Dai Patterson emphasizes the transformative power of God's grace in the sermon 'Washed', using Gideon's story to illustrate how true desperation for God leads to genuine offerings and the necessity of being washed, sanctified, and justified through Christ. He highlights that our sacrifices must be laid on the right foundation, which is Christ, and that the Holy Spirit works through grace to cleanse and renew us. Patterson urges the congregation to recognize their need for a deep, personal washing and to understand that true revival comes from humility and brokenness before God.

I'm going to very briefly recap on this morning, so that the germ of what I said this morning should be recorded on this machine over here, because it was not available this morning. So I'm going to do that, because I'm very obedient. So I'm going to very briefly recap. If you were here this morning, please do not go to sleep. It's very distressing. Let me repeat. We began by noticing that when God came and began to move in the life of Gideon, Gideon responded because God had spoken to him, and spoken in such a way that Gideon said, If now I have found grace in your eyes, please stay where you are. How about that? He spoke to the Lord and almost commanded, Wait there, I'm coming out with my offering. I suggested that perhaps the more desperate we become for God to do something, the more we will speak to him in real genuine terms. We won't pray nice kind of sweet sort of I don't know, prayers that somehow have no real oomph about them, but he said, If I've found grace, wait there. Will you wait there? The Lord said, Yes I will. I want to bring out my offering. And we noted that the offering was a goat, but it was representing Gideon himself. He had to take the flesh, and he had to take unleavened bread, and he put the broth into a pot, and he came out unto the Lord. Who? Do you remember where he was? He was under the oak tree, and he was sitting all good. I'm so pleased that some of you remember. And he was at rest, as God always is, and he brought Gideon into his rest. He brings us out of all our efforts, and all our trying, and all our struggling, and brings us to rest. And he brought Gideon to the tree, the tree which is a place of death, the cross. And there he said to Gideon, Now Gideon, I'm ever so glad you brought your offering. Now I want you to put it on this rock. And God was very specific. In fact, when you read it, you think to yourself, if you kind of read it lightly, why did God speak like this? Because he wanted it to be on that one there, that rock. Not the rock of your choosing, not the rock of my choosing, but on that one. And there's only one foundation upon which your sacrifice and mine is acceptable. So we have to lay it on the rock, that rock. And then he was to pour the broth out. What a wonderful picture of my life and yours. Is yours an outpoured life? Is it? What was he saying? Oh Lord, I wish it were. I want it to be. Increasingly I wish that it were. Well now listen, all you've got to do is to pour yourself out as you are. Because the next thing that happened was most wonderful. Because the Lord took the stash that was in his hand and he touched the meat and he touched the bread that was upon the rock. And we notice, not that fire came through the stash, but the fire rose up out of the rock. Because everything is in Christ the rock. We need to get away from all the emphasis that everything is in the spirit. It is not. In fact there is nothing in the spirit. Now let me finish my sentence before you walk out. There is nothing in the spirit except that which the spirit takes of the things which are Christ's. Because that's exactly what Jesus said he would do. He will take of the things which are mine and he will reveal them unto you. He will not manifest anything which is in and of himself. He will not be the originator of anything. He, the spirit when he comes, will be utterly dependent upon me. Just as I was utterly dependent upon him. And we noted yesterday that Jesus at the outset of his ministry said, the spirit of the Lord is upon me and has anointed me that I might. And then he talked about the wonderful liberty that he was going to bring into, people into. And we noted that that liberty is described as being the acceptable year of the Lord. The Sabbath year. Or the year of Jubilee, whichever you kind of wish to choose. If you're sitting there thinking, I wasn't here Friday, I'm lost. Well don't worry, come and talk to me afterwards and I'll kind of point that wedding all out. Or you can get the tape for Friday. Now then, the fire rolls out and what happens in the offspring? Everything's doomed. Out of sight and out of mind. Oh boy. But Lord, if I lay my life down like that, do you mean that you will consume me and I won't be noticed? Yes. I want to be noticed. And that's the trouble isn't it with us? Isn't it? We want to have that pat on the back. We want to be told how wonderful we are, don't we? Don't we? Do we? Sometimes. I do. It's good to encourage one another. But how wonderful when we can be encouraged from a place of real brokenness