(Ephesians) Grace and Glory — Jeff Noblit

Ephesians 1: Grace, Glory, and the Main Thing

Ephesians chapter 1, you have doubtlessly heard the expression, He cannot see the forest for the trees. It means you just don't get it. It's right in front of you, it's right there. You can see, you can smell it perhaps, you can even taste it or touch it, but you just don't get it.

You miss the main thing. As I've studied and prayed and meditated and been edified by some other preachers concerning grace, I really believe that perhaps in the evangelical church and in many of our hearts and minds, that is true of our understanding of grace.

We've looked at it, we've studied it, we've analyzed it, we glory in it, but perhaps we've missed the main thing. The primary thing, and I want us to examine that this morning as we come to Ephesians chapter 1 verse 2, as Paul is giving his introductory remarks, writing this letter, probably from a Roman jail cell to the church at Ephesus.

A very special church. Remember, this is the church where Paul spent about three years of ministry. That was excessive for him. And he poured his life into this church. John Phillips points out that the interesting thing about Ephesus is that it has a different history than most of the great Greco-Roman cities of antiquity.

When you think of Rome, you think of certain things, or when you think of Corinth, you think of certain things like debauchery and sin. But Paul's ministry in Ephesus changed the history forever. Today, when you think of Ephesus, you think of the great work of Paul.

He really changed history there. But as he's beginning this letter, he comes to what we have as verse 2, and he says these words. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now that was a relatively common way for Paul to introduce a book that he was writing, or rather a letter that he was writing to these churches.

Grace to you and peace, always in that order, from God our Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ. Now I've entitled this message today, Grace and Glory. Grace and Glory. Now here's my premise. If you've missed the underlying foundation and the overall purpose of God's glory in grace, you've missed grace.

I don't mean you're not saved, I mean you've missed what it's all about. You've missed the main thing. If you've missed the glory of God and how God wants to glorify Himself through His administration of grace, if you've missed that, you've really missed the essence of why God has grace to start with.

Why He has expressed or exhibited or extended grace to us to start with. Now I want to talk for just a brief moment about our purpose statement. Our purpose statement as a church, it's written on about everything that we have and the reason it is, is because it is our marching orders.

We are not and will never be here to do what we feel is best or what we like or what we enjoy because this is not our church. Can I have an amen right there? It's just not ours, it's His church. We get the glorious privilege of being in on His church and He has mandated to us through His word what His church is, what His church is to do and how His church is to do those things.

The Church’s Purpose: Glorifying God Through Discipleship

And so from, and I would not be exaggerating at all to say there's a hundred to a hundred and fifty hours in this one purpose statement. The purpose of First Baptist Church is to glorify God, that has to be first.

The glory of God is why everything exists and in this particular age in which you and I now live, the chief instrument through which God is glorifying Himself is His church. Now there's coming an age when there will not be the church, the kingdom age will come in later.

But right now we're in the church age. God is now saving His elect from the four corners of the earth and as He saves them, He puts them or constitutes them in a covenant community called a church. And we are to function and fellowship and serve and work together as God's people giving Him glory until He gets through at this age.

But it's all about His glory. So the purpose of our church first to glorify God. Now how do we do that? By obediently. In other words, we don't figure out what we think or what we feel. We say, what does God say about His church?

By obediently. Now if we obey Him, what will we do? Well, that's the next phrase, making and equipping disciples of Christ. Well, what is the scope of that activity? In the shoals and throughout the world.

Well, how are we going to get that done? The last phrase, by the power of the Spirit. To glorify God by obediently, making and equipping disciples of Christ, both locally and globally are in the shoals and throughout the world by the power of the Holy Spirit.

But the glory of God is chief. It's primary. The Westminster Catechism, which is a great, great document. And you may ask, well, what is a catechism? A catechism is just a way to lay out Bible teaching and organize it by topics and in little statement and answer form so that you can remember it.

And I'm thrilled that in a lot of places, there's a renewal to go back to some of our Protestant evangelical catechisms. I mean, God forbid evangelicals know what they believe. We've lived in an age where there was almost a virtue in being dumb biblically.

I mean, you are frowned at and disdained if you emphasize doctrine in truth. And the teaching of Scripture is almost esteemed to say, well, we just love Jesus and we have a great time, but we're not real sure what we believe.

