, it's rather stupid sometimes if we get over-analytical in our thinking and we isolate something like a word, like grace or righteousness or something else, and we go in for great analysis of it, and we set it out all beautifully for the mind, and then we turn to something else, and we analyse that as though that's something different. Whereas there's nothing different about any of the characteristics of God. They're all one thing, but it's only an application of the whole along one certain line. If you're going to talk about righteousness, you can't leave out love, you can't leave out grace, you can't leave out truth, you can't leave out anything. Here's one of the tragedies of over-stimulation of the mind along the lines of mere teaching in college or school or university. It tends to do that sort of thing. God is a wonderful whole. Beloved, everything of God is poured into grace. It's the application, the concentration of all God, all his love, all his power, everything. He's just simply wonderful. I know that the, that hymn didn't get to the top of the Pops because it was a hymn about grace. It simply was a tune caught on. Amazing grace. But when it was written, beloved, it didn't have that tune because that tune is an American tune and it was written by an Englishman, very much an Englishman. And he didn't know that tune. It was just the tune that's caught on. That's all. I only know it's an American tune. I'll tell you how I know some time ago of when it was. My wife and I went for a holiday in Bournemouth and you know that Bournemouth is a very wonderful place. They provide free entertainment. You can listen to the band. And so we listened to a military band. They have some uses. Not to pep up armies. That's their wrong use. It's the wrong use of music. Any more than to pep up dancers. That's the wrong use of music too. Tambourines are good enough for anybody to dance to. We'll ask Miriam. We'll see her one day. But the whole, the whole thing about it, beloved, is that he, he announced this. You see this band master, he said he scoured everywhere and he discovered this was an American tune. That's how I happened to know that. But the words were written by this great man of God, John Newton, who found out grace, so amazed him. I don't know whether it amazes you. I don't know whether you've really tasted, drank deeply, experienced richly of this great grace of God, have you? I wonder if you have. It's very hard for us to get out of our legalistic thinking. We just don't understand this great grace of God. They, sometimes I wonder whether they understood more about it than the Old Testament. Although if you, say, pick up a Young's or a Strong's Concordance you'll find there are very few references to grace in the Old Testament. But even though there aren't many references to grace in the Old Testament, we're told these marvellous things about it. Moses, for instance, who wrote the first five books of the Bible, and was the man of law, and we call it the Mosaic law, it was he who said that Noah found grace in the Lord. Noah found grace. And you may also remember that Moses wrote about himself. If now I have found grace in thy sight, he wrote. And it wasn't that grace didn't exist in God before the coming of the Lord Jesus, because we read in the New Testament that the law was given by Moses, but the grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Because they didn't write much about it, it's simply because they were under a legal system, that's why. And everything in them was based on a law which spoke of equations, you see. Equality, an eye for an eye, that was the basis of it all. Always law, and I am so thrilled, beloved, that I come under a different law, it's the law of our Lord Jesus Christ. If I take somebody's eye then Jesus Christ would give me his, you know, to replace that eye with. I haven't got to do anything about it. You get in what I'm saying to you, I don't mean literally knocking people's eyes out, but what I am trying to say is this, it isn't because the law has changed, it's because that Jesus Christ has fulfilled it. So God doesn't say to me an eye for an eye now, he says, oh I've already got my eye, it's Jesus Christ. You see, that's why you haven't got to supply it. You understand that, don't you? It isn't that tooth for a tooth, I've already got my teeth now in Jesus Christ. Does that sound funny to you? I'm only speaking of the exact basis of equality. There must be equality. That's why Jesus Christ had to come, pay the debt, shed the blood, cry his cries. Oh, he just had to do it, beloved, he just had to do it. But you see, he hadn't come in the old days at all. But nevertheless, men here and there we read of in the scripture, they found grace. Why did they find it? Because it was there to find. It was there to find. It was always there. But you see, in the New Testament, here's the great change, I haven't got to go searching to find grace. The New Testament, beloved, of our Lord Jesus Christ is a revelation of grace abundant, poured out without measure. I haven't got to find it, it finds me. I haven't got to go seeking it out, it seeks out me. This is the marvel of the grace of God. Oh, beloved, what God wants us to do is to yield up to this glorious grace. If we go into the first chapter of this epistle, I just want to move about on the use of the word. This is what we find. Let's start. Well, it's so difficult to, you know, like so many of these great New Testament writers, Peter keeps going on and on and on and on. He doesn't sort of finish at the sentence and then start off again. It's all one glorious outpouring of a mighty river that doesn't seem to know a lot about modern grammar. I'm ever so thrilled about that. That lets me in or out, I don't quite know, it's all according to which viewpoint you take. But the whole tremendous truth is that he's speaking about salvation. Verse nine, the salvation of your souls. The end of the verse. Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently who prophesied of the grace unto you. The words that should come are not in the original. They prophesied of the grace unto you. Isn't it blessed? Well, I hope you've let all these great prophets prophesy unto you, have you? Have you ever let them prophesy to you? Peter says they prophesied to us. But it says they prophesied to Israel. Yeah, they prophesied to Israel all kinds of law and order and devastations and this and that and the other but they prophesied the grace unto us. I hope you've got that. They prophesied the grace unto us. Isn't that a tremendous and glorious thing? They prophesied of the grace unto us. Oh, searching what or what manner of time the spirit of Christ which was in them did signify when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow unto whom it was revealed that not unto themselves but unto us they did minister the things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven and the angels want to look into that. The prophets and the angels they're still searching. The angels too want to look into it. Amen. There are some things they're not even allowed to look into apparently. Isn't that a tremendous thing? This great secret, he said it had been hidden from ages and from generations whether it be generations of men or generations of angels. It doesn't matter this wonderful thing that God has done had been hidden beloved. The prophets prophesied about it. They didn't really understand what they were prophesying about. It was revealed unto them that they were prophesying to us. I reckon that when we see all these old prophets they'll be saying my word what a people you are. Behind all that I was saying to my own people I was talking to you. That's it. The important thing was not the local happening because it's happened and gone. And those generations have died. And the temporary outpourings of wrath or the dispersings or the scatterings or the punishings or the building of temples and knocking them over and all this kind of thing beloved. These have all been local, temporary, necessary. God was building up to the time when he should send his son. But they were speaking to us beloved. Hallelujah. I hope you understand this. This is why the writers of the New Testament helped themselves so liberally to the writings of the Old Testament. They take a bit here and they take a bit there and they weave them into a marvellous pattern of an unfolding of this great thing that was in the heart of God being poured out. Now it's grace, grace, grace for God has exacted the fullness of the demands of the law finally from Christ, his blessed son. Now because the payment's all been made for us before ever we were born or before ever we sinned, he's gracious to us. He hasn't forsaken his righteousness. He hasn't turned his back to back upon the exactitude of the law. He fulfilled it all. Hallelujah. He got more in Jesus Christ than all the sinners of the world that have ever been have robbed him of. Yes. Amen. You take this to heart. God has been repaid in Christ for what Adam stole. Hallelujah. We don't understand, beloved, the glory of Jesus. We don't understand the wonderfulness of Christ. We don't see the glory of the sending of the son. We haven't comprehended it. It's beyond us because we can only think in proscribed terms in the mind. We cannot understand this wealth of love. We don't really take it in that he is God and that God was manifest in the flesh. We subscribe to it with our tongues. We don't understand it. But oh, beloved, it's true. And we then are the publishers of the grace of God. Amen. I tried to think a while. I went aside for a little time, quiet this afternoon, and I tried to think of the immensity of this great word in the second chapter. Listen to this about the Lord Jesus Christ and that there are at least two lovely things about Jesus Christ set forth, and many of them are here, but two lovely major things that are set forth about Jesus Christ in this epistle. One, of course, you know, it's all included in this word sufferings. When he testified beforehand in verse 11 of chapter 1, just to flick you back to get the connection, the sufferings of Christ. Now, there are at least two basic things about the sufferings of Jesus Christ. One immediately springs to mind, and that is, of course, Calvary. But if we think of Calvary as the only sufferings of Jesus Christ, we're wrong. There were sufferings of Jesus Christ before he went to heaven. the suffering of persecution, the suffering of this. And it's in this sense in which he's speaking in the second chapter. Here it is then, verse 21. Christ suffered for us, leaving us the example. There are the sufferings of Jesus Christ, my example, as he lived the perfect, sinless, righteous, loving, gentle, oh, what can I say upon him? This life of Jesus Christ that is summed up in the utterance of John Baptist in one way when looking at him upon the second occasion when he called him the Lamb of God, it said that he says behold, looking at him as he walked, he said behold the Lamb of God, you see. The day previously he looked upon him coming down into death in Jordan. Figuratively, Jesus Christ went down into death in Jordan and rose again in resurrection. That's what baptism always speaks of. And there he was, the dying Lamb, the Lamb that died for the sin of the world. Oh, hallelujah. But then there was also the Lamb that walked. And I