Faith into this grace
Category: Grace
Key Passage: Romans 5
Speaker: Paul Chisgar
Date: February 10, 2025
Romans chapter five. I failed to mention earlier, Brother Andrew Bird, a dear brother in Christ, just a dear brother. I went home to the Lord yesterday afternoon. I got to talk with him just a bit on Monday, and he reassured me he was ready. So he is at home; he is in heaven.
Pray for his wife and son David and daughter Savannah. Pray for them, would you please? And just may God comfort them like only God can. That is what they need for sure.
Romans chapter number five. We are going back to our theme of the year: By Grace. My goal is the first Sunday of every month. By the way, good to see Brother Robert back over there after back surgery. Getting better, that’s good.
I love this verse here. The whole complete verse is not there, but most of it: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, though he was rich…” I am missing this up. Let me look at it. I’ve got my notes.
“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.”
That is pretty amazing. He left the riches of heaven, lived in poverty. He did all that so you can be rich in grace. When we say rich, we always think about money in our day and time, but money is the cheapest of God’s blessings. So many other things are a whole lot richer than money. He didn’t have a billion dollars and can’t breathe very well, move, and go anywhere, or be in a nursing home, or have a horrible marriage, and on and on it goes. But he left heaven, went through poverty, and did that so you can be rich in grace. That is the grace so you can be rich in the blessings of God. How many out there would like to have a lot of grace in your life? I would.
The definition we often give for grace is: God’s riches at Christ’s expense. Good, let’s do it again out loud, everybody. Here we go: God’s riches at Christ’s expense. I want to try to keep grace in the forefront of our minds this year.
I’ve said this a couple weeks ago, the first Sunday of the year, but I sometimes imagine grace. It starts in heaven. This interstate, this road, it starts in heaven and it goes down this road into your life. Every good thing you ever have had or ever will have comes from heaven, by the way. So the Bible says, and it travels down this road—I call it not I-24, but I-Jesus—amen. Everything comes down through Jesus, the good things.
All the good things are packaged in a box, if you will, and the title on the box is grace. Now, a whole lot of different things are inside the box, but it is grace. And every good thing you ever have had, it was by grace. He is able to make so many things flow down that interstate by grace, by His shed blood.
Now, there is really my opinion—I think it is biblical—there are two keys really to having grace in your life. We are going to talk about keys. How many of you have a screen door in front of your front door that can lock? Anybody have a glass or screen door like that? Okay, good, good. We have one. You cannot lock it, but we have one. The screen door, opening the door for grace to come into your life, the beginning key, we will say, is humility. We are really focused on that the first Sunday of the year. “God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.” Twice it is worded that way in the Bible, in James and Peter. “Resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the lowly.” That is the way Proverbs words it: the lowly.
But then there is another key. All right, you are past the glass or screen door; it is open. Now you have to get another key out sometimes to open the regular door there. And here is the key: If you want a lot of grace in your life, we are going to talk about this other key to you having grace in your life. I need and want grace. If our church is going to have that building over there one day, and we will, it will be by God’s grace. Okay, but how do we get grace? How do we—God, He gives it; we do not earn it; He gives it. But He gives it to certain people; He gives it to the humble. And here is the next set of people, if you will, the next category you have to be in really with Him to give out grace.
Romans 5. We are going to start in verse number one. Would you please stand if you are able to? We do that in the beginning just to show God’s word honor and respect. Romans chapter 5, we are going to begin in verse number one. If you are there, would you say amen? Amen.
He says, “Therefore, being justified.” What does that mean? Justified? I think the best, easiest definition I ever heard is, “Just as if I never sinned.” Justified, or justification: just as if I never sinned.
