(This
text was taken from the first service of the 2003
Labor Day - Tape 03LH9-1.)
(Part 1 was published in our
Sept/Oct 2003 Voices From His Excellent Glory and
Part 2 in our Nov/Dec 2003
issue.)
Hebrews
4:16, "Let us therefore come
boldly." I want to dissect this
just a moment. Boldly unto the throne of grace. What
for? That you may obtain mercy. Now, how in the world
can you come boldly when you know you are guilty?
Listen, it says, "to obtain mercy".
That's how good God is. God is not mad at us, folks.
Jesus took all the wrath and the anger that God had
towards sin … Jesus took it for us. So we can
come boldly to the throne of grace to obtain mercy
and find grace to help in time of need. Listen, the
only time you can come boldly is to have an
understanding of how loving God is. You have to
understand the power of the cross. And it's not just
to come and get us delivered from the mess we are in,
but it is to redeem us back to what God had in mind
when He made man. This is greater than getting just
temporarily fixed or even well fixed so you can live
your life for yourself. God delivers us. He saves us.
He frees us from the power of darkness for His
purposes.
II
Corinthians 5:21 says, "For He hath
made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we
might be made the righteousness of God in Him."
He was made to be sin for the vilest sinner. Your
life may be entangled in such a mess and it might be
your fault. Most of the problems I've had, I've
caused. That's the truth. I can't blame so and so
over here. It says, He knew no sin, that you or we
might be made the righteousness of God in Him. I want
everyone in here to understand, you'll never live
right, trying to live right. If it doesn't get in
your heart, it's an outward expression and you'll
never measure up. You've got to understand the love
of God. You can get all the fullness of God by
knowing the love of Jesus. It's what the Scripture
says. That you might be able to comprehend the
height, depth width and breadth of the love of God
and to know the love of Christ that passeth
knowledge, that you might be filled with all the
fullness of Him. How much is left? I'm telling you,
to understand God's love will give us the greatest
desire to not sin. Why? The Bible says, we love Him.
Why? Because He first loved us. We've got to
understand how much He loves us.
I want
you to know this. God took everything we deserved and
He put it on Jesus. And He took everything Jesus
deserved and put it to our account. That's mercy.
That's mercy. God took our sin and He put it on Jesus
and He took Jesus' righteousness and He put it on us.
There was an exchange. I traded my sins for
salvation. I traded a load for relief. I got so much
more than I traded for. You see, sometimes we get to
thinking that our sin can deplete the mercy of God.
But the Bible said, where sin did abound, grace did
much more abound.
I gave
an example in our church one time. I said, you get a
teeter totter and you put a hundred pound sack of
feed on it. Better get a strong one. You say, boy,
that's hard to pull down. We'll call that sin. Hard
to get up. And then you get twenty ton and drop on
the other end. That thing will end up … the
Bible says, I will remember your sins no more. Where
sin did abound - where it seemed like it was
oppressive and heavy and strong, God's grace did much
more abound. It's so important to grasp that He took
what I deserved and I got what He deserved. That's
love. That's mercy. You may look and say, but you're
a preacher, but you're a pastor. I don't care. We
could exchange horror stories but it wouldn't be
profitable. There is no one in here that doesn't need
the blood applied. It took the cross for every person
here.
In
Ephesians 2:8,9, it says, "For by
grace", that's the divine
influence of God, "are you saved,
through faith, that not of yourself, it's the gift of
God." Now, a lot of people use
that word saved. I use it different. "By
grace are you saved". By grace are
you made whole, redeemed, set back to the original.
See, now if we don't want to accept it by faith then
we are going to get what the church world gives us,
what religion gives us. And we'll die in a few years
and we'll struggle and have our problems and all
that. But by grace, by the divine influence of the
power of the cross, are you saved. Listen, if sin
came by one man and death by sin, and everything that
has gone wrong is because of that fall and that sin,
then if Jesus didn't pay the price … I've never
seen a sentence revoked or somebody pardoned and they
have to stay in jail. We say Jesus signed our pardon
but we still have to stay in jail and we get out at
the resurrection. Something's wrong. I mean, religion
always robs us. It plunders us.
As a
matter of fact in the book of Colossians, 2:8, "Beware,
lest any man spoil you." That word
spoil doesn't mean rot like an apple. It means
plunder you, take away your goods. Don't let anybody,
don't let any religion take away what the cross
provided for you. I'm telling you it provided more
than we've been told. It provided more than we've
laid hold of. And we can only lay hold of it, the
Bible says by faith in the operation of God which He
wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead.
In other words we have to have faith in the operation
of God.
The
Lord willing, I will be teaching on what the work of
God is. The work of God is not what most people think
it is. I'll tell you something, it is to believe on
Him who God has sent. You say, but that's too easy.
You see, it's easy to get people healed when they
understand. What's hard is to get rid of their
doubts. Everybody in here has enough faith to be
healed. Peter walked on water with a little faith.