Well, I'm glad that there's an emphasis on that. Matter of fact, I can get you a very good Baptist catechism that you can use with your children. I'm challenging my daughters to memorize a Baptist catechism right now.

I've offered them $100 if they can quote it back to me word perfect. So that's a good thing. But anyway, the Westminster Catechism is sort of the foundation stone that most other evangelical catechisms are taken from.

And that catechism begins with this statement. The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Is that not a great statement? The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

So we've talked a little bit about our purpose statement. We have to begin our purpose is to glorify God. Then we talked about the Westminster Catechism, which begins with our chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him.

God’s Glory as the Purpose of Grace

You know what? We don't have grace downright. And since we don't have grace downright in our understanding, we can't enjoy God as we ought to. And that grieves God. God wants us to enjoy Him. Now, I came to this third thought.

It's not completely original with me, but it sure was resonating in my spirit. And that is this question. Are you listening? What is God's purpose statement? What's God's purpose statement? What's He about?

It's simple. It can only be this. The chief end of God is to glorify God and to enjoy Himself forever. Doesn't that make sense to you? If He enjoyed anything less than Himself, He'd cease being the supreme, exalted, infinitely great being that He is.

You see, it would say something about Him being not God if He enjoyed less than Himself. You say, that sounds like an egomaniac. It would be unless you're God and perfect. The chief end of God is to glorify Himself and enjoy Himself forever.

Folks, I don't know if you understand this, but God's into Himself. He likes Himself. He's thrilled with Himself. He's enamored with Himself. He's absorbed, if you will, in manifesting the supremacy of Himself.

Now here's where you've got to get it. So He is about the business and His perfect, sovereign plans to redeem a people. His elect. And as He redeems those people and extends that grace, He manifests something of Himself, grace, that no one else has.

And when He manifests that grace and saves all of us wretches and makes us the people of God and glorifies us with Him one day, what has He done? He's glorified Himself. And that's His chief purpose. That's why you're here, chiefly, to be an instrument that He could extend grace to and in extending that grace, make a statement of how wonderful He is.

Oh, church, die to your man-centered theology. Let's get God in the middle of it all. Where He always was. We sort of left Him. Well, let's sort of tie this thing together by beginning with a definition of grace.

I know you've heard a thousand of them and I just want to sort of lay it out there again and reaffirm this. Grace. First of all, we'll begin with two words. Unmerited favor. When God extends grace to sinful, wicked man, first of all, He's saying, I'm going to show some favor or good toward you and I want you to know something fully.

It has absolutely nothing to do with you. And dear Baptist brothers and sisters, it's not because you prayed a prayer. It's not because you walked an aisle. It's not because you did anything. Grace is unmerited favor.

Grace is God through the ministry of His Son, Jesus Christ, giving you forgiveness and salvation, which you do not deserve, and withholding judgment and wrath, which you do deserve. I just think that's a great definition of grace.

It's unmerited and God has said, I'm going to extend to you forgiveness and salvation. There's no way you could earn it or deserve it. I'm going to withhold from you the just judgment and wrath you should receive, but I'm going to withhold that though you do deserve it.

Biblical Proof of Salvation by Grace

Grace. Three verses that affirm this so strongly. We could probably find 300. But Romans 3, 24 is the first one. Being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.

Ephesians chapter 1, verse 7. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace. Titus 2, 11. For the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation to all men.

So God's grace is extended chiefly, primarily, foundationally, so that He might be glorified. Wow. Number one, the purpose of grace, the glory of God. Let's take this further. Now, grace is an attribute of God.

Grace is a characteristic of God. Now, young people, if you're at school and you were talking about a friend and you want to describe them, you talk about their attributes or their characteristic. An attribute might be that you look a certain way or your hair color is a certain way.

So you ought to meet Sally. She's like this. And you describe that person. That's who they are. That's an attribute or characteristic. Well, God has attributes and characteristics. And you see, God having grace and extending grace is a capacity.

Now, listen. Now, listen. When God, the fact that He has grace and the fact that He'll extend grace to folks like us. Of course, if we get anything from God, it has to be grace. That is a capacity that distinguishes God from everyone else.