and humility. When I was sitting in the meeting earlier on, somebody mentioned humility and immediately my mind went to the fifty-seventh chapter of the book of Isaiah. Do you know the statement, thus says the Lord, the Almighty who inhabits eternity, I dwell with him who is of a humble and a broken heart. To revive the heart of the humble. How about that? You understand therefore why revival doesn't come. Because there's not genuine brokenness and humility. And for those of you who know Isaiah 57 very well, you've probably just noticed I've misquoted it. Did you? I'll repeat it and I'll put the other word in that's missing out. Thus says the Lord, the one who inhabits eternity, I also dwell with him who is of a broken heart. What? I also dwell with him who is of a broken heart. To revive the heart of the humble. Gideon comes and he says, here's my offering Lord but it's not going to do anything. My offering is not going to achieve anything. I'm not going to bring deliverance to the people of Israel. I know that that's not sufficient and God says to him, oh well done Gideon. I'm glad you've seen it. And the fire comes and that's the thing that matters. Because that's the only way that the sacrifice can be used. Let me ask you again then or repeat the question from this morning. I wonder how many of us have laid our lives on the altar and we've waited there until the fire has come. Yes? You know there's a statement made in the fifth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles that I often use with people who come and say to me brother I've prayed and prayed and prayed God doesn't do anything. And I've wanted this power and this life and God doesn't do anything. And I ask them the question, tell me to whom does God give this holy holy holy spirit? To whom does he give him? If you know your fifth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles you will know the answer to God gives the holy spirit to those who obey him. And unless I come like Gideon to that place where I say Lord yes, here I am. I'm poured out. I offer myself but I need the fire to come. And the fire came. Everything was consumed up and that's when God got hold of his man. And I know that that's the moment that God got hold of him because as I said this morning the very next thing that happens is that God says to Gideon, Gideon you've got a problem son. Now your problem son is this. It's the old man. You've got a problem with your old man. His dad. Because his dad had idols set up to bail and his father had compromised or yielded to idolatry. And there were those in the area where Gideon lived who likewise had bowed their knees to bail. And God said to Gideon, Gideon before I can do anything with you before you can become a man who can bring deliverance, you've got to be free son from the old man. Yes. And he said what I want you to do is this. I want you to go and I want you to take this huge whatever axe, sledgehammer if you have such things and smash the thing to pieces. Destroy it. And have done with it. It's got to be an end to it. And so Gideon went and did so. Now everybody kind of says oh yeah you know but, but, but. But you know that Gideon did it at night. He did it in the darkness. And people like to kind of point the finger and say well you know I have done it in the light. You know you have a bug. He did it anyway didn't he? He did it. And he got rid of it. He separated himself from everything in his background that was going to be destructive to him. And like I pointed out this morning the one person who commended him was his dad. Because in the morning when the maid was gathered round and saw that he'd smashed the pieces they said Gideon has done this. We'll get him. And they demanded his death. And his dad stood up to him and said to him listen you lot. If Bane is anything let him take judgment upon my son. But as for you lot shut up. I stand with him. Isn't that marvellous? The very person he was most afraid of. Perhaps of losing relationship with. God restored. There's no doubt in my mind that his father was brought onto a new foundation of living. Because of his son. Isn't it wonderful? If you and I will learn never to compromise the effect we can have upon those around us would be profound. Okay. Now that was the sort of the bones of it. Does that sound right? Pretty good? Quite good. I've just taken five minutes this morning and gone on early, haven't I? Okay. Now there we are. Praise God. What happens, what happens, really happens when the spirit of God comes in this way. I want to take you into two New Testament statements to start with and then perhaps we're going to go back into the Old Testament to another Old Testament picture. It all depends on our time. Will you please turn into the Corinthian epistle and the first one and into the sixth chapter. I want to read from verse 9 through to 11. And then we're going to go into the book of Titus where we went this morning just to notice something similar to what is stated here. Do you not know, verse 9, that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, will inherit the kingdom of