promise you this, that if you walk on this earth as you say you are a believer, you've got to walk as a Lamb. It's no good you talking about Jesus and Calvary if you don't walk as a Lamb. And you'll have to suffer. And Jesus Christ in this as is an example. If I may make a reference back, I went to prison because I believed I should walk as a Lamb. I don't believe Lambs pull triggers on guns or press buttons to drop bombs. I don't believe they do. You may. We won't follow up out there. But I've got to be straight and honest with you before God. I believe it's all part of our gospel. But in verse 21, here unto were ye called because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow his steps, who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth, who when he was reviled, reviled not again. When he suffered, he threatened not, but committed himself to him that judges righteously, who his own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree. As I say, this afternoon, I got a silent one. I tried to think on my knees before the Lord what that meant. Jesus bore our sins in his own body on the tree, when we hadn't even committed them. How could you do that, Lord? You bore my sins, and I hadn't even committed them. In his own body on the tree. I don't understand that. I believe it, you know, foolishly enough in the eyes of men. I believe ever so many things I can't understand. There are lots of people who call themselves Christians, will only believe the things they can understand. I thought of this at the beginning of the meeting. You'll think I've got a stupid mind. It does all sorts of things, my mind. I trust it's always under the control of the spirit. I'd love to think it always was. But we sang that first hymn. I didn't choose it for this, though I did choose the first hymn. I just wanted to sing a hymn of love and worship to Jesus. And it says, At whose supreme command creation rose in form complete. Do you believe that? You're sure you do? You're sure you aren't swayed by this tendency to evolution that's in the best Christian books, believed by conservatives? Are you sure you aren't swayed by these things? Do you believe that creation rose in form complete? Well, I do. I stood there and I said, Lord, I believe that. I believe that. Utterly, I believe that. I don't care what they say they dig out of the earth. Well, you can sort of write me off as a total loss, but I believe that. You see, I believe lots of things I don't understand. I don't understand. They say they dig out of this and they do that and they do the other and all this sort of thing. Well, let them keep digging. They won't find any stars down there. If you look up, it's the day star arising in your heart. That's what Peter talks about in his second epistle. The whole glorious thing about it, beloved, if you're prepared to be called a fool, you'll get on very well with the rest of the church. The whole thing about it, beloved, is that you and I are called upon to believe these things. He did bear your sins in his body on the tree. Think of it. And you may think, well, there are some I'm going to yet haven't committed that I feel I'm going to. You've got the wrong approach. You've got the wrong approach. Praise the name of the Lord. What a marvelous thing it is, beloved, to belong here in spiritual reality and utter truth. This grace of the Lord, to yield to grace, beloved. Do you know what you'll do if you yield to grace? You'll change, utterly change. If you yield to grace, beloved, you'll think differently about everybody else in the world. You will. If you'll yield to grace. If before you criticize another, you yield to grace, you'll not criticize another one in your life. If we take up what the Lord has spoken to us tonight, think of the grace of God to you. Just think of it. Just think of it. And he doesn't talk condescendingly as though I've had to endure a terrible lot from you for the last ten years, my man. He doesn't talk like that, though if you start to think, that's what you'll think that he's had to do. This is the wonder of his grace. Isn't it? Do you believe this, beloved? Do you believe this, this great grace of God? Look at it. Let's read these words again in the first chapter. He says, they prophesied of the grace that should come unto us. Searching what, or what manner of time the spirit of Christ which was in them did signify when it testified. The spirit of Christ was in them testifying for this. He hadn't become a bodily Christ yet, but the spirit of Christ was there inspiring the prophets and testifying this, this, this, this. Didn't tell them what, or what manner of time. Oh, hallelujah. What manner of time this was, beloved? Eh? Why, what manner of time it ended ages and started a new age? It was the dividing of time, so that we speak about BC and AD. What manner of time should this be? What is it he's talking about? Glory be to the name of the Lord, and the glory that should suffer, that should follow. Amen. Grace followed by glory. Oh, praise God. Amen. Grace followed by glory. Hallelujah. And here's the wonder of it, beloved, that this grace that God's given to us has come from Christ glorified. Christ glorified. It's glorious grace that we've received. Isn't it? Glorious grace. That's why we really receive grace, it thrills you. When you really receive grace, it's glory in you. When forgiveness really comes, you don't sort of get up from your knees looking like a little goobrious, I don't know what and the other. Oh, your face changes, your tone changes, your walk changes, everything changes when the blessed spirit of God comes and applies this marvelous grace of Jesus Christ to you. It goes right through your whole