All of the so-called gods and certainly all people. Only God can have or extend grace. Now, in one sense, God sees and man sees. No, He don't see like we see, but we do have that sense. In one sense, God hears and we hear.

God moves and we move. But only God has grace. That distinguishes Him from all others. And in extending grace to us, He demonstrates to us chiefly, that is His church, those who are saved by grace. But He also demonstrates to the entire universe something of His supremacy and His glory.

Are you grasping that? Because God, listen, is enamored with glorifying Himself. God is all about showing the excellencies of His person. God is all about showing the supremacy and the wonder and the glory of what He is and who He is.

So our redemption is the result of grace. And the exercise of this grace toward us is to the end of honoring and glorifying His name. Now, we sing often about His name, His name, His name. And it's very, very important that when you sing that, you discipline your mind to say, that doesn't mean the name Jesus.

The name Jesus was just a common name in the Palestinian, if you will, world 2 ,000 years ago. Like John or Jack or Jim or anyone else. Name in the Jewish concept means the attributes or the characteristics of the person.

And God wants His name, that is His characteristics and His attributes, known and esteemed and marveled over and wondered over before His church chiefly but before the whole world. That's what God's about.

And that one attribute, grace, now think with me. Are you thinking this morning? That one attribute, grace, could only be seen and understood, therefore wondered and marveled over by saving us unworthy sinners.

You see, the goal wasn't to save you. The goal was to glorify Himself. Are you hearing me? Now, that's glorious beyond words that were saved from wrath and judgment and eternal loss. But God, God has a passion to exalt and glorify Himself.

But there was a part of who He is that could only be manifested if He saved unworthy wicked sinners like us. So He chose to save unworthy wicked sinners like us to the end that He might show how wonderful He is.

Not how worthy you are because you weren't worthy. That shows how much more wonderful He is. The more unworthy you realize you are, the more wonderful you realize He is because He fully saves you and all that's grace.

So God has this passion to glorify Himself and one aspect of who He is is grace and that grace would not be manifest, seen, shown forth unless He saves a bunch of wicked folks like you and I. Well, this comes out so very strongly in the Word of God when we look at the verses that speak of what God does in saving us for His, quote, namesake, end of quote.

For His namesake. Now what do we say? Name means His character and His attributes. To show forth who He is. How unique, wonderful, supreme, glorious His character is. Psalm 25 verse 11. We begin there.

He says, For thy namesake, O Lord, pardon my iniquity. Not, Lord, I've tried hard. Not, Lord, I meant to do better. Not, Lord, you know there's some good in me. I just blew it. No, no, no. That's man-centered.

That's unbiblical. For the glory of Your name saves someone like me. I want to tell you, are you listening to me, church? When you go to God with a passion in your prayer life and a dependence that says, Oh dear God, glorify Yourself.

That gets the ear of God. Because that's what He's about. Because if He glorifies anyone less than Himself, He's sinning. And He can't sin. Because only He is worthy of glory. Psalm 79 verse 9. Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of Thy name.

And deliver us and forgive our sins for Thy namesake. Boy, the psalmist understood this. The psalmist said, there's one hope for God rescuing and saving us, even though we're wicked sinners. Put His reputation on the line.

Then He'll act. Why? Because that's what He's about. Esteeming, exalting, showing forth the supremacy of His person and His reputation. Jeremiah 14 verse 7. Although our iniquities testify against us.

In other words, now listen, iniquities means that bent to rebel. That natural tendency to say, I want my way and do it my way. And if I have a God and religion, I'll stick God and religion into my way.

That's just so prominent in evangelical churches today. Our iniquities are so prominent, there's just no excuse. What are we going to do? Well, O Lord, act for Thy namesake. Act and cleanse and forgive us, God, and give us a new start with You.

Because that will make a statement of who You are and how wonderful You are. Ezekiel 20 verse 44. Then you will know that I am the Lord when I have dealt with you for My namesake. Notice this, notice this.

Not according to your evil ways or according to your corrupt deeds, O house of Israel. Now aren't you thankful for that, brother Terry? Aren't you thankful for that? God reached down and saved and transformed Terry easily.

Because God wanted to show the world, look what I can do with a worthless, wicked sinner. The same with me and the same with... But we can't go plead and say, God, I meant well, I tried hard. No, uh-uh.

