This sermon delves into the profound truths about grace found in the Bible. It emphasizes the multifaceted nature of grace, covering forgiveness of sins, power to overcome temptation, and strength in the midst of physical limitations or weaknesses. The speaker highlights the importance of seeking God's grace in all areas of life, including forgiveness, overcoming sin, and dealing with physical ailments, ultimately pointing to the transformative power of God's grace in our lives.

Let's turn to John's Gospel in chapter 1. It's a completely new age that began when Christ came and prepared the world for the day of Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit. And what we read in this verse is really fulfilled from the day of Pentecost onwards. But like I've been saying the last couple of days, most Christians, I feel, have not laid full hold of their faith in Christ. So, I want you to look at John chapter 1 and verse 17. The law was given through Moses, but grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. Yesterday we looked at the meaning of truth as the opposite of lie, which means my life is true. There is no lie in my life. I'm not pretending to be what I'm not. I'm not talking about things which are not true. Most and unfortunately most Christians live a lie as well because there's such a tremendous desire to get the approval of men. Now, we don't realize that seeking the approval of men is a form of idolatry. Once we see that, we'll see that idols are not just, you know, images of wood and stone. They can be real human beings. And if I'm concerned about, let me take my own example, if when I speak, if I'm concerned about your opinion of me or my sermon more than the opinion of the Lord Jesus who is right here in our midst, I believe he's here, and I am more concerned about your opinion than his, I'm an idolater. I'm actually bowing down before you and saying, dear brothers and sisters, I hope you think well of me. I hope you think well of what I said. I'm bowing down to you. It's a very serious sin to seek the approval of men. That's why the Apostle Paul said in Galatians 1.10, if I were to seek the approval of men, I cannot be the servant of Christ. I cannot. And I believe this is the reason why many preachers are not servants of Christ. They get disqualified by one verse, Galatians 1.10, if I seek to please men, I cannot under any circumstances be the servant of Christ because I will be the servant of men. So we need to be true. I want to look now at the other word here that was realized through Jesus Christ. What I said yesterday was no person under the old covenant could live that life where his inner life corresponded to the outer life. And that's why nobody in the old covenant could say, follow me as I follow Christ, because their private life and their hidden life, their inner life, their home life was a bit of a mess. They could only say, listen to what God has told me. That was accurate. But their life was not. The other word here is grace. Another word that we have heard and heard and heard and heard and heard, and I believe not understood fully. Because most Christians, when they think of grace, it means that they only think of forgiveness. But that's only one part, a very important part of grace, but only a very small part of grace. It's very important for us to understand that if some, if you were witnessing to some non-Christian and he asked you, what does it mean when the Bible speaks about the grace of God? Would you be able to answer? It's important to know, it says, be always ready to give an answer to him who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, says that in one Peter, and we must give an answer and one of the fully listening to God's word, when the word is expounded, is that we have an answer then to be able to give to those who ask us. So, first of all, I want to say three things about grace, which covers all the areas of our life, and I hope they will stay with you in your mind. Please turn with me first of all to Ephesians in chapter one, Ephesians one and verse seven. In Christ, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace. So that is the first thing we receive, forgiveness of sins. It has to begin there, because when we come before God, we're so full of guilt, we are guilty, we deserve the wrath of God, because sin is a terrible thing, it's not something that can be ignored. When a person doesn't understand the seriousness of sin, you know, non-Christians would ask me why can't God just forgive us if I say I'm sorry? And I explained to them, listen, if you broke a plate or a saucer or a cup at home and you told your mom and dad, oh, I'm sorry, I broke it, your parents would say forget it, we can always get another one, because breaking a plate or a saucer is nothing. But I said if you had murdered somebody or murdered a few people, and you stand before your father, who is a judge in the court, and you say, Dad, I'm sorry, I just happened to murder 10 people, you can't say that's okay, son, forget it. It's not in the same category as breaking a plate or a cup. It's far more serious. And when we think very lightly of God, when we have a low opinion of God, we think of sin like, oh, well, it was just like breaking a plate or a cup. I mean, even Christians can think like that. When you treat sin lightly in your life, you're treating sin like that, oh, well, it's just like breaking a cup or a saucer, not so serious. How many of us would see every sin we commit as serious as murder? The more we see of the holiness of God, the immense holiness of God, which is so great that even sinless angels cover their faces like Isaiah saw the seraph saying holy, holy, holy, holy, they cover their feet and cover their faces, those who have never sinned. When we see the holiness of God like that, we say, hey, sin is far more serious than we thought. Explain it to a non-Christian. If your view of God is a, if your God is a holy God, as the God of the Bible is, sin is a very serious thing that cannot easily be forgiven. It's like murder, and no matter how much your father loves you, he cannot forgive you. He cannot let you go. You have to take the punishment. And in human terms, if it was a punishment like a fine of a million dollars or something, if the father was rich enough, he could take off his robes and come down and write a check of his entire life savings and say, here, son, pay the fine, and he would have done his job as a judge, giving him the punishment, and has done his job as a father, paying that punishment himself. But the son still has to do one thing, he has to receive that check. If he's too proud to receive it, he cannot be forgiven. That's how it is. He doesn't have to do anything. Forgiveness is free. It's free for man, but it's tremendously expensive for the father to have paid that, his life savings in one single check, to let his son go free. This is a picture of forgiveness. We need to see it. But in Jesus' case, what he did for us is more than just paying money. I was due to be hanged, and he was crucified in my place. So we must never see forgiveness as something cheap. The