Everybody has enough faith to be healed but what we
have to do is remove the doubts. And the doubts come
because of our understanding and our doctrines and
our religions and things, and our guilt and
condemnation and things like that. You know what
happens is we end up having more confidence in our
failures than we do in the power of God to deliver.
People actually have more faith in what they failed
in, than they do the success of Jesus. And we've had
that when we pray for people.
I've
had people to come when I'm pastoring a church, and
as people would come I would try and discern which
one the Lord wanted to heal. And buddy, if I'd known
what you did yesterday, you'd just as well stayed sat
down, because I wouldn't have any faith for you to
get healed because you didn't deserve it. I was
trying to discern because I didn't understand the
will of God and the Word of God. Listen, Jesus should
be our doctrine and He healed all that came to Him.
And here's the thing, you wonder when you're praying
for somebody or if you're getting prayer, do I have
enough faith to be healed? You aren't supposed to
have faith in your faith.
This is
a true key. God spoke to me when I was traveling, I
didn't tell you to have faith in your faith. You know
what God told me to have? What He told you to have?
He said, "Have faith in God." That's easy
You know God has never failed. He has never lied. He
never cheated. He never looked the wrong way at a
woman or a man. He has never failed in any way. Have
faith in God. And you know, if you have faith in God,
you can get what you desire.
See, a
lot of people are hung up. They don't get healed
because they are connecting their faith to something
they did wrong. Listen, just repent and get right.
And have faith in God. Then you can come boldly to
get mercy. It's easy. We've seen so many people get
healed because they get unhung from what's keeping
them from receiving. They've been prayed for many
times over the years and never get healed because
they hung up on some concept or they had faith in
their faith. How many times have you had more
confidence in God when you knew you had been doing
alright? But you realize that God has never changed.
His desire is the same when you was messed up as it
was when you were right. God is the same. In Him
there is no variable nor shadow of turning. He is not
changing His mind back and forth.
So,
what we have to understand is that God is good. What
is it? All the time! And He wants to show you His
goodness to lead you to repentance. To lead you to
turn around. And I tell you what, when you start to
understand how much He loves you, the more I see
about Jesus, the more I feel like I'm just a beginner
in this. And the more I understand, the more I want
to do right. It doesn't have anything to do with
legalism. It doesn't have anything to do with trying
to keep some rules and regulations and I better not
do this, it's because I don't want to. It's in my
heart. He paid too much for us to not lay hold of
what He bought for us. The preaching of the cross is
the power of God unto salvation. Salvation is to be
made whole from everything the fall brought. That's
true salvation. Otherwise, we've just got partial
salvation and we'll get the rest later. But you see,
the Scriptures teach that He has not withheld any
good thing from us. As a matter of fact it says, He
has given us all things that pertain to life and
godliness.
I hope
you can receive the mercy of God during this meeting.
Have faith in God. While you were His enemy, He
wanted you saved. Listen, He wants you delivered now.
He wants you set free now and so have faith in God.
Don't have faith in any of the circumstances you have
faced or that you are in, have faith in God's
goodness. And you know what, it'd be easy to get
people delivered then. Because they have the faith
and I got the faith, or you've got the faith and
satan doesn't have a chance. I mean, if they have
confidence in God's goodness. See a lot of people are
hung up on this kind of stuff. Well, I got this
because I did this and so I really deserve it. They
are hung up. And it's almost like pulling teeth to
get a devil out sometimes. Not that they don't want
him out but they can't get passed the guilt and all
these other things that are of their own mind. But
God's mercy. I'm telling you something, they are new
every morning. He wants you delivered. God took a
mess … I showed you three. There are many in the
Scriptures. But God took what should not have been
and made something glorious out of what I never would
have allowed, if I was the judge. He brought forth
Jesus out of a murdered husband and an adulterous man
(David). Only God could do that, could forgive and
bring forth something righteous. That's the greatness
of our God, isn't it? Praise the Lord.
Let's
stand together. Praise the Lord. I encourage you to
receive His mercy. And I trust there are some things
I have said tonight will touch your heart. Like I
said, one of the greatest things that set me free,
and I mean set me free to where it's fun to see
people healed, it's fun to see people delivered, it's
fun, because it is easier than I had ever thought.
Because I don't have to have faith in me anymore.
We have
a saying at our assembly and we say it every time we
pray for somebody. This healing belongs to me because
of what Jesus has done. It is not based on anything I
have done or haven't done. It belongs to you because
of what Jesus has done. Deliverance belongs to you
because of what Jesus has done. It is not based on
anything you do or could do. It's yours because God
wanted you to have it. It's just that simple.
Let's
pray. Father, we are grateful to you. Thank you Lord
that you live in us to perform your Word. Father, we
are thankful for your mercy. Father, we ask you Lord,
that you would just touch hearts, minister to hearts
here tonight. God, we thank you for opening hearts to
be able to receive in the remainder of this meeting.
Things that otherwise might not have been able to
have been laid hold of, Jesus we ask that you would
bring the eyes of our understanding into a place that
we could see you working in us, that which is
pleasing in your sight. In Jesus name, we bless this
people. We thank you Father, Amen.
Back to January/February 2004
Voices