For what it does to your reputation, God, to save someone like me. God, do it. I don't know about you, but this kind of gives me security in my salvation. This sort of gives me an assurance that if He saved me, He's going to keep me saved because His name's on the line.

Because if He sent His Holy Spirit to begin a good work in me, and He wants to glorify Himself by saving someone as wretched as me, if He don't complete it, then He's hurting His reputation. Because He said He was going to do it.

Bill Stavron says, I'm so saved it's pitiful. And we are. Romans 1 .15, Through whom we have received grace and apostleship, to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles. Hey, we're Gentiles.

For His name's sake. So Paul says, God had decided in His sovereign purposes, not just to redeem some Jews and make His church of the Lord Jesus Christ, but also to take someone like Paul and make him an apostle, a messenger, an ambassador to non-Jews, that's Gentiles, that's our forefathers, so that God would have a people that belonged to Him from all the tribes, nations, and tongues of the world.

Why? Because He wants to be glorified among all the people. And that's why we do world missions. And that's why we preach the gospel on radio and television. And that's why we pledge churches. And that's why we go to the Hakaru people in Peru who don't have the gospel.

Our Lord wants glory from them and we want to get in on that process with Him. And He'll get most glory when they're saved through the preaching of His gospel. And all that God would stir us and raise up an army that has a passion for God's glory.

Not the good of man. That's second, but it's a way down second. First, the glory of God. And I want to say it to you for the 1527th time. When you put the glory of God first, you do more for the good of man than if you put the good of man first.

You may not see it that way at first, but it's always true. First John 2 .12, I am writing to you little children because your sins are forgiven because you pray to prayer. No, it's good to pray a prayer when you get saved.

I'm not talking about that. But you're forgiven for what? For His name's sake. Are you struggling with the security of your salvation? Then remember that if you put your trust in Christ, He keeps you saved for His reputation's sake.

That is secure. Because I want to tell you something. One thing will happen in this universe and that is our God will be glorified for who He is. And He's not a liar or a traitor or an Indian giver. He said He saves you, He'll save you.

He says He'll keep you, He'll keep you. For His name's sake. Because His reputation's on the line. Revelation 2 .3, and you have persevered and have endured for My name's sake and have not grown weary.

Here we transfer over from salvation to sanctification. To the churches in the Revelation, He says, It's been tough, you've fallen down, you've blown it a time or two, but you've kept going forward in perseverance because I have supplied the grace to enable you to keep going on.

Why? Because My name's on the line. You guys wear My title. You're Christians. Christians persevere. And what could be clearer, look at our chief text again. Look at Ephesians chapter 1. And as Paul summarizes the great truths of grace and how a sovereign God is active in our salvation.

Then the Son, the sovereign Son is involved in our salvation. Then he goes on and says the sovereign Holy Spirit is involved in our salvation. And then he wants to summarize each time. But why? What's the main thing?

What's the goal of all of this? Saving these wicked, worthless, hopeless sinners through the sovereign work of the Father, Son and the Spirit. What's it all about? Let's look at it. Ephesians chapter 1 verse 6.

To the praise of the glory of His grace. So that those who are saved and in one sense all the universe eventually will look at how God saved us. And people will praise the glory of that kind of grace forever and ever and ever.

And that's why I said earlier, why don't we just get started on that now? Praising the glory of what He is and what He's done. Let's just get in on it now. Let's not wait till then. Let's praise Him now.

Verse 12. Again, he says to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory. That's what it's all about. His praise and His glory. Verse 14. The Spirit who's given as a pledge of our inheritance with a view to the redemption of God's own possession to the praise of His glory.

The Church’s Ministry and the Glory of God

I just want to assert to you and reaffirm to you. And hopefully by the enabling work of the Holy Spirit, sear this into our hearts and minds. And that is this. You and I are saved and we are the recipients of grace.

And the end of that is that our Lord might get wonder and awe and esteem and worship and glory by doing that for us. And that's why small groups, you enroll everybody you can in your small group. Because somehow, someway by getting them enrolled, you might get them under the Word.

You might get them under the preaching of the Word. And God may save another one. And by saving another wretched sinner, He gets a little more glory. And that's why we live and breathe and move. It's not just stuff.