Bible speaks about treating the blood of Christ like something cheap in Hebrews 10 and verse 29. It speaks about those who trample under the foot the Son of God, you know, those who disobey the commandments. It says in Hebrews 10, 28, 26, sorry, if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sin. If a man understands the price Christ paid for forgiveness of sins, he cannot go on sinning willfully. Impossible. He may trip and fall, but he cannot go on sinning willfully. If a person goes on sinning willfully, it would indicate that he hasn't seen the price Christ has paid. He's taken it cheaply. And he goes on to say, in the middle of verse 29, he's regarded as common, that's the real meaning of that word, the blood of the covenant. That means he's treated, to paraphrase it, he's treated the blood of Christ like tap water, like something cheap, something common. Why is it we don't get too disturbed if our hands get dirty? Our hands can get dirty 10, 15 times a day, we are not disturbed because tap water is cheap. Soap is cheap. We can wash it 20 times a day, it's cheap. So if I can sin like that and say, oh, well, it doesn't matter if I slipped up, the blood of Christ is there. And I slip up 20 times a day and say, this cleanses me. I've treated the blood of Christ like tap water, especially if I know this is wrong and I still do it. But Peter says, you've been redeemed by the blood of Christ, which is far more precious than gold and silver. So the only person who's really understood the seriousness, I mean, who's appreciated forgiveness of sins, is the one who's understood the seriousness of sin. Many years ago, I meditated on scripture. I asked the Lord to explain one thing to me. I hope you know the Lord well enough, if you've known Jesus as your Savior, we become more and more familiar. I don't mean familiar in a wrong sense, we respect him immensely. We can become more and more friendly with him, that we can talk to him and ask him questions and he answers us. And one of the questions I asked the Lord was, what was this cup that you hesitated to drink in the Garden of Gethsemane? Lord, you who came to earth to do the Father's will, I see a struggle going on in Gethsemane where you said, Father, please take away this cup. There was a conflict there between your will, I don't want to drink this cup, and it was clear the Father's will was drink this cup. What was it that he had to struggle for one hour? I knew it was not the physical suffering on the cross because I've seen, I mean I've heard of martyrs, Christian martyrs who went singing to be burnt at the stake or to be killed or crucified upside down like Peter, beheaded like Paul. They never said, oh Lord, don't let me suffer for your sake. Christian martyrs who've been in prison for many years. So Jesus wasn't shrinking from physical suffering, no. He would have gone through 10,000 physical sufferings on Calvary for my sake and your sake. It wasn't that. It wasn't physical suffering. What was it he was praying? I don't want to partake of this. As I thought about it, I came to see it was a break of fellowship with his Father that would happen on the cross for three hours. When Jesus died on the cross, the forgiveness of our sins was not purchased merely by his physical death. I mean, we explain to little children saying Jesus died on the cross, and we see pictures of Jesus being whipped and beaten and suffering, and we weep. But the physical death was not the price for our sin. It was part of it, but it was not all. Because the punishment for sin, just think of the logic of this. If the punishment for our sin was physical death, then every time we die physically, we have paid the punishment. Then every human being, when he dies, has paid the punishment for his sin, and everybody should go to heaven. If that's all that Jesus did, that he died on the cross physically for my sin, is that the punishment for sin? What would you tell an unbeliever is the punishment for his sin? It's not physical death. I don't tell him, you will die physically if you're a sinner. No. I'll say, you go to hell if you live in sin. If your sin is not forgiven, you go to hell. That is the punishment for sin. So, if Jesus did not experience that punishment, which I'm supposed to experience, which is eternal hell, he has not paid the punishment for my sin. And that's the thing the Lord opened my eyes to, to see, that when he hung on the cross the last three hours, he cried, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Do you know what it means to be forsaken by God? That is hell. Hell is the only God-forsaken place in the universe. This world is not forsaken by God. There are many evidences of God's blessing. Unbelievers, atheists get food, clothing, shelter, air to breathe, water to drink, and physical health to live up to long, to a long life, and God's mercy and goodness upon them. So, but eternal punishment for sin is eternal hell, and that is to be forsaken by God completely. The people who go to hell are forsaken by God, and that is the greatest sin. It's pictured by Jesus in many human terms so that we see the seriousness of it like being burnt in the fire forever, and the worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched. But what is the real thing? It's not just the physical fire and the worms, it's the fact that God is not there. God's forsaken you. That's eternal hell. And that is what Jesus experienced on the cross for three hours, the punishment for our sin. And we can say, well, the punishment for my sin is eternal hell, not just for three hours. That's right. That's why a human being could not die for my sin, because if a human being was forsaken by God, it would be only for three hours. But because Christ was God himself, the second person of the Trinity, he was an infinite being. He was not a finite being. And an infinite being could experience in three hours the agonies of eternity. So what Jesus experienced in three hours on the cross was the agonies of an eternal hell. It's so easy to say that, but if you meditate on it, I'll tell you what happened to me when I first understood it. I thought a little more about that, Jesus struggling there, and I imagined, I thought of an imaginary conversation going on between him and his father, because remember, he was on his knees for one hour, and the father saying, well, you don't have to drink the cup, you don't have to be forsaken by me, you never sinned, you can come straight up from Gethsemane up to heaven, but Zach will go to hell. I made it personal, and Jesus says, Zach will go to hell, okay, then I'll go to the cross. When I understood that, it brought me to tears that what he went through in Gethsemane, he made a choice there for me, to save me from eternal hell. And when I understood that, it gripped my heart so much, I said, Lord, I'll never in my life hold anything back from you in my life, anything, all my life, my energy, my time, my money, till the end of my life, if I live to be a hundred years old, I will serve you till the last day, because I've seen how much you loved me to suffer that which you valued the most. You