Okay. So, “Therefore, being justified by…” What is the next word? “…faith, we have peace with God.” Now, it is not the peace of God that Philippians talks about, passing all knowledge and understanding, keeping our minds—but this is peace with God. There is something that put you and God on opposite, opposing sides; there is enmity, enemies. It is this thing of sin. We are born into sin, and hey friend, we are all guilty. Do not point your finger; what they say is there are three pointing back at you, you know. All have sinned, and it separated you. But then by faith, you get justified, just as if you never sinned, and then you have peace with God. That wall of separation is taken down. That chasm that you could walk across—you have seen the pictures—the bridge is the cross of Calvary, Jesus. And it breaks down that middle wall.
“Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” No man will earn that for you. You can never earn it yourself—a preacher or a priest or a rabbi or a [unclear word] or what do they call it? The Muslims? No, none of them. The only one: “One mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” He is you all the way, by the way. It is not Jesus plus your good works. It is not Jesus plus the Pope. It is just Jesus. Who was it? An old preacher used to call her the fat, skinny lady. I do not know if that was nice to him; I would never do that. But Oprah—what is her name? Oprah. Yeah, I wanted to say opera, not opera—Oprah. She at one time said there are many ways to heaven. No, one way: Jesus. Just one way. Obama said the same: many ways, you know. No, just one way: Jesus. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, salvation.
But now look at verse number two. I believe he is moving beyond salvation, talking to saved people. Look what it says in verse number two. He told me, “My Jesus, by whom…” That is Jesus, “…by whom also we have access by…” What? “…by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory, not of ourselves, but of God.”
You have access to this grace you are standing in. If you are a born-again Christian, you are standing in grace. You have access to it daily, moment by moment. The key that unlocks the door? Humility, yes. Faith—just a little bit—the key of faith, or the key to unlock the door of grace in your life.
For just a bit here. Father, Lord, forgive me if I—and I do sometimes, and I am sorry, Lord—take away any desire to preach a good message. Father, fully on that. Lord, let somebody get help. That is what it is all about. Lord, would you take the truth and make it real like I cannot? Father, Lord, if it needs to be challenged, challenge, or would it be conviction? Let it be conviction. Lord, just you turn the light on, if you will. Help us to grasp. It is bigger than us, Father, so help us to grasp all the grace we have available. And then, Lord, help us to put our faith in You and the grace You give us and offer to us. And we ask for this, Father, would You do that? In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen. Thank you so much for standing. You may be seated.
Sometimes, not always, but sometimes I will go out behind my house. There are some horse fields; they are not mine, but there are two different ones. There is one over kind of in the back left, and I walk out there, and then there is a tree line—I do not know, maybe 20, 30 feet of trees, some taller trees—and in the morning time, sometimes when it is colder, you are on this side of the tree line, this horse field, and it is cold. Is it not amazing on days when it is not like freezing, but it is cold, but then, you know, in your shade, the sun is a big difference? You are in the shade, and you are like, “Man, this is cold stuff. Let me get inside.” But if you are in the sun, is it not wonderful? You kind of feel the sun just hitting; it feels so warm, and you are just, “Man, I like this.” And it is amazing. I will cross over that 20, 30 feet. There is a lot of… During a certain season, a lot of black bears; there is a lot of stickers and all that stuff, you know. And I have made me a trail through that, and then that tree line, that is all shaded and cold. But it is amazing. You cross that tree line—a little fence there—you cross over, and man, the sun is a big, big field. It used to be 100 acres; I do not know, maybe 50 acres now, something, maybe even 40. I do not know now. And the sun has been coming down on that east side for sometimes for a good while. And it is amazing; you come out of that shade, you cross that tree line, and you enter into this field of sunshine. Sometimes that is just amazing, the difference. You are like, “Wow. Man, I want to live over here.”
Well, that is what happens when you put your faith in Jesus Christ. You are leaving the gray shadow, cold of sin that has separated you from your God. And you put your faith in Jesus, and you enter into this beautiful field of sunlight. The warmth of God’s love just hits you. How many of you remember the day you asked Jesus Christ to be your personal Savior? I remember that day. You remember that day? I do not remember the date for me; I was a boy, but I remember that day when I went to Jesus and asked Him to be my Savior. I know it very clearly in my mind. I do not know exactly if I was eight or nine, but I remember. Remember that time, you need a time, a place when you went to Jesus. You were born again. See, what Jesus said: “Ye must be born again.” And so, praise the Lord, when you were saved, you were born into the family of God; you moved over into this beautiful field of warmth and sunlight. It is a field of grace.