being. You don't have to exhort people to sort of buck up and look cheerful now, you say you're a believer or something like that. And grace, grace, beloved. This is the marble of grace, grace is the doing power, grace is, it's done, grace is the breaking power, grace is the freeing power, grace is the loving power, grace is everything, don't you see? You don't slave along with tobacco plague in you and drugs seeping through you know go along can't break with this and can't break with that when grace this marvelous grace of the lord jesus christ comes into your heart and into your life this is what grace is this is what it is amen nobody has to apologize for grace you can't continue your old life when grace has come to you in power why it's it's so tremendous it's grace all the way look here in chapter 2 it says if so be that you've tasted that the lord is gracious my hallelujah once you've got a taste of grace beloved what do you what do you have more why i had some jam for tea i got the taste of it i'm going to have a lot more i tell you i won't tell you what sort it is yeah amen i don't care if no one else in our house eats it there aren't many of us in our house these days i'm going to eat it i've got a taste of it beloved glory be to god i won't tell you what the flavor is or anything like that but you see once you've tasted what do you say more more more more isn't isn't that the truth well that's what's written in your bibles talk about tasting babies tasting that's what they say they don't say it they say milk milk milk more more more we are getting a surfeit of babies in the fellowship these days hallelujah they're always crying out for more they've tasted they've tasted beloved they don't quite know what the taste is but we do because when we're born again we're born with all our faculties operative our understanding quickened it's got to be filled up with a lot more but never mind beloved we know what we're on praise the name of the lord have you tasted that the lord is gracious i've tasted the lord is gracious beloved i've tasted that the lord is gracious and when a man has tasted that the lord is gracious he then becomes a proper preacher of the gospel and he can't preach it unless he's tasted that the lord is gracious unless he can sort of fling up his arms and say oh it's all gone amen amen and forgiveness and understanding on god's part is the very order of life that's what it is not licensed to sin again but oh the glorious glorious concept of this gracious god that if i ask him for a crumb he'll give me the bread of heaven everything that's right that's it that's grace glory be to god if i ask him for milk he said you have a land flowing with it praise god how about that praise god that's what the lord wants us to see this abundance oh hallelujah i believe that one of the tricks of the enemy beloved is to keep us from an understanding of what god means when he uses this word grace there is that which would make us use it as license for sin saying it's all right i can get forgiven there is that which would do that that's in the enemy but there is that which keeps us from misunderstanding what it is in its truth we are all beloved to know the grace of god as it is this is this is the thing the true grace of god look at it in the fifth chapter here's old peter speaking he says by sylvanus in verse 12 a faithful brother unto you as i suppose i've written briefly exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of god wherein ye stand oh beloved oh glory of course when you're a baby you're carried and you taste the lord is gracious but you've got to get up and stand in grace hallelujah glory that's where i stand standing in grace oh do you stand in grace you don't stand in your own power beloved do you no you don't stand in your own gifts or abilities or accomplishments do you you stand in grace amen grace grace grace grace grace oh if we could only shout it to everybody they wouldn't understand if we did they don't know what it means and how shall they know without a preacher and how shall they preach and as they understand what they're talking about hallelujah oh it's so marvelous to be in this great grace of god everything's in grace he starts the epistle this way we've looked at the end we sometimes do things upside down about the front but here is the beginning of the epistle listen peter an apostle of jesus christ to the strangers scattered throughout pontus galatia capadocia asia and by philia elect according to the foreknowledge of god the father through sanctification of the spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of jesus christ grace unto you and peace be multiplied hallelujah you oh i'm one of the chosen ones amen brother grace to you see that's only marvelous one of the chosen chosen grace to you if anybody needs grace it's the chosen of god they're the ones that need grace hallelujah for he's chosen us for something beloved i tell you and the only way that we can be what he wants us to be and we've got to be what he wants us to be and i hope that everyone's saying i long to be what he wants me to be then you're needing grace and much peace praise god grace be to you grace be to you what for you can be everything god wants you to be by grace you can have everything god wants you to have by grace you can achieve the highest by grace nothing hold and back from you by grace nothing grace is giving giving why grace is not just giving so much as flowing oh it's more than flowing it's cascading it's outpouring that grace grace nobody can find an excuse to fall nobody can find an excuse to sin nobody can find an excuse to go back nobody can find an excuse not to have everything that god has