God. And then this remarkable comment from Paul, And such were some of you. Corinth was a place absolutely full of idolatry, and the idolatry was such that along with it there went perverted practices that were part of the religious scene of the day. The Old Testament writers, for example, Hosea complained that in his day the people of Israel had entered into idolatrous relationships with the nation's roundabouts, and that there was a spirit of harlotry that had possessed the nation, grips and holds, and much of it in the name of religion. It was so wicked and terrible that God said, I'm going to come and judge the Here in Corinth, likewise, you find this kind of practice, and Paul said, and such were some of you. What a wonderful thing, but something had happened so radical. Now notice, would you please, that the first great thing he says is this, but you were washed. Now what's that all about? We'll come to it in a bit more detail in a moment or two, and we'll pick up on a similar word in Paul's letter to Titus. But there has to be a great washing, first of all. Without it, my friend, you and I cannot be set free, cleared from, the things into which we have entered, willingly may be deceived into, and please notice Paul's use of this word, do not be deceived. People are oftentimes deceived into the kind of things which are listed here. They may not go in with deliberate will and intention. They get deceived in, but having gone in, there comes a moment when a man says, I will give myself to this, and when he does, he is going to be held in a bondage that's going to take the power of God to break. Look at some of the things which are said. Clearly, they are sins, perversions within the life that the devil has got hold of, and he uses. And I suppose two, maybe three times in the course of these past couple of days, I have touched upon this, that how difficult it is for some of us to really believe in our hearts and minds that God can set free from things that have held and bound over many years. Attitudes which we seem unable to alter, responses when we see something, when we are in touch with certain kinds of people that provoke a response and we somehow have no power to live differently from the way we have over many, many years. And our personalities can be held, bound. We can be undeveloped in some areas of life because of things which are still in the life. But here, says the man, listen, you were like that, but you were washed. Now, please notice the past tense that he uses. It's not that you're going to be, or you ought to be, or wouldn't you like to be. You were. There was an activity that took place in your life, and there was a washing, such a washing, that the very thing that you were held in was washed out. Isn't that marvellous? But there's so little of that around nowadays. It's great when you can pick up a book and read testimonies of it, or you could bear witness in your own life, I was this, but now I'm this, I was washed. Everybody in this room, without exception, I suppose, understands the meaning of it. A cleansing, something that is applied to the life that makes clean. But plainly, by the words Paul uses, you were washed. He doesn't say you washed yourselves. You were washed by another, someone who came and applied to you a cleansing power, something that cleansed you. And you will, I'm sure all of you already, have jumped in your minds into John chapter 13 and Jesus' words to Peter, Peter, if I don't wash you, you have no part in me. Isn't that wonderful? Glory be to God that there's one who comes to make clean. Yes, who? The blessed Lord Jesus. He's the great cleanser. You were washed, but you were sanctified. Have these gods, the word sanctify, set apart. That's what it means, consecrated. And again, let me just kind of redirect maybe some of our thinking. I was brought up in a kind of a sort of evangelical background where I was told you've got to consecrate your life to the Lord. I discovered I could not do it. And if you're trying to do it, my friend, let me tell you, you're not a loser. You're going to drive yourself bananas until you reach the place where you're not, Lord, I can't do it. And oh, then comes the moment when you can be sanctified. Notice it, it says, but you were sanctified. What does that mean? That there is one who has the power to set you apart unto his own use. It does not say that you sanctified yourself. It does not say that you washed yourself. One came and had to do it. If the past tense with present results a perfect participle. Something done in the past with present results. I was washed with the result that I am presently clean and continuing to be washed. I was sanctified with the present result that I am being sanctified. It's something done with an ongoing and present result. Isn't that part of it? So you're not having to look back to an experience and try and recapture it. Oh, Lord, if only I could get back to that. You know, I visit a man, he's 92. And he remembers the aftermath of the Welsh Revival. Have you ever read about the Welsh Revival? It's wonderful. It really is wonderful. And