know, we don't understand the value of fellowship with the Father. Every time we sin, whether you realize it or not, fellowship with the Father is broken. Why is it that we sin? Because we don't value it so much. We don't realize the spiritual connection with God is broken at that moment. But we carry along in our life, because we still have physical life, and everything seems to be okay around us, but our connection is gone. But for Jesus, this was the most precious thing in the world, because for all eternity he had this, he would be willing to suffer a thousand galleries if he could avoid the break of fellowship with the Father. Words are very poor vehicles with which to communicate this amazing truth. God is to give you revelation. I remember when God gave me revelation on this amazing truth, it broke me. And I said, Lord, I never again want to sing lightly about the blood of Christ, as if it is something cheap, because I discovered that so often we sing these familiar songs, and about the death of Christ and the blood of Christ, and we become so familiar with it that we sing it without realizing what it cost Jesus on the cross. You know, it says in heaven, they sing a new song, saying, Thou hast slain, O Lamb, and by Thy blood Thou hast purchased us. And I asked the Lord, how can that be a new song? I mean, we have heard it for thousands of years, those people have heard it. How is it a new song? And the way it came to me was, it's new in the sense that it is fresh. That means it's as if they are hearing it for the first time, that Christ shed his blood to save me. And I said, Lord, make that real in my life. Make my life on earth a little heavenly by this one thing that every time I sing about the blood of Christ, or about the death of Christ, I want it to be as if I'm hearing it for the first time in my life, that somebody died for me. Somebody took my punishment. Somebody took my hell to save me from eternal damnation. Lord, every time I sing it, I want to sing it like they sing it in heaven, as if it's fresh. And many times it's happened to me, where I'm singing a song I've sung a hundred times or five hundred times, and I begin to weep, and I think that Jesus died for me. It's very precious. It makes our whole attitude to sin completely different. Grace that forgives our sin becomes very precious. There's a thing called cheap grace. Cheap grace is where we treat the blood of Christ as something cheap, like tap water. May none of us ever treat the blood of Christ like tap water. It'll bring a seriousness in our life towards sin, towards sin in words, thoughts, attitudes to people, motives, actions, in every area. And it doesn't matter whether other people see it or not. And I've come to see that my sin, I begin to see, is what nailed Jesus to the cross. It was my anger that drove the nails. I was the one who drove those nails into his hands, with my bitterness, or my lust, or my anger, or my jealousy. It's driving those nails in, and I see it like that, I say, Lord, I want to hate sin. I want to hate sin with all of my heart. I want to hate sin more than hating any disease that I have in my body. And I'll try to picture what is sin like, supposing I had this terrible disease called Ebola, or AIDS, or something like that. How I would hate it. How careful we, I mean, when those patients with this country, from Africa, how careful people were not to touch him, or to wear special dresses, and those nurses treating him, so that they wouldn't touch any part of his clothes or his body. Lord, give me a hatred for sin like that, that I want to hate sin more than the worst possible disease. Then I have understood a little bit. Ephesians 1, 7, we have forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace. I hope this will sink into our hearts so that we have a fresh understanding of grace today, as we have never known it before. When Jesus hung on the cross, you know, that was the only time, the only time in his entire thirty-three and a half years on earth when he looked at his Father and called Him God. He never called Him God in eternity. He never called Him God in all those years on earth. His Father, Father, my Father, my Father, etc., etc., till finally when He stood on, hung on the cross during those last three hours, He was hanging there as a criminal for sins He had never committed. For my sins. Hanging there before the judge of the universe. He could not call Him Father. It's like if my son murdered somebody, he'd call me, Your Honor, I'm a judge there. He can't call me Dad in the court. There Jesus was hanging and saying, My God, My God, I can't understand. You know, when a man's experiencing hell, as Jesus was experiencing in those moments, the mind becomes blank and he really couldn't understand at that moment why he was forsaken. It was a real question. Why have you forsaken me? The depth of that, I still haven't plumbed. I must say I haven't plumbed the depth of that. One day when I see my Savior face to face, and I see the depth of His love, I will understand a little more. It's only a few drops of that I understand now. I hope we shall appreciate more what Calvary means in our lives. And it's not only that. He says when He forgives us, in Hebrews 8 and verse 12, Forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace. Hebrews 8, 12, it says, I will be merciful to their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more. See, it's not just forgiveness. He says, I won't remember your sin anymore. Forget it. God doesn't forget our sin. That's not what the Bible says. I can remember the sins I did 60 years ago. How can God not remember it? His memory is not worse than mine. Don't you remember some of the terrible things you did 30, 40 years ago? You think God doesn't know it? He never says, I've forgotten it. But He says, I will not remember. I will not remember means I choose not to remember. So when I come before the Lord, He looks at me as if I've never sinned at all. Isn't that wonderful? Think if I'd lived a life, 75 and a half years, never sinned once in my life. With what boldness I'd come before the Lord. That is justification. Many people know forgiveness through the blood, by grace. But we are justified also by His grace through the blood. Justified by His blood. And that is more than forgiveness. Forgiveness means I'm forgiven. Justified means it's as if I've never sinned. I come clothed with the righteousness of Christ before God. God looks at me as if I've never sinned in my life. Not only never sinned. Clothed in Christ's righteousness. As accepted as Christ Himself. Do you have that confidence? You can have it right now if you believe. Justified by faith. Do you believe as if you really turned from your sin. And hated it and asked Christ to come into your life as Lord. You have acceptance before God your Father as Jesus Christ Himself. This is what gives us tremendous boldness. We have boldness to approach the throne of grace. God has not only forgiven us. He says I will not remember your past. Isn't it a good thing that God doesn't expose our past to other people here. How many of us would be able to sit