for them because he's not cracking a whip he says grace grace grace blessed be the name of the lord oh that some voice would tell me this all the day long oh that in subliminal ways in the night a voice would speak it into my mind grace grace grace you understood what it's all about it's god tearing himself apart it's god bleeding on a cross it's god taking sin it's god removing all the obstructions it's god being more than i was going to say god is that possible yeah because he became a man and that's more than the devil thought he could ever be and do it was the miracle of all miracles until calvary that god became a man and then hallelujah you see god can do it so wonderful you do know the grace of god don't you grace is that which comes and whispers to you grace is that which comes and says i forgive you it's all right it's all right grace comes and says have you fallen let me pick you up grace is that which says no no you don't deserve it what you deserve is my love let me lift you up the devil says you deserve that no you don't i reckoned that you deserved this listen i'm elect according to the poor knowledge of god god knew what he wanted for me way back there in eternity i i can be all that god wants me to be i want to have all that god has to pour upon me that's it it's grace which says it's not the great big accusatory voice that says this it's grace that says it listen be holy be holy he says grace says i can be yes yes grace says i can be grace is more than i can think listen i've got to have this grace in such abundance beloved i'm looking now into the fourth chapter and as i look into this great fourth chapter this is what i read verse 10 as every man hath received the gift even so minister the same one to another as good stewards of the manifold grace of god oh manifold grace whatever does that mean don't quote the greek to me because that won't tell me anymore the manifold grace of god his infinite resources his showing of me something new when i thought that i'd come to an end his revelation of something more of his strength deeper takings into his pains and his sufferings for me an exposition to my heart of what calvary means when i think i need to know something more when i've got to go on with the lord and i've got to go on for he's left me an example that i've got to follow in his steps grace comes and just shows me how i care oh grace grace marvelous the manifold grace of god have you received the gift because that's how the verse starts it says as every man hath received the gift what's the gift i i said we'd practically stay in peter but we'll go we'll just slip back to to paul we'll see what paul says shall we this is in port romans chapter five hmm are you ready to look down there then in romans 5 not as by one that sinned verse 16 so is the gift for the judgment was by one to condemnation but the free gift is of many offenses under justification for if by one man's offense death reigned by one much more they that receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by jesus christ wonderful the gift of righteousness that's one or you've got it in the sixth chapter you've got the gift of god is eternal life through jesus christ our lord that's the last verse of the next chapter these are wonderful things or if you go back again to peter we could keep quoting these things but look here it says above all things in verse 8 of chapter 4 have fervent love among yourselves for love shall cover the multitude of sins use hospitality one to another without grudging as every man hath received the gift what's the gift you've received beloved hey what's this connection with hospitality hey well don't you know that's what you've received from god hospitality don't you know he's opened up everything he is he's given you hospitality what does what's hospitality well hospitality is if i come to look at your door and i look like an old tramp who hasn't shaved for six months and hasn't had a change of clothing for six years and no boots on the feet and got an old stick with a little sort of red spotted handkerchief tied on the back and i'm evidently under drugs and i tell you i've got no money and you say where did you get your drugs from then and all the lot of it you see that you open your day said come in our blessed of the lord come on sit here there's the best bed would you like there to sleep in you might advise me to take a bath first i think that's reasonable that's what god does he grants hospitality but he says have a bath first that's right it's right sounds funny but it's right jesus said he that's had the bath that is bathed needeth only to wash his feet that's what he said that's right so that's the truth you've received hospitality of the lord you've received more than forgiveness don't you see this you've got everything god's got beloved everything everything son all that i have is thine that's what the father said to the son all that i have is thine amen have you received the gift don't you be so niggardly and so small and mean and narrow that all you want is just a little bit for them for the measure of what you give is the measure of what you've received your attitude to me is your attitude to god what you do for me you do to god yes yes oh beloved good steward of the manifold grace of god this is one of the secrets of using hospitality for hospitality even is a gift from god when you're at home with god then you're prepared for everybody to be at home with you amen the lord wants that beloved more and more and more this manifold grace it supplies everything what do you need a home here it is what do you need a father well here i am what do you need comfort well there it is what do you need food there