God moved. And it's estimated that 100,000 people came to the Lord in that time. And as a consequence, missionaries went out all over the world. I was in India, what was it, three, four years ago, and they were having a celebration down in the state of Mizoram, where 200 years ago, Welsh missionaries went into India. And I thought, good old Wales. You want to see it now? It's as dead, as dead, as dead, as dead can be. I guess there's a pocket for things happening in there. I don't know how many people are to come and to move in this kind of way, so that there will be the testimony from the mouths of men, I've washed. This one came and met with me and washed me, purged me, cleansed me, filled me with the result of the present. Now, I'm still living in the good of that washing. And it goes on being effective in my life, sanctified. And then he said, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. Can I just make a comment for those of you who like to kind of think in theological terms? If you were brought up in a Reformed background, like I was, this is the order. You get justified by faith, and then after you've been justified by faith, if you are fortunate enough to be taught well enough, you kind of go on and you go on to be sanctified. Notice the order that this man puts this in, because I don't believe for one moment there's some order, because the order is just a man-made thing. Yes, I know I need to be justified. I know I need to stand right before God because of what Christ has done on my behalf. Yes, I understand that. But I was brought up on the kind of Romans chapter 5, you know, you've got to be justified by faith. But did you know that in chapter 3 of Romans it says you are justified by by what? By grace. Oh, so justified by grace comes in chapter 3 and justified by faith comes in chapter 5. It's all about grace. That's why I emphasised this morning when God came and moved upon Gideon, he said, Lord, if I found grace, all I want to do is to make my offering. I want to be your man. I want to respond to grace. But you won't respond to anything else. You won't respond because someone drives you to, and you won't respond because someone tells you, well, you know, you want to give your life to the Lord, lock, stock and barrel. The logic is obvious. Not one of us can mistake the I know I ought to, but that's not enough to provoke me so to do. I need something greater than that. I need this grace of God that will cause me to move, to respond. I think it was last year when I came. I'm not sure, but I think it was. I spoke from the Acts of the Apostles. In the 14th chapter, Paul goes into, it's a forgotten place anyway, doesn't matter, and he's preaching. And what he's preaching, there's a man there in the congregation. It's an orphan who has been crippled from birth. And there he is. And Paul, we are told, looks at him, and as he looks at him, he sees that this man has got faith to be healed. Do you remember the story? Are you all familiar with it? Well, if not, you can read Acts chapter 14. And he sets his eye on him, and he sees that this man has got faith. Isn't it wonderful when you can see faith? He saw it. He saw it rise up in this man's heart. Now, where did that faith come from? Now, there's the question. Where did it come from? How was faith generated? A faith that in a moment or two was going to respond to the command of God to stand on his feet, and he was going to be healed. Absolutely. Where does faith like that come from? Now, what a good question. Now, here's the answer. You've got to go back to the beginning of the 14th chapter, and there you will read that Paul, wherever he was going in that in a course of missionary ministry, he preached the word of his grace. And God bore witness to his word of grace, and caused signs and wonders to be done by the hand of this man Paul. But what was it all about? God was bearing witness to what? To a man's preaching? No. To a man's gifting? No. But to his word of grace, and it operated in a man's heart. Let me tell you, I believe it with all my heart, it's when you and I can minister this word of grace, it'll provoke people. They'll respond. We won't need to be asking for it. They will. And Paul looked at this guy, and he knew he had faith to be healed. He said to him, I am to stand upon your feet. And he got to his feet in the chapter between the 14th and the 15th chapter of the book of Romans. And he said to him, Gracious is the thing that makes heaven and earth a spot. Did you, those of you who were here this morning, I've quoted from Romans chapter 12. Do you remember? I beseech you therefore, brethren, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service, and do not conform to this rule, but transform by letting you live your minds to 30, 30, 30. And guess what? I just misquoted that too. What does it say? I beseech you therefore, brethren, that you present yourselves. Go on, go on, do it. Go on, go on. Go on. Do it. Is that what it said? No. What did it say? I beseech you therefore, brethren. Yes. By the mercies of God. It's a mercy that he comes and speaks a word of grace