here comfortably. If God revealed on a screen here all the sins we committed in the past. I think every last one of us would run out of this hall. We wouldn't want to be seen by others again. How good God is that He not only forgives us. But He says my son, my daughter. Nobody will ever know what you did in your past life. So what is our responsibility? I'll tell you. Treat other people like that. Treat other people the way God treated you. Treat other people the way God forgave you. He's not asking you to forget the crime somebody did against you. Somebody did something against me. I can't forget it. Because my memory is not in my power. Forgiveness is in my power. But I cannot remove things from my memory. And God doesn't ask me, torture me. You know some preachers tell people if you forgive somebody you got to forget them. No sir, you don't have to. You cannot. Because there are Christians who torture themselves. Oh I can't forget that man whom I've forgiven. Well you won't forget but you can forgive him. You can say like God says, I do not remember. I choose not to remember when I see that person. I treat him as if he did not do that against me. That is to forgive people as God forgave you. Don't torture yourself that you can't forget the memory of the evil somebody did. That is impossible. Even God doesn't remove it from his memory. And I want to say one more thing which is a serious word of warning. There is only one type of person whom God will not forgive. Shall I tell you who that is? Matthew chapter 6 verse 15. Matthew chapter 6 verse 15. Forgiveness according to the riches of his grace is not available to this man. Matthew 6 verse 15. Jesus said, if you do not forgive men, your father will not forgive your transgressions. Notice he didn't say God will not forgive. God is a word referring to God's dealings with all men. When he says your father. This is part of the Sermon on the Mount which we read in Matthew 5 verse 1. He spoke to his disciples. He is telling his disciples. Picture this in your mind. His disciples are sitting in front of him. Saying your father. You my disciples. Your father will not forgive you. Your sins. If you don't forgive somebody else. His sins. So I want to ask all of you here. As far as you know. Have you forgiven? Every single person. Who has done something wrong against you. In your entire life. All of us have had people who have done some wrong to us. Some harm to us. By the time a child is 5 years old. He has had people done some wrong to him. And think of us who are so old. Look at the number of people who probably cheated us. Or harmed us. Or told stories about us. Harmed our family members. Told stories about our children. And hurt us in many ways. Maybe cheated us financially. Or robbed us of the family inheritance. Or whatever it is. The sin may be great. Which he did against us. But not our sins against God. If we were to evaluate all the sins we have committed against God. Anything that anybody may do against you. It's like a drop in the bucket. Compared to that. That's why the Lord says forgive. Do you have to forget? No. Do you have to forgive? Yes. Do you have to go and meet him and fellowship with him? No. Don't think that forgiveness means. You got to go up to him and seek fellowship with him. Forgiveness and fellowship are two different things. When Jesus forgave the people who crucified him on the cross. He didn't go down to them. He couldn't fellowship with them. Because they had rejected God. But he forgave everyone. So forgiveness doesn't mean you have to fellowship with that person. You may never meet that person in your life. You don't even have to visit him. In fact, if somebody is a troublesome type. It's better not to visit him. And the Bible says pursue peace with all men. With some people the best way to pursue peace is by never visiting them. Because they are troublesome people. That doesn't mean you haven't forgiven them. Forgiveness is an act of the will. I choose to forgive him. You never have to meet him. Never. You may want to avoid him. I remember one sister came up to me at the end of a service in another place. Where he said, Brother Zach, my brother-in-law raped me. I've forgiven him. But do I have to go and meet him? I said, please don't. Don't avoid him completely. By all means. Don't ever go anywhere near him. But forgive him. I said, terrible thing what he did. Evil. But you have to forgive. And I'm glad you're forgiven. But don't ever go near him. So forgiveness doesn't mean you have to meet that person. Some people you have to avoid. But the forgiveness must be complete. And I remember how the Lord taught me. To find out whether my forgiveness is from the heart. You know the Lord said about forgiving people from the heart. In the last verse of Matthew chapter 18. Forgive your brother from your heart. And I remember someone who had done some harm to me. And I said, Lord I forgive him. And sometime later I heard that something really bad happened to him. And I was happy. And the Lord said, you haven't forgiven him. The fact that you were happy that something bad happened to him. Proved you hadn't really forgiven him. Then I understood how to forgive from the heart. So that if anyone hurts me now. And I forgive him from the heart. I ask myself this question. I use my imagination. If I hear that something terrible happened to that person. Would I grieve? Oh Lord I'm really sorry that happened to him. Then I've forgiven him from the heart. If I hear that something really good happened to him. He inherited a fortune. Would I really rejoice that something good happened to him? Then I've forgiven him from the heart. That is the test. That's the way it's helped me. You know it's good for us to be absolutely sure. That we have forgiven people from the heart. And I want to encourage all of you sitting here. Write to anyone whom you have not forgiven. Before we go further. In a simple act of your will. In your mind. In your thoughts. Say Lord Jesus. I forgive that person. And you know who is the one you have to forgive. And I forgive him. And this other person. It takes only a second. I really mean it Lord. I don't want any evil to happen to them. I wish them the best. I forgive them, forgive them, forgive them. Lord Jesus have mercy on me and forgive me. It's a wonderful way to live. You get good sleep at night. When you have forgiven others. There's a verse in the book of Lamentations. In the Old Testament. The Lamentations of Jeremiah. The book that comes after Jeremiah. It says here. Lamentations 3.22 and 23. His mercies never fail. They are new every morning. And I meditated on that. What does it mean that the Lord's mercies are new every morning? I understand that to mean. That God looks at me every morning. As if. He's never shown mercy to me ever before. That if I slip up. This morning. His mercies are new. Say son that's the first time I'm forgiving you. That is how complete. His forgiveness for us is in the past. These pictures. Really help us to understand. What tremendous wealth there is of meaning. There is in forgiveness of sins. According to the riches of his grace. I