it is what do you need clothing there it is what do you need assurance well here it is here it goes this manifold grace of god beloved everything simply everything is supplied by god free of charge absolutely free oh anything that is wrong you can't have that you pour that out on jesus christ for you all that you would think was nasty jesus christ had that you haven't got any nastiness to give to anybody have you you haven't got any nastiness have you you haven't got any roughness to give to anybody have you but have you you haven't got any sneers and contempt to give to anybody have you grace you haven't got this sort of sticking up for your rights have you nothing's there have you you haven't got meanness have you littleness what have you got oh and i think i'm nearly finished and this i want to point you back into the first chapter and this is how we read in this first chapter so lovely to know this verse 13 gird up the loins of your mind be sober and hope to the end for the grace that's to be brought unto you at the revelation of jesus christ think of that beloved the revelation of jesus christ oh when i get the revelation of him what grace art thou lord what love and wonder thou art oh lord when i see thee shall i be ashamed in thy presence i'm going to even have grace given to me then to understand enter into that which i've never understood on earth and as i see things on earth i try to adjust to them not by striving in the flesh of course but by seeking to adjust to them but oh when i see and in its all its fullness old paul had to say he could only see through a glass darkly but what we see beloved that's been so marvelous isn't it for when he comes and it's all revealed when we see the wonder of it all when we somehow beloved the veil's all taken away you know what it is when it happens on earth you've gone you've probably lived through 12 months or two years or something all of a sudden it seems oh i see i see the veil's gone marvelous that that's right isn't it i've heard how many times i heard people say that over and over and over again fancy 12 years they say but i can see it all think of that what a transformation well what's it going to be beloved when you really see it it is revelation of jesus christ shall we want to fade away say oh lord lord there's grace to his grace to you oh he's a savior even in that moment saving me from despair saving me from shame saving me from saying oh lord pardon my littleness grace grace grace why god pardons me without even letting me know he's done it in that sense he doesn't use the word does it yes all right i've run to my pardon you know like you do sometimes with people as well it's a marvelous thing you've done he does it it just becomes a glorious uh oh natural flowing amen i'm so thrilled that i've discovered the ways of god that he forgives me sometimes in a precious way he moves on me sometimes he he does things in me at times without even sort of mentioning it and you discover that you're beginning to learn god that's what it's all about that you should learn god and start to behave yourselves properly as obedient children the verse goes on see gird up the loins of your mind and as obedient children what don't fashion yourselves anymore after the world but fashion yourselves on the lord this is what he's saying so what so that the first great impact that we make upon people is grace you thought i was going to say love didn't you they never understood jesus is love they understood his grace you understand that that's right they didn't understand they understood his grace say well isn't grace love oh yeah but it's love uh in a way no withholding doesn't talk about it moves in my attitude i will do it hallelujah this then is something that the greatness of god's grace to us beloved it's all begun you see beloved it says this that you're receiving the end of your faith even the salvation of your souls and it's this salvation that the prophets inquired and searched diligently that they were when they prophesied to you the grace it was grace for the salvation of your soul amen the saving of my soul from going into the pettinesses the littlenesses the ungracious ways the self-centered actions answering back in the same tone and vein when we're told that when he was reviled he reviled not again and we're to walk in his steps who his own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree you see it's this salvation of the soul from stooping down from being anything less than the soul of jesus christ made manifest amongst men it's this display of tempers attitudes dispositions voice snappiness pride jealousy envy worldliness covertly practiced this saving of us from all this is this salvation of the soul that the prophets have inquired and searched diligently amen how was it done how can a soul be saved into being gracious like god is gracious how can a soul be brought to be like oh that all loving and all bearing all the blame and all taking all the blows and all answering not back and all turning another cheek and all dying dying before you reach calvary because jesus did that he walked the life of Jesus death and that's the only way as he was death dead to the world that he could be life to the world for he brought life from another sphere and another realm this is it beloved i said i was finished but i must make this other reference now i've mentioned it you'll have to forgive me if i need forgiving please be gracious to me i'm still in this same first epistle and in the third chapter and this is what it says it's particularly addressed to husbands and wives bless you sister for all you said tonight you didn't want to go to czechoslovakia because joe said so you went