Now imagine—imagine your… You have crossed over the gray and cold, and you are over here in this huge field. There have been times that field over the years—there have been times that field has been this full. They used to farm it; I know 100 acres was back in the day; it would be different things. But there have been times—you see the yellow flowers, what was of the dandelions? I think. I am not a flower expert, you know. I am just covered with it. Sometimes there are purple flowers, whatever, you know. But you walk out there in this beautiful field, and you are standing there. When you got saved, you were moved into this category of a field of grace. But here is the sad thing: sometimes people are standing in this field of grace and they live there, maybe 30, 40, 50, 60 years saved that long, but they never really have—oh, if you will—they never really bend down and get a flower out of there. They do not enjoy all the blessings that God has for them in that field. And it is a sad thing. They stand there, and maybe as they are standing in that field, they are not quite the Christian they want to be. Anybody relate to that? Anybody honest enough to raise your hand? If you are not honest enough, you are not raising your hand, because we are all there, you know. And you are not quite the Christian you want to be. You ought to want to be if you are a son, a daughter, by the way. You never have any desire to be something for the Lord? You might want to check out and make sure you are in that field. Amen. If you are in that field, you are going to want to be a good Christian for the Lord. You might backslide and get way away from the Lord, but you are going to have that inner desire that the Spirit of God gives you: “I want to live for Him.” And sometimes, because of that condemnation in your heart, and the devil brings it on you, maybe even people bring it on you, you do not reach down and pick up these flowers of grace. Yet God has a field of grace for you.
And really, the main key—of course, humility, we already mentioned that—but I want you to look back at that verse number two again, would you please? Verse number two right there, we just read it. He says, “By whom” (that is speaking of Jesus Christ), “also we have access by…” What? “…by faith into this grace.”
You see, friend, faith is the key. Can I say this? I just want to try to encourage us a little bit: that God has grace available for you, and give you faith in that. God’s grace, as long as you are a born-again Christian, you are saved, and if you are saved, you are His child; you cannot be unborn. But once you are saved and you are living on this earth—actually, not just on the earth forever, but His grace will never, ever run out. It never will.
Look down in verse number 20 right there, verse number 20 of Romans chapter 5. I love this verse; here is a wonderful verse. Romans 5, look at verse number 20. He says, “Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound.” Remember the law? It was a teacher in school to show you you are not good enough. In our school, we move… Mr. Chisgar, in your class, what do you move this year? She got safari animals. She has different animals. And Ms. Patterson, what is in your classroom? Crayons. Do you mark them on the forehead when they messed up with their crayons? No, but they move these things. And everybody, you know, every one smiles. We have one girl, and she is such a good girl, and her parents have even talked to us about that; she is such a good girl that when she messes up, it is like it ruins her life. And her parents are like, she has to kind of realize she is going to mess up every once in a while because it is always you. But man, if she ever has to get her animal moved, oh, the fountains turn on and the tears flow, you know. And that is just kind of good for her to realize: hey, we all have issues, you know. But that was the law; it was to show us everybody gets their crayon moved sometimes. And it is really a… master the Bible word, a teacher that shows we need Jesus. That is what the law is all about. But it shows you you are a sinner. When you read the law, you are like, “Wow, who in the world can keep all these?” Some say over 700 commandments, and some go, you know, added on by the Pharisees, thousands, and everybody has different numbers, but who in the world can keep every one of these? Nobody can besides Jesus.