hope you've experienced it. And as I said. Treat other people like that. When you see that man who's done harm to you. Or that woman. Who's done evil to you. May your mercies be new. Every morning. To look at that person as if. You really never forgiven him before. It's a wonderful way to live. You will live your life on a far higher plane. Of the Christian life. Than you've ever lived so far. That's number one. Second. Grace is in Romans 6. And verse 14. We are talking about the. Real meaning of that grace. That came through Jesus Christ. Which is not available in Old Testament times. And we saw all that I mentioned so far. Of the forgiveness of sins. And cleansing from sin by the blood of Jesus. Was never available in the Old Testament. Do you know the difference between. Being covered by the blood of Jesus. And cleansed by the blood of Jesus. Many Christians. Even in their songs. Sometimes use expressions. That are never found in the New Testament. I've become very exact. In quoting scripture. Exactly like it's written. Because. Sometimes I may be saying something. Which is not true. For example. There is no sin. As being covered. By the blood of Jesus. You'll never find it in the New Testament. The blood of bulls and goats. Covered the sins of people. In the Old Testament. Blessed is the man whose sin is covered. It was not cleansed. You know what. The difference between. Covered and cleansed is. If I were to put it. If all my sins were written down on this. Board. And I put a sheet over it. It's covered. But if I lift up the sheet. It's there. Cleansed is. If I get a wet sponge. And wipe it all out. It's gone. It's gone. That's the difference. Between covered and cleansed. Nowhere does it say. The blood of Christ covers us. It says the blood of Jesus. Cleanses us. It's gone. Completely. Praise the Lord. Another. Expression that people use about the blood is. I'm under the blood. I'm not under the blood. Those are the Egyptians. I mean the Israelites in Egypt. Who were. Under the blood of the Passover lamb. So the angel of death. Didn't go over there. So many expressions. Christians use. And they don't enjoy. The full benefit of the New Covenant. Because they use expressions. Which are never found in the New Testament. No apostle ever spoke about being under the blood. You're cleansed by the blood. We become wealthy. When we use scripture. And understand scripture. Exactly as it is written. Don't misquote. The word of God. It's a serious crime. Even to misquote a human being. How much more to misquote God's word. So. I'm not under the blood. People talk about sprinkling the blood over. Amazing. Over a building. And all that rubbish. That's all the blood of bulls and goats. Over the tabernacle. The blood of Christ. Doesn't cleanse buildings. Or any such thing. It only cleanses the human heart. So just some clarification on that. Romans 6.14. The second meaning of grace. Grace is not only that. Which brings forgiveness of sins. Grace is that which. Keeps me from falling into sin. Not be master over you. Shall not have dominion over you. Because you're not under law. But under grace. This is one step higher now. This is not speaking about. Forgiveness of sins. This is deliverance from the power of sin. Sin has ruled every man. Since the day of Adam. It's ruled us from the day of our birth. It's been our ruler. It's been our master. And think of this wonderful word which says. Once you really come under the riches of God's grace. Sin will be your master. Isn't that a deliverance? It's a tremendous deliverance. Why is it so many Christians don't experience it? They don't know the truth. Jesus once said in John 8.32. You shall know the truth. And the truth shall set you free. And when the Jews heard that. They said what do you mean set us free? We are not slaves to anybody. They were actually slaves to the Romans. They pretended that they were not. But it was not a human slavery that Jesus was speaking about. He was talking about slavery to sin. And he went on in that. Further down in that chapter to say. Whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. But the slave cannot remain in the house forever. But the son remains in the house forever. And the son of God makes you free. You'll be free indeed. You shall know the truth. And the truth shall set you free. No wonder the devil does not want believers to know. The truth. About that grace. That can deliver you from the power of sin. The Bible says in 2nd Corinthians 4. About Satan blinding the minds of those who believe. Of those who don't believe. He blinds the minds of those who don't believe. So that they can't see. Well let me tell you what that means. The first thing that the devil blinds people's minds to. Is the fact that they don't have to pay any price. For the forgiveness of sins. It is completely paid on Calvary. And that's why you have millions of people around the world. Millions and billions. Who do all types of things. To get forgiveness of sins. They burn candles. They go on pilgrimages. They collect holy water. They go to get baptized in the river Jordan. To get forgiveness of sins. All types of crazy things. And in other religions they roll on the ground. And pierce themselves. And cut themselves to get forgiveness of sins. And the devil blinds them to the fact that they've got to do nothing. Forgiveness of sins is absolutely free. And when our eyes are open to that. Man is so proud that he can't receive a free gift from God. It's like I said. If a judge. The father fines his son. A heavy fine. And says okay son I'll pay my life savings. Here's a check. And the son is too proud to take the check. No I don't want to take that. I don't take any gifts like that. Then he's got to go to prison. All he's got to do is receive it free. So there's something about the pride in man. That prevents him from wanting to receive something free. The devil blinds him to that. But if he's like in our case here. He did not succeed. In blinding your eyes to. The truth of forgiveness. Okay then he's going to blind your eyes to the next step. Let me blind them to the fact. That they can overcome those sinful traits in them. In their life. They can overcome those sinful habits in their life. Let me convince them that they'll. In their lifetime they'll never overcome anger. They'll keep on lusting with their lives. Till their dying day. They will never overcome their jealousy. Their murmuring and complaining. They'll never overcome. Let me convince them that they'll never overcome this. Never overcome that. Never come. Even though the Bible says we have to overcome this. That blinds us to the truth that we can overcome it. What is the difference between the way the devil. Blinded you. To the truth of overcoming sin. And blinded a lot of heathen people. To forgiveness of sins. They think they have to do it. They have to do something. Some works. And you know it's not a works. It's free. It's the same here. You think you have to struggle and struggle and struggle. And overcome those bad habits. That's exactly how the devil blinds you. Just like he blinds those people. To think that you'll struggle