that's a good example to set for the church praise the lord he says this likewise you husbands i hope all the joes and the gyms and jacks are listening to this and anybody whose name begins with a w verse 7 likewise ye husbands dwell with them it wants a bit of doing sometimes these women according to knowledge giving honor unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel and as being heirs together of the grace of life how about that the grace of life this is what it is this is what grace is it's the grace of his life this is the sort of natural way he lives he can't live like that in heaven and not live like that on earth he knew he can't he's he he isn't two personalities he can only be himself hallelujah praise the name of the lord and it's this discovery of jesus it's this that is the real salvation of the soul now therefore then when you read this epistle you are to read it with this in mind you are to read it beloved oh glory be to god you're to read it seeking only that this salvation of the soul should go on and on and on in you for salvation was only begun the day you were converted it was only begun then how has it gone with your soul since then your soul yourself is nothing other than i was going to say a shop window for god except that he's not selling anything it's to be a place of display for jesus that's why you were redeemed that's you weren't redeemed just to stop you going to hell one or two things about hell in this epistle dare i go on what's the time open your eyes unless i should think you can't sleep because you may be praying but i'd rather see your eyes open if i stood here with my eyes shut you'd be wanting to support me in a minute or two at least i've learned the art of not talking myself to sleep if i talk this is why beloved you'll learn in this epistle in twice jesus talks about now listen to this that he went and preached to the spirits in prison and then he went and spoke to the angels not those who'd left their first estate now that's different in jude you must know the things that differ but he went to tartarus and he preached to the angels that were being kept down there too and and he did these tremendous things beloved that they also may for the first time in their existence hear the gospel they heard the gospel too amen don't try and think your way through that you believe things you don't understand i'll promise you this because this is something i've learned myself from a fairly long experience i'll promise you this that if you believe things you don't understand presently you'll come to understand the things you believe did did you get that if you will start by believing the things you don't understand and not thereby and if the if you refuse to believe the things you don't understand you're thereby accusing god of being a traitor and a twister and a deceiver to you and setting yourself up as being greater than god that the bible is to test you it's deliberately phrased and god has withheld so much knowledge just to see whether you will believe him he doesn't want you in heaven if you don't believe him you understand that he doesn't want you with him if you're not going to believe it that's right isn't it i mean how can you live on a on a basis of mutual disbelief you can't live on that you start by believing what you don't understand and my cue it's got to be believing none of this sort of mental ascent what god calls believing is total committal of yourself he doesn't count anything other than that as believing and that's why you dillied and dadded along like a fish on a hook for so long neither in the water or out of it till you commit yourself when you commit yourself total belief then he'll explain now some things he won't explain on earth that doesn't matter but he went and he preached to the spirits in prison bless the name of the lord glory they had to hear the gospel too what's happening to them well what does it matter except that they heard the precious word of god as well now that's lovely isn't it but you've received grace and you know what i'm going to tell you i consider that they received grace too it's the most gracious thing for jesus to go down there and preach the gospel of the spirits in prison don't you think that was grace now don't read more into my statement than i barely said that was grace amen and i reckon we're going to have some surprises if you're gracious enough probably you may want to receive them because if you're a rigid old sort of a battleship then of course you won't want them but if you've got a heart like god if you've got a heart like gaping calvary beloved you'll want everybody and everything to be saved if it's possible that's what you'll want won't you that's right amen there's grace there's grace marvelous is grace and i want more and more of it i need more and more of it i believe i can have more and more of it and i want to say if there's anyone in the room tonight that that isn't clear where sin's concerned there's grace to forgive everything if you'll quit it utterly quit it there's grace for all the beloved there's grace to take you through your present situation and your circumstance there's grace see there's grace for everything hallelujah grace is the best that god has grace is the ringing out of his heart grace is the emptying of his veins grace is the concentration of his mind grace is the power of calvary grace grace grace grace means the defeat of the dead grace means the overcoming of all sin grace means the cleansing from every spot grace means the bringing of god's holiness into me grace is the astounding amazing wonderful miracle power of love applied to my name that's what it is amen glory glory to his name let's pray