And it's not just programs. And it's not just dotting the i's and crossing the t's. And it's not just going through the motions. And thank God our attendance is increasing. But it's not just growing numbers.

It's the glory of God. And you know what? When a church walks in that, they become an easy church to pastor. Because when the glory of God is what you're about, you know what? Everything else just doesn't matter very much anymore.

You say, God, thank you for these nice clothes. But if you see fit, I don't have to have them because I'm about the glory of God. God, thank you for these nice automobiles I drive. I enjoy them. But God, if this happens not to be your will down the road, hallelujah, because I'm about the glory of God.

God, thank you for this nice home. And God sometimes and truly, truly miraculously enabled us to have that. And if God does that, God, thank you for this nice home. But you know what? If you want to take it away, if there's another plan, it really doesn't matter because I'm about the glory of God.

Isn't that a wonderful way to live? Enjoying it, thankful for it, but not attached to it. And you know what I found out? When you walk that way, you get more stuff than if you tried to get the stuff. I want to close at least this morning's installment on verse 2 with Revelation chapter 5.

Revelation 5: Christ’s Finished Redemption and Universal Praise

Would you turn there? Revelation chapter 5. I just cannot tell you how much this consumes me at times. And I can't tell you how excited I am about the vision of God letting us be something. Are you hearing what I'm saying?

God letting us be something of a catalyst for other Christians and other churches. Not that we're better, not that we've arrived. But folks, this is just missing. It's just missing. We've got to press forward with our vision statement that we've had for what?

13 years or so now? To be a biblical church God uses as a model for others. Revelation chapter 5 verse 9. And they sang a new song saying, worthy are you to take the book and to break its seals for you were slain, this is Jesus of course, and purchased past tense for God with your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.

Now let's stop right there for just a moment. That's been done. I'm going to tell you something. Are you listening to me? There's not anything else to do to save the souls of God's people. It's been done.

There is a point in time in history when God the Holy Spirit will do that work of regenerating grace and men and women must come to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. That has to happen. But the work of conversion, the work of salvation has been done.

He has purchased for Himself people from every people, tongue, tribe and nation. Why? Why did He do that? Because He's got a passion to see Himself glorified and He wants to see Himself glorified among every people, tongue, tribe and nation.

And He gets great glory when He extends grace to unworthy sinners because it says something about Him that nobody else even possesses. That is His grace. Not only does no one else really extend grace, no one else has the capacity to have grace but God.

Well it goes on, You have made them to be a kingdom and priest to God and they will reign upon the earth. Ultimately all the redeemed will reign on the earth. Verse 11,. Then I looked and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders and the number of them was myriads and myriads and thousands and thousands saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain.

He was slain so He's worthy for what? To receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing. And every created thing which is in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea and all things in them I heard saying, To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.

And the four living creatures kept saying Amen. And the elders found out and worshiped. So what's the repetitive theme? First, Jesus purchased for Himself with His blood people. They elect, the Bible calls them, from all the tongues, tribes and peoples of the world.

And all this is to the end that people will see how wonderful He is to have done such a glorious, gracious thing. And they'll give Him the power, the honor, the glory and the praise forever and ever. So friend, if you miss grace and God's glory, you've missed the main thing.

You've missed the main thing. You made the cake without the eggs. Or the sugar. I mean, it's not complete at all. And I want to tell you something. Grace that is not God-centered in your concept of it.

Grace that is not the glory of God and the foundation of what it's about is a cheap grace. And not a true grace. And it dignifies man and it denies God His supremacy. And we can have none of that. Amen?

Man must be humbled and God must be exalted. The Moravians were an interesting, unique people during the 18th century. The Moravians had an incredible passion for God's glory. And perhaps it was one of these very verses that inspired them because they saw that Jesus' reward for His suffering was when people were saved from all the people's tongues, tribes and nations and therefore He got honored and glorified for saving such wretches.

And that consumed them. And do you know that during their missions movement, the Moravians had upwards to 40 of their church members who went to foreign mission fields. 40, 40 left. Folks, this is the day when you got on a sailboat and literally they took their caskets with them.

They were not coming back. Because they had a passion that their Lord should be glorified by seeing pagans come to Him through grace all over the world. And the story is told that as those Moravian missionaries would get on those ships in England and start to sail out, they would wave goodbye to their families that they would never see again on this earth.