and struggle and struggle. And get the forgiveness of sins. He blinds Christians to think. That they're going to struggle and struggle and struggle. And get victory over sin. It's not like that. Sin shall not have dominion over you. Because you're under grace. You need to understand what grace is. This is more than the grace of forgiveness. This is the grace that gives us power. To overcome sin. This is the blessing of the new covenant. Forgiveness of sins. Was there. Turn with me to Psalm 103. It says in Psalm 103. Bless the Lord O my soul and all that's within me. Forget none of his benefits. A thousand years before Christ. Remember the time. One thousand B.C. David says there are four blessings I've got from God. Listen to these four blessings. First of all. Verse three. Forget none of his benefits. Number one. He pardons all your iniquities. Total forgiveness of sins. Old covenant. They look forward to the death of Christ. Like we look backward to the death of Christ. Forgiveness. Number two. He heals all your diseases. Healing. Which a lot of people are preaching today. Is not a new covenant blessing. It's an old covenant blessing. Number three. He redeems your life from the pit of hell. Deliverance from hell. Is an old covenant blessing. And verse four. Satisfies your years with good things of this material world. Material blessing. So what are the four blessings of the old covenant. Which he says don't forget these benefits of God. One. Forgiveness of sins. Two. Three. Deliverance from the pit of hell. Four. Blessed with material blessings. Do you hear that gospel being preached today by some preachers. That Jesus has come to give you. Forgiveness of sins. Deliverance. Healing from disease. Deliverance from hell. And blessed with material things. It's called the health wealth gospel. The prosperity gospel. It's an old covenant gospel. It's what David experienced one thousand years before Christ. Then you say what is the new covenant. The new covenant is. You will be delivered from the power of sin. They could never experience that in the old testament. And all these prosperity gospel preachers. Never tell you about deliverance from the power of sin. They are defeated by the power of sin themselves. These preachers. And to show you the folly of this teaching. Of Jesus offering us health and wealth. I mention it because. I mean fifty years ago or seventy eight years ago. Nobody preached it. It's a new gospel. It's a false gospel. The ridiculousness of this. Think for a moment. Every human being in the world. Every religion. Poor or rich. Wants two things. Health. And wealth. We have new people in India. Every one of them wants health and wealth. The richest businessmen in the world. What do they want? Health and wealth. They want wealth and health to enjoy their wealth. So the richest people in the world. And the poorest people in the world. There's one thing they both want. Health. Two things they both want. Health and wealth. Now if that is what. Seven billion or in Jesus time. Whatever the population was. All the millions and millions of people in the world. In Jesus time. All the people in Israel. Let's say all the Pharisees. They wanted health and wealth. And if Jesus had come to offer health and wealth. Why in the world did they kill him? They should have crowned him. The Pharisees should have crowned him. Didn't the Pharisees want health and wealth? Sure. That is the clearest proof that that's not what he came to offer. He came to offer them. Deliverance from the power of sin. And they didn't want that. The Bible says they were lovers of money. They loved their position. And honor and titles and all that. And Jesus came to deliver them from all that. They didn't want it. If it was only health and wealth he offered. Why did he accept it in Israel? That shows the folly of people preaching that message today. And I'll tell you what surprises me even more. Is the number of dumb believers who sit and watch these television preachers. And send them all their money. That's what really surprises me. More than the preachers themselves. I mean how dumb can you be? It's because of a tremendous ignorance of scripture among today's Christians. Today's Christians know more about TV stars. And football players. And hockey players. Than they know about Jesus Christ and the apostles. And the Bible. That's a tragedy. And where the devil sees that you have a generation of people growing up. Who don't know the scriptures. He can fool them with anything. So remember this my brothers and sisters. You could read Romans 6.14 to a 10 year old child. I could ask a 10 year old child. Son. Read just this verse. You don't need to know any other verse. Sin will not rule over you. Because you are not under law. But under grace. And I ask him this simple question. What is the mark that you are under grace? That 10 year old will say. Sin will not rule over me. And I ask him from this verse only. What is the mark that you are still under law? Sin rules over me. Absolutely right my son. Think of the number of clever believers. Who haven't understood that simple statement. Let me read it to you again. Sin will not rule over you. Because you are not under law. But under grace. Read it slowly. Sin will not rule over you. When you are under grace. Sin will not rule over you. Because you are not under law. Or sin will rule over you. When you are under law. I think they are under grace. Or actually under law. Let me illustrate that. From the disciples fishing. In John chapter 21. This is the disciples struggling. Struggling to catch fish. Six o'clock in the evening. Seven o'clock. Eight o'clock. Nine o'clock. Ten o'clock. Midnight. No fish. One o'clock. Two o'clock. Three o'clock. This is life under the law. It's a burden. And Jesus says, Come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden. And I'll give you rest from this endless striving. And Jesus appears in the morning at five o'clock and says, Who says he doesn't have a sense of humor? He says, Boys have you got any fish? With all your struggling all through the night. He knows the answer. He knows they haven't got anything. He says, I'll give it to you. Cast your net on the right side. That's grace. All the rest was law. They accomplished nothing. Your years of struggle. You'll never overcome. Law is man struggling to please God and never attaining it. Grace is God's power. Grace is a power. You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. Zechariah 12 10 says, I'll pour up the spirit of grace upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem. That's what happened on the day of Pentecost. The spirit of grace. The spirit of power. Let me show you two verses. Hebrews 13 and verse 8. Sorry. Yeah. Hebrews. Sorry. Hebrews 13 verse 9. Hebrews 13 verse 9. In the middle of that verse it says, It is good for the heart to be strengthened by what? By grace. Grace is something that gives us strength in our heart to keep sin out of the heart. So we see there that grace is a power. It's more than forgiveness. It is a power to keep my heart strong, to keep temptation out. It is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace and not by foods means, by various doctrines Another verse. 