How many of you are reading through your Bible and you have been reading through the Old Testament somewhat? How many have been reading? Good, good, good, good. But that law will show you, praise the Lord for Jesus. How many reading over there in Leviticus right now and all those sacrifices and the sin offering and the bread offering and the harvest? Wow, praise the Lord, Jesus fulfilled them all. That is what the law does; it shows you how dirty we are. See? But watch what it says here. He says, “Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound.” I love this part here: “But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” If you are saying grace will never run out, it never, ever, ever run out. If you are 450 years old and you have sinned about a billion plus times, His grace will not run out. It will always be there. And I am saying that because I want you to live by faith in the grace that is available for you.
When I was a boy, we lived in Chattanooga. I was born in Chattanooga, and I have tried to find this place; I cannot find it. But there was a spring kind of off the side of a mountain, and people would come from miles around, and they would bring—I remember they would have empty milk jugs, you know, one-gallon jugs—and they would have a rope tied to the handle. They would be dragging 20 of them out there, you know. And then they would take it into this spring that is so clear, an artesian well, and they would get water to fill up their jugs with that. And just spring water, and it was coming out of the side of the mountain; you could put it in there and just get filled up. And that, as far as I remember, that artesian well never dried up. That is why God’s grace is in your life. Because Jesus, He supplied an infinite amount of grace. He knew everything in your life, and He supplied all the grace you will ever need. That artesian well will never dry up.
It is very important that on those days you feel condemned that you keep coming because the grace will be there, but you have to come by faith. In fact, if you do not have faith in it, you will not come.
I love this verse, 2 Corinthians 9:8. This is one of my favorite verses, even though I could not quote it this morning about grace. And here is another one of my favorite verses about grace: “And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.” You realize by the mercy of God, a born-again Christian misses heaven? But by the grace of God, you gain heaven. That is one of the reasons why heaven never runs out for all eternity—because this grace never runs out. Let me read for you a verse, Ephesians 2:7: “That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.” I love these verses. Psalm 86:15: “But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth.” Psalm 103, verse number 8: “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.”
I mentioned this not too long ago at Brother Brian Gamble’s funeral, but Spurgeon, the great preacher years gone by, it was in the evening time. He was coming home. He was weary and just burdened down by the things going on in his life and the ministry and whatnot. And he was just weary, and he was passing by a huge river. And he said it seemed like the Spirit of God said, “Hey, Spurgeon, My grace is sufficient for thee.” And he said it seemed like the Holy Spirit said, “Sir, Spurgeon, you are like a little bitty fish over there in that huge river that is afraid to drink water, afraid you are going to drink up the whole river.” A little bluegill. And you and I, we get like that; we do. We are not going to God believing that He will hear us by His grace, and we lack faith. And yet faith is the key that unlocks the door to getting grace in your life. How important is it that you realize it will never, ever run out.
When you do not deserve His favor—some people will put a definition—it is not a bad definition; it is a good definition also—but some people will put the definition on grace: unmerited favor. You did not do anything to earn unmerited favor. God favors you. So here is the thing about this saying: you do not deserve His favor. You are not the Christian you ought to be. None of us are, but you never deserve it. In fact, the best you can do is filthy rags, Isaiah 64:6. So when you feel condemned, you feel like, “Man, I am such a failure,” you are, as they say, you are eating on yourself; you are just kind of self-destructing. And you do not feel like going to Him in prayer. That is when it takes a lot of faith, and faith unlocks the door. So when you do not feel worthy, go to Him in prayer, is what I am trying to get at. Oh, that is so very, very important.
Look over in Hebrews chapter number four, if you would. You will know this verse. Hebrews chapter four. When you do not deserve for God to answer your prayer, go to Him. By the way, you get forgiveness and cleansing by His shed blood. And watch what He says. You are talking to us Christians. Hebrews 4. We will not read the verses in front of it; talking about Jesus, our great High Priest. Now look in verse number 16, verse number 16. Hebrews 4:16. Are you there? Amen. Hebrews 4:16: “Let us therefore come boldly…” Come what? “…unto the throne of justice and righteousness.” Is that what it says? Throne of what? Aren’t you glad His throne for born-again Christians is a throne of grace? It was a throne of righteousness and justice; I would never get there. If I did, I would get put in hell. It is a throne of grace. He said, “Let us therefore come boldly”—boldly in faith—boldly unto the throne of grace, “that we may obtain what?”
