God has shown us His favor.
I always notice the word, the pronouns, the adjectives--that tell you who you are. You know, 'we' and 'us' and 'ye' have a tremendous difference from 'them' and 'those. We is in the family, them is in somebody else's family--in the case, the devil's kids.
"Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, by grace ye are saved; And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them" (Ephesians 2:5-10).
Christ ain't go no cancer, He's not cutting you out once you are in . . . You are in His body . . . you are perfect! The new man is perfect. As a matter of fact, I don't hardly get it. Sometimes I read this. God, You are going to make me sit in heavenly places? As a Catholic I would have crawled on glass to get there. But it says, "He MADE me!" Why? To remove all doubt. And that new person which He made of me is in the body of Christ RIGHT NOW! That is your position. That is your standing. We stand in the Lord Jesus Christ. But what changes? It's the body down here--that is the state. And Christians don't know that and that is why they are going crazy. And they are either giving in entirely to the flesh, or they getting so deep in the spirit that you can't find them.
Because they don't know doctrine!
Didn't the Bible just tell you that He made you to sit? That's what He said. Believe what He said! That's a good thing, isn't it?
And look what else He goes on to say in verse 7 . . . We are talking about the favor of God to us.
We're talking about the favor of God to us, it wasn't because of our goodness--it's because of what God's done for us. Yea, I know . . . 'favor' . . . isn't used in the verse, but kindness is--so work with me, m'kay?
"That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:7).
And then there is the passage for those that think they are good enough to work . . .
"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9).
And in case anyone doesn't know what a gift it, He explains it . . . "NOT OF WORKS! LEST ... ANY ... MAN ... SHOULD ... BOAST!"
I mean for you to give your kid a gift at Christmas or birthday and let them get all excited, and then you take it away and say, "I need five bucks!" That kid, man . . . I don't know . . . matter he'll grow up to be a serial killer or something. You wouldn't give nobody a gift and then charge them! That's not a gift! So that's why God right there in verse 9 says "Not of works, lest any man should boast!" If we worked for heaven it wouldn't be heaven any more--it would be a living hell--everyone would be comparing, right? Everyone would be comparing what they did to get up there, and what boasting!
It's not going to be like that.
And then in verse 13: "But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ."
Blood! That's what washes you, that's what cleanses you, that's what purifies your conscience. It's like I said before, as you grow in the Lord--you start to notice things. When the aged saints talk to you--listen a little bit. It took me a long time to figure out--you know, you go an sin--say something wrong, do something wrong and you feel so bad. And the Holy Spirit puts you under conviction, and the devil says you are a mess--how can you do that if you are saved? And then you go through all that stuff, right? And then you finally turn to God and say, "I'm sorry!"
And the Blood of Jesus Christ does something with your conscience, because it's like the peace of God comes in. It's like that's already been dealt with. And you keep serving God. How in the world can you keep serving God? Because your conscience has been purged by the Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ--He is our Advocate. You go to Him and do what the Bible tells you to do and you will be fine down here on the planet earth. Your flesh will do what all flesh does--it rebels against this Book and the Holy Ghost. And when you know that, you start to get some power from the Holy Spirit to tell this old flesh what to do. And that is how you grow in the Lord and maintain it. It's amazing.
"For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father" (Ephesians 2:18).
Note the capital S in Spirit. Not our human spirit, but God's Spirit of promise. What does that mean? It means that we can "come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." BOLDLY! We know Who God is. He says, "Come in boldly." Simply in other words, "Come unto me!" To do what? TO OBTAIN MERCY! Because we need it. We are in the flesh. We are in this world.
As we think of the Favor of God, you think of the Father's love for us . . . it's just an amazing thing.
- We are assured of heaven, according to Scripture.
- We can know His presence, because of His Blood.
- We can communicate with Him freely and boldly, because of His Spirit.
"Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession" (Hebrews 4:14).
The Bible instructs us not to lose hope, not to give up. You believe that He saved you? Don't let nobody rob you of that. You hold fast to that . . . don't let nobody rock your boat.
Jesus Christ our Lord knows what we are going through . . .
"For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin" (Hebrews 4:15).