2 Timothy chapter 2. 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 1. Paul writing to Timothy and says, You therefore, 2 Timothy 2 verse 1, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ. Grace is a strength. And that's what the devil has blinded people's minds to. If your heart is not strengthened by grace, you don't have the strength to keep temptation out. That's the only reason why temptation keeps coming in. Because you are not strengthened by grace. So if you believe that God will strengthen you by His grace to overcome sin, you know, we don't get anything in scripture unless we believe. The promises in scripture are like checks. If somebody sends you a check for $100,000 and you admire it and frame it up you get nothing. You get a promise from scripture and you just frame it and put it up on your wall you get nothing. Take it to the bank of heaven and cash it in the name of Jesus Christ. You get it. That's what a lot of people are not doing with the promises of scripture. Lord, I want grace, not just as forgiveness, but power. Help me to, to know the truth and the truth shall set you free. Hebrews 4. Here is revealed an amazing truth that is not found anywhere else in the scriptures. Hebrews is an amazing book. It's a very precious book. If you go to our church website or to YouTube, any one of these, and put my name and put through the Bible a study of 70 hours from Genesis to Revelation that I have taken. In 70 hours, an overview of the whole Bible. Just go to YouTube and put Zach Poon in through the Bible and you'll get a list of all those 70 messages that you can take time to listen to. Even if you spend a half an hour a day or 15 minutes a day in three or four months you've covered the whole Bible. And in that 70 hours I have equal time on all the books. I spent four hours out of 70. It's a very, very important book. Not so popular with Christians. Here is an amazing truth in Hebrews 4.15. In Jesus Christ we don't have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weakness. He's a high priest who can sympathize with our weakness. Not physical weakness, but the weakness that we have of always falling into sin because we are tempted. But He is one. Listen to this. This is the most amazing truth found nowhere else in scripture. Jesus was tempted in all things exactly as we are but did not sin. You've got to go through that slowly. It's one of the most amazing truths in the New Testament that Jesus Christ lived on earth. He did not give up being God. He was God. That's why people worshipped Him and He accepted it. But He had given up the privileges of God and lived on earth as a man so He could be tempted. The Bible says God cannot be tempted. But we know from Matthew 4 Jesus was tempted. How did that happen? Because though He was God He did not use His privileges as God. He emptied Himself of deity. So He allowed Himself to be tempted. How much? Here it says tempted in every single point as we are. Tell me what you are tempted by. Jesus was tempted in that. Tell me something else you are tempted with. Jesus was tempted in that. You young people, what are you tempted with? Jesus was tempted in that but He did not sin. And He did not have any more resources than we have, the Holy Spirit. Because if He overcame as God He could not say to us follow me. Impossible. I'd say Lord don't tell me to follow you. I can admire you. Say admire me. Don't tell me to follow you. But Jesus never said admire me. Follow me, follow me. Think of an angel who came with his wings and took you to a swimming pool to teach you how to swim. He crossed the swimming pool and said follow me. I'd say hang on, I can't follow you. You get rid of your wings first and fly across this earth without being tempted like us and says follow me. I'd say Lord don't tease me. I can't follow you. The only way He could say to us follow me is because of this verse. He was tempted exactly like us not in one or two points in every point. In 33 and a half years He completed the whole range of temptation that every human being in history has ever faced and He overcame it all but every temptation we are tempted by He had overcome. So there's a depth of meaning and it is finished beyond what we have understood till now. I hope you got a new revelation today. And so what? We may say so what if Jesus did that? Are we supposed to admire Him? No, we're supposed to follow Him. In the next verse it says therefore, therefore what? Let us draw near with boldness to this throne of grace which no one in the Old Testament could come to and when we come there we get two things. Verse 16. We first receive mercy. Mercy refers to our past life. Forgiveness for all the guilt of my life. Mercy is an old covenant word. Bless the Lord. Bless the Lord for His mercy endureth forever. Repeated many times in the Old Testament. Mercy, mercy, mercy, forgiveness, He needed it because He never sinned. But we need it because we have sinned. Mercy, we need it till the end of our life because we slip up and fall. But then once we receive mercy we receive grace which is for the future. Grace is help to overcome sin. Help it says here grace to help. We already saw that grace is a power that strengthens our heart. It's called help in time of need. What need? Not financial need. In time of temptation we are in need. Let me illustrate it. Supposing you are a mountain climber and you decide to climb a mountain without any ropes or anything and you slip and you're hanging by your fingers on a cliff and you're too proud to ask for help. You struggle, struggle, struggle slip and fall to the ground and break your bones and cry for help and an ambulance comes and picks you up to fix your bones. That's mercy. It fixes your bones and straightens you up and you start climbing again. The next time you climb again you're slipped and you're hanging by your fingers on a cliff and you say Lord give me grace and you find the arms of God coming up in your armpits and putting you on on the rock. That's grace. Both was help. One was help after you fell before you fell. We've often received help after we fell. That's mercy. How often are you going to keep on living like that calling the ambulance every time? There is a better way. Ask for help when you're tempted when you're just about to fall. This is I can give you some homework. Next time you're tempted with whatever your besetting sin is maybe it's pornography. A lot of Christians sneakily watching pornography on the computer. Maybe pictures of tempted. The pressure is so strong. Or it's anger. You're trying to resist it. You're gritting your teeth and controlling it and you're about to slip into whatever sin it is. Don't wait till you fall. Say Lord Jesus give me grace to help me. Now is my time of need. You'll be amazed to see in a few moments if you didn't fall where you've fallen so often in the past and you'll begin to experience the power of grace. I speak from personal experience. Fallen more often than you. I learned grace. I don't say that I overcome sin. I say Jesus keeps me from falling. If this pen doesn't fall and it says I overcame gravity it's stupid. And if I say I it's equally stupid. If the pen is honest it'll say Zach's life keeps me from falling. If Zach were dead I would fall. Zach is alive. Jesus is alive. He keeps me from falling. This is salvation. This is the fullness of salvation. Don't miss it. Don't wait till you get to heaven and discover that you could have lived an overcoming life here. In heaven there'll be no temptation. It'll be too late to experience it. Now is the time to prove your love for your Savior by saying I want to live this life of grace. Number three. 