Do you need mercy when you are doing everything right? Do you need mercy when you are doing everything right? If you could do everything right—we really cannot—but if you were doing everything right, would you need mercy? No, because you would not need mercy if you are doing everything right. Now, I know we cannot do everything right; I think that is where you are going. But we are just saying if you could do everything right, all right, you would not need mercy. So He is talking about a time when we need mercy. So, in other words, He is talking about a time when we are not doing everything right. Y’all follow me? I had one cup of coffee; I may have needed two this morning, I am not sure there. He said, “Hey, let us come boldly unto the throne of grace,” not when we have everything right, but “that we may obtain mercy and…” Watch this, “…and find grace to help in time of need.”
Now let me note just a little thing about that verse right there. Notice that it says we obtain mercy. It is almost like it is just real quick, boom. Reminds me of 1 John 1:9: “If we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Notice it says, “obtain mercy.” But watch that word right before grace. He said, “obtain mercy and…” what? “…and find grace.” And you may have to spend a little time around the throne. You—it is a throne of grace, all right? It is the throne of grace. Praise the Lord. We are not what we ought to be; none of us are. But He said, “Come on boldly,” because you are not coming because you are worthy; you are coming because of Jesus, and that highway He has made. He said, “Come on over to the throne room. It is a throne of grace.” And boy, you get in there, and boom, right off the bat, you obtain mercy. But you have to look a little bit for grace. Not talking about for salvation here; it is all—you are already saved—but you are coming. You might have to spend some time at the throne, but He has the grace you need. Here is sometimes when things are going bad, sometimes we only see the bad things, and we never find the grace because we are not looking for it. It is very important that you come boldly unto the throne of grace to obtain mercy and find grace. It will be available. But the devil will tell you; he will condemn you; he will say He is not going to answer any of your prayers. He is not going to help you out in this tough time. He is not going to provide for you. He is not going to help your medical condition. He is not going to give you a job. He is not—and it will all be because of how bad you are. Friend, here is the problem: you have your eyes on yourself instead of Jesus. Because Jesus has supplied all the grace you need, and you get your eyes on Jesus, and you get up here on the throne room and say, “Hey, I’m a tarnished merchant, and I’m looking for grace,” and He will have the grace available for you, friend, because of Jesus. But it is by faith; it is by faith, by faith.
Jesus said this: He said, “Come to me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Notice He said, “Come to me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden.” I think heavy laden is when just life comes and it just ladens, it lays it on you. It could be cancer. Here lately, there have been so many deaths; I just seem like here lately, you hear of it everywhere. Sunday school, several of them we heard about. And, of course, Andrew Bird and others, just all over the place. You get heavy laden. Jesus said, “Come to me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden.” I think labor has to do with things we did ourselves. I was talking to someone this morning, last night, and we were told about some issues. I cannot remember. They said, “You know, I really think I brought it on myself.” Jesus says, “Yeah, you do sometimes, but that is all right. Come to me, all ye that labor.” You bring it on yourself, and are heavy laden, because this is grace.
I say this often, friend, but let me be honest with you: there is no Christian that has an ‘S’ on his chest. There is no super Christian. There is a super Jesus, friend. That is who we look to. He is our hero. That is the one we keep our eyes on Him because if you think for a split second you are a super Christian, hey, pretty soon you are going to fall flat on your face. He is a super Christian. You keep your eyes on Him, looking unto Jesus. He has all the grace you need, friend. But we have access by faith. By faith.