to my heart. And I tell God, that's what I want. Yes. Have mercy to me. I beseech you therefore, brethren. By the mercies of God, do it. Go on. Don't do it by the second of your will. Don't do it because the preacher said, you've got to come out to the front and we'll pray for you and this will happen and that will happen. You've got to do it, brethren. There's a constraint put upon my heart by his mercy. Lord, I can't, I can't, I can't avoid this. You've loved me. You've been gracious to me. Oh, yes. Look, in the end, it did. And the fire came. And Paul declares, listen you Corinthians. Oh, isn't it wonderful? You were washed by another who had the power to do it. You submitted to the washing because you recognized that you were unclean and needed to be washed. I was thinking, I'll do it, but I was thinking, either maybe tonight or perhaps tomorrow morning, I'd love to talk about the conscience. And I might just do that. I'd love to talk about the conscience and the need that we have got in our day. Well, I've started, haven't I? The need we've got in our day for men and women who preach, who minister, who talk Jesus over the wall to their neighbor. Whether you do it in the shop, whether you do it with whoever, but there's a need that when we speak, we get into the consciences of people. And something fundamental happens in that faculty that all of us have got that leaves us absolutely disturbed and distressed. Not moved by somebody's emotion, but we kind of all, yes, yes, yes, yes, and respond to Jesus kind of thing. And the next day we're just the same. I mean, it's well worth reading some of the literature on the revival. The 1859 one, the second great awakening. The Welsh one. You should read the Welsh one. The 1905 one. They used to come in through the front door in their homes and they could not get beyond the front door, down on their faces, flying out in the hallway, crying out to God. Why? Because their conscience was gone. Have you ever read Finney's Life? Anybody? We'll read Finney's Life. You know, Finney, he went into a factory. And in the factory he was being shown around by the owner and there were groups of people in the factory and they were all kind of having a little laugh. The preachers come. Holy Joes arrive. And they thought it was all so very funny. And in the course of being conducted around this factory, Finney came to a group of girls and they were having a bit of a laugh at his expense. And he just turned and he looked at one of them. And he just looked. I wonder whether you've ever been looked at like that. And everything within that young lady broke. And they had to close the factory down and Finney preached to the whole crowd. And God swept through the place. Because of one man who had, by God's grace, the ability to touch the very conscience of people. That's what we need in our day. Not great oratory, not the ability to somehow kind of stir people to an emotion, but the ability to touch the conscience. Did you know that the word conscience does not appear in the Old Testament? Do you know that? Interesting isn't it? A New Testament word. And do you know where the first occurrence of it is? In the 8th chapter of John's Gospel, where all Jesus did was to stoop down and write in the ground. It didn't say anything. But it says they were convicted by their conscience. Moments before, all they wanted to do was to put him on the spot, use the woman who'd been taken in adultery and make her the object of all their scorn and ridicule, but use her to get at him. And all he did was to stoop down and write on the ground. Do you know why he did that? Well I'll tell you what you should do. You should go and read the 17th chapter of the book of Jeremiah and it'll tell you why he did it. All right? Whole work tonight. Those of you who read Leviticus chapter 25 last night, I'm sure you had a great night and slept well. Well tonight, um, Jeremiah chapter 17. And you'll notice twice in the chapter it talks about something being written in the ground. You go read, okay? And then tomorrow morning we're going to have question and answer time. So we'll see who did their homework. Amen. You are washed, sorry you were washed, you were sanctified, but you were justified. Listen, let's not be picky about whether, what order it comes in. I don't care what order it comes in. I don't care whether man said, oh I'm justified first. All I want to know is my dear brother, sister, have you been washed, sanctified, justified? Three great operations of God upon the heart. And he says, how? How did it happen to you? You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. Now here's one of the great workings, movings, ministries of the Spirit of God. He comes to wash and to sanctify and to justify. And I and you must know that that work has been done in your lives. Please turn on a moment into the book of Titus and I want to read in the third chapter and I'm going to say something that might make you kind of stop and have to think, but that's great isn't it? Because in these verses I want you to notice how Paul speaks about salvation. If I was to