I always notice the word, the pronouns, the adjectives--that tell you who you are. You know, 'we' and 'us' and 'ye' have a tremendous difference from 'them' and 'those. We is in the family, them is in somebody else's family--in the case, the devil's kids.
"Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, by grace ye are saved; And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them" (Ephesians 2:5-10).
Christ ain't go no cancer, He's not cutting you out once you are in . . . You are in His body . . . you are perfect! The new man is perfect. As a matter of fact, I don't hardly get it. Sometimes I read this. God, You are going to make me sit in heavenly places? As a Catholic I would have crawled on glass to get there. But it says, "He MADE me!" Why? To remove all doubt. And that new person which He made of me is in the body of Christ RIGHT NOW! That is your position. That is your standing. We stand in the Lord Jesus Christ. But what changes? It's the body down here--that is the state. And Christians don't know that and that is why they are going crazy. And they are either giving in entirely to the flesh, or they getting so deep in the spirit that you can't find them.
Because they don't know doctrine!
Didn't the Bible just tell you that He made you to sit? That's what He said. Believe what He said! That's a good thing, isn't it?
And look what else He goes on to say in verse 7 . . . We are talking about the favor of God to us.
We're talking about the favor of God to us, it wasn't because of our goodness--it's because of what God's done for us. Yea, I know . . . 'favor' . . . isn't used in the verse, but kindness is--so work with me, m'kay?
"That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:7).
And then there is the passage for those that think they are good enough to work . . .
"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9).
And in case anyone doesn't know what a gift it, He explains it . . . "NOT OF WORKS! LEST ... ANY ... MAN ... SHOULD ... BOAST!"
I mean for you to give your kid a gift at Christmas or birthday and let them get all excited, and then you take it away and say, "I need five bucks!" That kid, man . . . I don't know . . . matter he'll grow up to be a serial killer or something. You wouldn't give nobody a gift and then charge them! That's not a gift! So that's why God right there in verse 9 says "Not of works, lest any man should boast!" If we worked for heaven it wouldn't be heaven any more--it would be a living hell--everyone would be comparing, right? Everyone would be comparing what they did to get up there, and what boasting!
It's not going to be like that.
And then in verse 13: "But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ."
Blood! That's what washes you, that's what cleanses you, that's what purifies your conscience. It's like I said before, as you grow in the Lord--you start to notice things. When the aged saints talk to you--listen a little bit. It took me a long time to figure out--you know, you go an sin--say something wrong, do something wrong and you feel so bad. And the Holy Spirit puts you under conviction, and the devil says you are a mess--how can you do that if you are saved? And then you go through all that stuff, right? And then you finally turn to God and say, "I'm sorry!"
And the Blood of Jesus Christ does something with your conscience, because it's like the peace of God comes in. It's like that's already been dealt with. And you keep serving God. How in the world can you keep serving God? Because your conscience has been purged by the Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ--He is our Advocate. You go to Him and do what the Bible tells you to do and you will be fine down here on the planet earth. Your flesh will do what all flesh does--it rebels against this Book and the Holy Ghost. And when you know that, you start to get some power from the Holy Spirit to tell this old flesh what to do. And that is how you grow in the Lord and maintain it. It's amazing.
"For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father" (Ephesians 2:18).
Note the capital S in Spirit. Not our human spirit, but God's Spirit of promise. What does that mean? It means that we can "come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." BOLDLY! We know Who God is. He says, "Come in boldly." Simply in other words, "Come unto me!" To do what? TO OBTAIN MERCY! Because we need it. We are in the flesh. We are in this world.
As we think of the Favor of God, you think of the Father's love for us . . . it's just an amazing thing.
- We are assured of heaven, according to Scripture.
- We can know His presence, because of His Blood.
- We can communicate with Him freely and boldly, because of His Spirit.
"Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession" (Hebrews 4:14).
The Bible instructs us not to lose hope, not to give up. You believe that He saved you? Don't let nobody rob you of that. You hold fast to that . . . don't let nobody rock your boat.
Jesus Christ our Lord knows what we are going through . . .
"For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin" (Hebrews 4:15).