I have a relative who is in the military, and they told their story—sad story. They said that they heard about another man in the military. He was in desert training, and to pass the course he was in, he had to live in the desert for, I think maybe three days or something like that. And I may be awful in that, but live out in the desert for a while. And they had given him a limited supply of water. And they had trained him: “Now, wait a second, don’t drink it all the first day, or you’ll die,” you know. “Just wait until you can’t wait any longer, and then take a drink. Just don’t put it off just a little bit of time.” And put him out there, and they came back at the time appointed, and the man died; he was dead. And they said, “Wow, what happened? We had trained him. He had the right amount. He knew how much. He went, and all that.” And they looked—the sad thing is they looked in his canteen; it was full of water. And they realized he was out there and he just kept saying, “I got to wait. He got to wait. Got to wait.” Until heat stroke messed his brain up, and he died with water by his side. Starvation first. Friend, sometimes we can be like that. He has grace available, yet in my lack of faith and me looking at myself, how horrible I think I am and all, and I am not looking to Jesus that supplies the grace. And so I don’t get by faith the grace that I’m standing in it. It’s all around me; it’s available, but you have access to it by faith.
Hey, believe that He has the grace you need. Whatever burden, “My grace is sufficient,” He tells us. Hey, I have the grace you need. Paul said, “I’m the chiefest of sinners,” and yet Paul says, “Hey, I am what I am by the grace of God.” He has grace for you. You say, “Me?” Yeah, you. You say, “Overcome that sin. I’ve tried to overcome that sin for about a million years.” Hey, He has the grace for you to overcome that sin. He has the grace for you in the meantime, by the way. He has the grace for you to be the Bible student. He has the grace for you to be the parent. He has the grace for you to be the spouse. He has the grace for you to be what He made you and wants you to be. But if you’re looking at yourself, you’re going to be defeated. Hey, look at His grace. It’s available.
Yeah, let me say this. I’ve got to hurry along here. Learn to live and serve Him, not depending on your strength, but His grace. You’re in Hebrews already. Look in chapter number 12, and I’m going to just finish it out here in a minute. Look at Hebrews 12. Look at Hebrews 12. Look at verse number 28. We won’t get the whole context; we’re just trying to get to one thing we want us to see real quick. Hebrews 12, look at verse number 28. Hebrews 12:28. He says, “Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved”—that’s because Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever—“Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, not because you’re such a great Christian or past such a great Christian, none of that. It’s all because of Jesus. Wherefore receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, watch this, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.” What does the Bible say with the first period of 3:18? Grow in what? Grace and in the knowledge of all that you can be and do and know, and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus. To Him be glory. I want you to see that over in Hebrews 12 because I want you to notice that you serve Him. Grace is not for just when you’re not what you ought to be. Grace is for more than that. It’s for moment by moment you to be able to have the energy and power to live for the Lord. Grace is available. We serve Him by grace. We don’t just get forgiveness by grace; we serve Him. We’re empowered by His grace.
Last illustration. We’re done, I think. We used to have a—I think it was our first zero turn—I’m learning; I don’t know why I used to call it zero-degree lawnmowers, but zero-turn lawnmowers. Anybody out there here? Well, they can understand what I’m talking about half the time. Come on now, you know. But I think it was our church’s first zero-turn lawnmower. Actually, someone gave it to us. And it had two gas tanks on it. One of our men years ago—he’s not here anymore, worked here, good guy—he was driving that zero-turn lawnmower. We had a bus parked over here at the time by the basketball goals, and he was trying to get real close along that bus. And you know that back bumper, it kind of wraps around a little bit; it’s got a little edge on the end of that bumper. And it got too close, and that edge of the bumper caught one of those gas tanks—it’s plastic—and it sliced into the gas tank. And we knew that, praise the Lord. The gas on that one tank was a little lower at that time. Somebody say amen right there. We didn’t want fireworks; it wasn’t the Fourth of July. And so we knew it. And if you filled it up very much in that one tank, it would just, as you run the lawnmower, you know, all the shaking, it would kind of spew out gas and be dangerous. You couldn’t put much gas in there anyway, so we would always—we would always just have like a bare minimum in that tank, just enough in case you run out of gas in the other tank. The other tank we would keep full. Now, there’s a lever back there; had a little—you know, a little arm—you turn it, and it would show which gas tank you’re pulling gas from. See?