And they would shout, May the Lamb receive the reward of His suffering! May the Lamb receive the reward of His suffering! In other words, seeing our precious Lord receive the reward of people praising Him for grace, one of His great attributes, was the driving force of their lives.

And may it be ours. Because grace is all about His glory. Now let's go to the second main point here and that is the product of grace, which is peace. The product, something is produced in us when God extends His saving grace to us and does indeed save us.

Peace with God Through Grace

And that is peace. And that's why I think Paul words his introduction to this church at Ephesus with the words in verse 2, Grace to you, that's always first, and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Grace to you and the subsequent peace, the following peace that comes if you're a recipient of that wonderful grace. Scholars do not know where this Greek word peace came from, but the best surmise is that it comes from the root word, and I believe this is correct, that means to join or to connect.

Isn't that interesting? The word peace for the Christian's peace comes from the root that means to join or connect. You see, that's man's problem. He's not joined to his Creator. That's man's problem.

He's not connected to his Lord, to his God. And that's what the gospel does. The gospel of grace connects man with God. Ephesians chapter 6 verse 5 says the gospel of peace. And I think two things are in mind there, peace with God and also peace with my fellow man.

A great emphasis in the New Testament writers or by the New Testament writers was to show that Jew and Gentile come together as one in Jesus Christ. Now, it would be hard for us to comprehend, I guess, if it wasn't for the Arab-Israeli conflict that we see in the world and we've seen something of vicious animosity and enmity between those two groups, haven't we?

Well, equal to that would probably be the Jew-Gentile animosity of biblical days. They just mutually despised each other. But the New Testament says once a Jew is truly saved in Christ, once a Greek or Gentile is truly saved, everything is radically transformed and what they've received by grace is so infinitely wonderful and what they were naturally is so deplorable and now it's gone and forgiven.

They come together as one in Jesus Christ, both sinners saved by grace. So it talks about this gospel brings peace and this peace comes from grace. Ephesians 2, verse 14 says, Jesus is our peace. He brings peace.

You see, grace produces peace. And peace in our hearts is enjoyed when we walk in grace. Now, walking in grace is something I want to talk about for just a few moments. Well, how do I? You see, it's one thing to be saved by grace.

It's something else to walk in grace. And part of what I mean by that is a lot of us are not enjoying what we have in grace. You ought to walk in it, exercise it, experience the grace of God that He's bestowed upon us.

Let me give you this definition of walking in grace. It's an ever-present understanding. An ever-present understanding. I just keep reminding myself. And by the way, have you learned to be a disciplined disciple in your thought life?

You are responsible to God to be a disciplined disciple in your thinking. Don't live under the lie and the delusion that I lived under for many years, that your thoughts are just your thoughts and you don't have any control.

Hogwash and slop. You are commanded to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. And every time your mind gets on a wavelength that's unbiblical, catch it, kick it out, rebuke it. Do what David did in the Psalms.

David talked to himself. Said, soul, why are you downcast within me? Why are you discouraged? Quit being discouraged. There's no reason to be discouraged. Hush. Don't say you're discouraged. Just talk to yourself.

Now, don't do it in front of a lot of folks, but you have to do it. And honestly, about two, two and a half years ago, even though I've memorized scripture all my Christian life, and that certainly was a help, I did not actively think about rebuking, controlling, kicking out and forcing myself to think right.

And I'm telling you, when it comes to salvation and what grace is and walking in grace, most of you, if not the vast majority of you, have wrong unbiblical thinking. Now listen, I don't mean evil and rebellious like you get up to do think wrong.

I mean, it's wrong. The world and Satan has programmed it in there. But to you, it's as natural as breathing. But that's why we have the word of God. You go to the word of God and the sword of the spirit takes the word of God and slashes you and says, cut that out right there.

That don't fit God's truth. And you and you have the joy then of reprogramming your thinking to harmonize in God's word. So that's what I mean by an ever present understanding. I keep reminding myself of this truth.

What truth is that? That is this. That my salvation and service is all of grace. That my salvation and my subsequent service is all grace. In other words, it's all gifted by God and empowered by God. I'm not doing anything at all in a very true and real sense.