stop you now and say, hang on, don't look down, look up here. I'm now going to give you a piece of paper. Ready? Here we go, around the room, piece of paper and a pencil. Now please, in the next 10 minutes, will you write down what it means to be saved. Ready? Go on, sit down, and you write it down and you will make some kind of a statement of what you think it means to be saved. Listen to this one. How about this one for a statement of what real salvation is. Verse 3 of chapter 3, for we ourselves, and Paul now includes himself in this, for we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. Okay? Paul says that some of those were true of him. If you know your Roman epistles, chapter 7, Paul says, I didn't know that I was covetous, that I had envy in my heart until the law came, and when the law came and said thou shalt not, he said I discovered I had it, and sin revived and I died. It killed me, and I discovered that I was like the very thing that the law said I should not be like. I was sunk. Sin revived and I died. When the conscience is struck, do you know that's the first thing that happens? There's a revival, first of all, of sin, and a man knows he's a sinner. He knows his loss. Oh God give us the ability to be able to speak his word of grace that touches the consciences of others. Listen, let's read it. But when the kindness and the love of God our Saviour toward man appeared in the person of Jesus Christ. Now that's not in your Bible, is it? I added it. And I added it because it's the truth, isn't it? How did the love and the kindness of God appear toward man? Ultimately in the person of Jesus Christ. Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us. How? How did he save us? How did he save you? How did he save me? Well I went to this meeting brother, and I responded, and I lay the emphasis upon my response. I heard, I saw, I responded. Not at all, says this man, you and I, he says, we who were foolish and disobedient, serving diverse lusts, we, he says, we have been saved. By God's mercy he saved us. How? Through the washing. There it is. There is no salvation unless there is a, first of all, a great washing which is described as the washing of regeneration. That's what New Blood, fundamentally, is all about. There is a washing that cleanses the heart. Secondly, he says, that there is the renewing of the Holy Ghost. Both things are absolutely fundamental to New Blood. If there is no washing of the spirit, there is no salvation. And if there is no renewing of the spirit, there is no salvation. They go together. And then he says, that this Holy Spirit, he poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Lord. I touched upon that verse this morning in the context of this morning's meeting. Now please, please, whatever you do, you read the verses that I've just read, read them again and think carefully about them. And recognise that if I am going to talk in terms of a new birth, it is not because I have made some response. You will notice that Peter, Paul said, but according to his mercy he saved us. Notice he's back on this word mercy. Present your bodies by the mercies of God. It's by his mercy that he has come and he's saved me. How did I get saved? My Lord, I responded. No, no, no. Yes, there will be a response. Grace promotes it. Grace speaks to the heart of a man, shows him where he is. Lord, I need your mercy. I need to be washed and made new. Please come and do that. He says, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, he pours his blessed Spirit out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour, so that having been justified by his grace. Will you please not be justified by my faith? Yes, faith is required. But faith, like the man I spoke of, the man who was sick, faith was the consequence of healing the word of grace and it rose up in the man's heart and he knew he could be healed. When I hear the word of grace and when the word of grace is preached to a man in his need, he hears it and he knows how to be saved. But how? And again, I don't know whether you think the same as me, but it bothers me when I hear the over-emphasis upon man's response. Yes, man must. Of course he must. He must respond in obedience to that which he has heard because it's a word of grace in his heart. But unless God comes and does that that we just read, there is no salvation. So, I'm saying this way and only this way. You might respond to that by saying, we have a minute. Oh, that narrows it down. Do you really believe that? Do you really think that's the truth of it? I read my book the same as you do and I'm aware that salvation can be presented in such a way that man's responses seem to be the all-important thing. It is a part of, but oh, perhaps a very small part of. The great work is done as the Holy Spirit comes through Christ. As he comes through Christ, what does he do? He takes the washing power of the blood of Jesus Christ and he applied it, pours that cleansing light into the heart. He comes and what does he do? He recreates. That's the word. He renews us and there is made alive, made anew in the heart that