And sometimes if a guy’s new or whatnot, cutting grass around here, it’s back in the day, and he would turn that lever to the tank that was always just barely making it. And he said, “No, no, no, no. We always keep this tank full over here. Keep that lever turned over there towards that.” You know what I do? I depend on myself too much. And my self-reliance and self-dependence, my self-righteousness—I’ve got that lever till I take this empty, and I barely make it. Sometimes God says, “Paul, you’re not serving Me by your own strength. If you’d like to, you can serve Me by My grace.” And I’ve got all kind of grace. I mean, you can do so little. In fact, really, the honest truth, you can do nothing without Me. But if you just learn to depend on Me and My grace, wow, it’s always full; it never runs out. You can teach that Sunday school class for years and years. You can do this side of the other. You can put up and sometimes go through things. How in the world do you do it? By grace. But it’s really truly about where is my faith in? Is my faith in my little bitty tank, what I think I have and can do, or is my faith in the grace? Because remember, we’re standing in this field of grace, but we have access by faith into the grace we’re standing in.
Would you bow your heads and close your eyes, please? You said, “Preacher, God spoke in my heart. I don’t know if I’ve fully grasped it; I’m in and out of it myself personally, but I would like to just comprehend and truly live by my faith in the grace that is available through Christ. I want to grow in that.” We sometimes compare it to children as they grow up to get more independent, but good, godly Christians, the more they grow, they get more dependent. And you say, “I would like to grow in my faith in this grace that I’m standing in. I want to have that key.” God spoke to my heart about that here this morning. That’s you this morning; just lift your hand up. Preacher, that’s me. My hand is up also. It is so key that we have the key of faith because we have access to the grace we’re standing in by faith. God bless you, thank you, and put your hands down.
Maybe you’re here and you say, “You know, when I’m not worthy, I don’t feel worthy, I don’t come because I think He’s kind of pushing me away.” But I’m not going to do that. I realize it takes a lot of faith to come when I know I’m not worthy, but I know I am worthy because of Jesus, and I’m going to keep coming boldly, getting the mercy and the grace I need, even when I’m not what I ought to be. By the way, you’re going to become what you ought to be by getting to Him. But God spoke to me. I’m going to keep coming by faith, even when I’m not what I ought to be. God spoke to my heart about that. That’s you this morning. You slip up here in the preacher: “That’s me.” That’s me. God bless you. God bless you. That’s so good. That’s so important. God bless you. Thank you. Even young people, that’s a blessing. Praise the Lord, thank you. You can put your hands down.
Maybe you’re here this morning. We did not talk much about it; we did a little bit at the beginning. But you say, “I’ve never really crossed over into the field of grace. I’ve never been saved. There’s never came a time when I can look back that I went to Jesus Christ and I said, ‘Jesus, I know I can’t make it to heaven on my own. I don’t deserve it. But I know You died for me, and I want to put all of my faith as far as me getting into heaven, all of my faith totally on You, Jesus. Would You save me?’ I don’t really have a time like that. I don’t know that I’m saved. I don’t know that I’m a born-again Christian.” If that’s you, with their heads bowed and eyes closed, if that’s you, would you lift your hand up? Anybody like that? “I need to cross over to the field of grace. I need to get saved.” Anybody like that? You just slip it up real clear: “I need to get saved.” And I like that. I don’t see any hands.
Hey, Christians, we’re standing in the field of grace. You have access to this grace you’re standing in by faith. Turn off the devil’s voice; turn on the Word of God and the Spirit of God and put faith in the grace that Jesus has made available.
Original File: Pastor Paul Chisgar ＂Faith into this Grace＂ Sunday AM 02⧸09⧸25 [G5kxyL0_znQ]