2 Corinthians in chapter 12 and verse 9. My grace is sufficient for you for my power is perfected in weakness. Now we're just talking not about sin but about our weakness. See Paul had a thorn in the flesh. I don't have time to go into that. But just this God allowed him to have a sickness. I believe it is a sickness because he calls it in 2 Corinthians 12 a messenger of Satan. You know that it was Satan who gave sickness to Job. And it is some messenger of Satan. Now when a messenger of Satan comes upon your body of course we would think the best thing is to get rid of it. God would definitely remove it. But for some amazing reason he told Paul I'm not going to remove it. That a messenger of Satan afflicts the body and God says I'm not going to remove it even the great apostle Paul. That teaches me that there are afflictions that come upon us on this sin-cursed earth that sometimes God does not remove. Don't believe those who say that Jesus heals all your diseases in the same way that he forgives all your sins. I'll tell you the honest truth. It is not true. There are as many sick people in Pentecostal churches who preach healing as there are in Baptist churches who don't preach healing. If you don't believe it go and check the statistics. It's absolutely equal. Only thing some are living in a delusion that Jesus heals everything. It's not true. I mean anyone who's got his eyes open knows it's not true. It's not the same. There is a promise that he forgives all our sins if he confesses it. There's not a single promise that if I ask him to heal me he'll heal me from all my diseases. Sometimes Lord take it away from me and the Lord said no. Second time, no. Third time, no. Lord then tell me why. Because Paul you need something to keep you humble. My grace is sufficient for you. Who said that Jesus heals everybody? He didn't heal Paul. You know that Timothy had stomach infirmities. 1 Timothy in chapter 5 Paul says you have frequent stomach ailments. You have not only, I'm sorry you have frequent ailments for the sake of your stomach and frequent ailments. I don't know what the frequent sicknesses Timothy had. Paul said about Timothy in Philippians 2 he's the most wholehearted of all my co-workers. Philippians 2 19 to 21. The most wholehearted of Paul's co-workers had frequent sicknesses. That was Timothy's thorn in the flesh. Demas who had forsaken Paul and loving this present world he was probably healthy because God didn't care for him. He could become proud and go his way and go to hell if it mattered but Timothy was a precious man. He had to be kept humble because God gives his grace only to the humble. God doesn't give grace to anybody. 1 Peter 5 verse 5 says God gives grace to the humble and if the only way he can be humble is by sickness he'll make him sick because he wants to give him grace. He doesn't want him to be his enemy. In 2 Timothy 4 towards the end of that chapter Paul says I prayed for him he couldn't get healed. This is the truth of scripture. And when Jesus when the Lord told Paul my grace is sufficient for you because my strength that comes through grace is enough to take care of this weakness he teaches us that all the circumstances in our life where we have our body and our mind which other people also face in the world and I can experience a grace that doesn't remove the sickness Paul's thorn in the flesh never left him but it helped him to overcome it and live and triumph over it. And I've seen and heard of people who have tremendous ailments and overcome it by the grace of God and manifested the grace of God with a smiling face and I've seen paralytics with the joy of the Lord on the face much more than healthy people because they've received grace. So that's the third area where we can grace. Some of you may be facing a trial for which you prayed and prayed and prayed and no answer has come. It looks as if but don't just live with it. Ask God for grace. You can have a cheerful countenance and overcome that and be a reflection and be a tremendous testimony for Christ with your ailment. Very often God allows us to face some things that the people in the world face and to show us that with that affliction we can still overcome by grace. So that's the third area of grace. Grace to help us in some type of physical limitation or weakness. So there's grace that forgives our sins. There's grace that gives us power to overcome in temptation and limitations and sicknesses that we may face that never get healed. Whenever I've had a little sickness I have a few ailments it's just a fulfillment of scripture which says the outer man decays. I just made sure the inner man is renewed. So the inner man is renewed by grace. So as the outer man decays and we get a few ailments here and there I have prayed like this I said Lord I know you can heal me you've got power but if you think my present need more than healing is for grace then give me grace. But I ask you for one of the two I won't let you go unless you give me one of the two you either heal me or give me grace. You're not going to let me go without either. So that's been my prayer. Sometimes he heals sometimes he doesn't heal but when he doesn't heal he gives me grace so that I don't complain I don't murmur I don't rumble I triumph over it and I say praise the Lord. I'm a happy man even if my body is not healed and that ailment is still there. It's wonderful. This is the victorious Christian life that we can live by grace that overcomes all circumstances thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ. And I want to say to you my dear brothers and sisters this is your portion this is the true grace of God. There is a false grace there is a cheap grace what you've heard today in these three areas is that we can take care of every aspect of your life. May the Lord bless you. Let's pray. Heavenly Father as we bow before you we pray that you will help us to experience this and not just hear about it and understand it not just to be able to explain it to others help us to forgive first of all everyone who's ever harmed us and everyone as soon as they harm us. Never to wish evil for anyone in the world. Help us Lord to claim from you from the throne of grace that help in the time of need in the time of temptation and Lord give us grace to overcome the physical limitations that we face in a sin-cursed world so that nothing can put us down but we can always walk in triumph as more than conquerors through Christ who loved us. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.