which is of the Spirit and that man knows. Well, well, how is this coming then? Something so profound and real and wonderful that I know it's done. It's not done by my will. No wonder John in his opening chapter of his gospel speaks like this. He says, he talks of those who have been born, not of the will of man, not of the will of the flesh, but of God. God does it. What a miracle. If God doesn't do it, then you and I can very easily think that something has been done in our lives which is not. You might respond to that by thinking, oh hang on a minute, I'd like to throw doubts into people's minds. Not a bit of it. Not a bit of it. Because if the Holy Ghost comes and does this, you'll know he's done it. You'll know he's done it. And then we know where I want to live. You'll know, Lord, this is just a sheer, glorious miracle of your mercy. That's done. Something has happened. That's great. Paul says he's been justified by his grace so that we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Wonderful. Now, perhaps we need to stop and just ask ourselves, just quietly in our own hearts, Lord, do I know that I have been washed? Can I testify to this? Do I know that the foolishness and the disobedience and the lustfulness and the selfishness and the malice and the love of pleasure and all, Lord, you've washed me. And you come and you bring new me. And I am a new creature. A new creation. I consider that to be right at the very heart of the Gospel. I suppose some of you understand. You'd probably say amen to that. Maybe some of you would not. I don't know. But I believe that to be at the very heart of the Gospel. If this is not the work that God comes to do, and if I cannot bear witness to the fact that God has done this in my heart and mind, not because of my goodness, not because of my response, but sheer grace and mercy towards me that provoked in me an awareness of my need and I say, Lord, what must I do? What must I do here? What do I do? Do I go to church again? Do I pray in the meeting? Do I make sure that I attend every possible place where there's a means of grace? What do I do? And here is the great statement of Paul, who goes as simple, there's a great outpouring of the Holy Ghost upon you. And I suppose everyone in this room who ever reads the Bible must have read the opening statements of John's Gospel. There he is, he said, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And then the next day, Jesus walked again and he said, there he is, behold, there's the Lamb of God. And then the next day he said, there he is, there he is, he's the one who baptises with Holy Spirit and fire. There he is, that's him. I was brought up in such a way that I'd only ever heard the truth of one side of the coin, it was the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. It was the Lamb, it was the Lamb, it was the Lamb. I heard sermons until they came out of my ears and in the end I got so fed up with it all I threw the whole lot over. I didn't want to know anymore because it was absolutely irrelevant to me. But I never heard, I never heard a word of grace that reached my heart and showed me my need and caused me to call out. Lord what must I do here? What do I do? I'm told by this evangelist, respond. I'm told by this one, sign the card. I'm told by this one, give two thousand dollars and I'll pray for you and you'll get this or that or the other. I didn't want any of that, I wanted something that was real and I knew there were things in me that needed to be washed out, washed out by the power of someone who could reach the deeps of my being and make me clean where I couldn't even begin to go. Glory to his name. That's what I needed, I needed to be made into a new being, a new creation and I knew I couldn't do it. I, and even my responses and prayers couldn't do it. I was utterly depending on him to do it or I was never going to get there. And I think, you know what I think, I think we've changed it. I don't know why we've changed it but I think we've changed it in a meaningful way from a preaching of that kind of a gospel. I think we have. We've replaced it with other things and maybe we replaced that gospel with other things because then the power and the anointing and the ability to speak this word of grace that gets to the conscience of men and women begins to fade. You've got to put something else in its place. I wonder if that's what we've done and we substitute something else for the thing that really can really change the heart. I thought that's what you and I should think about. But I wonder. Glory be to God, I've stopped. That's it. Now I think we're going to spend just a few minutes, just praying, just really asking the Lord to come and do, if he's never done it, this in our hearts. Perhaps to restore to us a sense of what is the true gospel. Maybe if we've in our lives allowed things to drift and somehow we never present this gospel in the way it should be to folks, maybe we just need to ask the Lord to come and do something in our hearts. Lord and all that we should come and move under the anointing of the Spirit of God. Let's pray.