Ephesians (Part 4) — Les Wheeldon

Trespasses and sins. Wherein, in time past, we walked according to the course of this world. According to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience.

Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past, in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. And were by nature the children of wrath even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love, wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sin, hath quickened us together with Christ.

Salvation by Grace Through Faith

By grace, he was saved, and hath raised us up together, and made us fit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. But in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace, in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

For by grace are you saved. Who says? And that, not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should thirst. Isn't that wonderful? And you know, as we've already seen, the one who writes these words would have known that very, very well.

He knew that he was saved by grace. We go back a little, let's go back a little bit biographical, let's go back into Acts of the Apostles, and let's look at chapter 9, just for a moment, very briefly.

Chapter 9, and you've got this point, verse 3,. "...as he journeyed to Cana near Damascus, and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven.". Well, let me ask you, what has he done to deserve that light?

Now, you may say, well, oh, somebody was praying for him. Okay, somebody was praying for him. Perhaps. Certainly Jesus was praying for him. That's certain. But even if somebody was praying for him, why was the prayer answered?

Because of the grace of Jesus, which had made it possible for someone to pray for him. Go a little further forward, or back a bit further, which way is it? Chapter 2, right? Verse 2,. "...suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.".

What had they done to deserve it? Nothing. Why did they receive it? For only one reason. They were in the right place, at the right time, by the grace of God. By the grace of God. We are saved by grace.

Grace in the Acts of the Apostles

You could look at anything there. Let's go to where we were this morning, and let's look into chapter 19, at Acts of the Apostles. Chapter 19, verse 6, "...when Pilate laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them, and they spake with tongues and prophesied.".

Why did God pour out the Spirit there? By grace. Sheer grace. We are saved by grace. And I want to talk about this grace tonight. Go back into Ephesians chapter 1. I want to put a bit of background to it, because you see, we are saved tonight, not by anything we've done, but because of something that God has done, in his mercy.

If you look into this chapter 1 of Ephesians, I want you to notice the tense of the chapter. I remember things about this chapter, but look at this, look at this, the tense is first. Look at this verse 3.

"...blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.". Now notice the sense, he has done it. God has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places.

He has done it. Look at verse 5, "...having predestinated us.". Verse 8, "...wherein he is abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence.". Look in verse 11, "...in whom also we have attained an inheritance.".

Look down to verse 19, "...what is the exceeding greatness of his power to those who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead.".

Chapter 2, verse 4, we've read this already, "...God who is rich, that's God who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sin, has quickened us together with Christ.

By grace are you saved.". In other words, he did it when we were in sin. He did it when we couldn't pray. He did it when I couldn't do a thing about it to help myself. He did it before I ever had any sense to pray.

He did it before anybody prayed. He did it before anybody fasted. He did it before any of us lifted a finger for ourselves. God did something, and it's because of what he has done that tonight, I listen very carefully, tonight it is very easy for you to be saved.

It is easy for you to be saved. It is easy for you to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. It is easy for you to receive the gift of the Spirit. It is easy for God to reveal himself to you. Everything that God wants to do in us is easily obtained because God has already done it.

Amen. Now that's a revelation. To get that, you need a revelation. Not a lot of work. You just need to receive. The amazing thing about the reading of scripture, as it dawns on you as you read and poke in this book, what dawns upon you is that it is so easy.

It is so easy. You know that when I was talking this morning about the Apostle Paul, and I was saying that he was about 37, 38 when he was saved in chapter 9. He died, was executed around the age of 64, 65.

So that meant that he had approximately 30 years, just under 30 years, 27 years of Christian life. Not very long, is it? He accomplished an enormous amount in those 27 years, an enormous amount. He accomplished more than it would be humanly possible to accomplish.

Nobody could do it. Nobody could pray enough to get those blessings. Nobody could fast enough to get what he got. Nobody could actually work and earn what he got. It's like a child who is the son of a millionaire, and he's a millionaire and he's driving a, I don't know what kind of car, at the age of 17, and the day he gets in the driving license, probably bluesies, whatever, he's just got a facade.

Anyway, not quite a Lamborghini, anyway. He didn't earn it. There's nothing he did to earn it. He just got it. He was in the right place at the right time and he got it. He inherited it. It was given to him.

Grace Received Through Faith

Now everything that God is going to do in us is given to us by grace, through faith. And doubt not of yourself but, that is faith, is the gift, the gift of God. Isn't that wonderful? It's the gift of God.

God is going to pour out his blessing upon us. In fact, God is very desiring to pour out his blessing upon us. There is at this moment a great desire in God to do the things that many of us are longing for him to do.

And all we have to do to unlock the great riches of his grace, is ask, Amen. That's all we need to do. It's virtuous. What I find is this, that many people realize very easily and quickly their sins. Very easily.

And so, it doesn't take long before someone realizes that they don't deserve anything. And because they realize very quickly that they don't deserve anything, they also, also very quickly come to the realization that they also feel very sorry about their sins.

And if they feel really, really sorry, God might help them. And so, people come to the position where very soon, they are there telling God how bad they are, and realizing and beating themselves and doing extra special sorry, depending on how bad you feel it is.

You feel extra special sorry. And you might even go a little bit further, day after day, in saying how sorry you are, and you'll write up the letter expecting that if you're sorry enough, God might forgive you.

If you can really bring up enough penance, God will say, good, I'll forgive you. Now let me tell you, God will not forgive anybody because we do penance. Repentance, yeah, but not penance. Repentance is not penance.

Repentance is not even fundamentally feeling sorry for all the things you've done. That part of it's part, but not always. Repentance can be just a gentle realization that there's something far better and you don't want what you're in.

You go for the good. There's an example of that in the scripture, you know, when a woman, a woman of Samaria, talks to Jesus, and after a conversation lasting probably a bit longer than the time it takes to read it, but not very long, maybe a half hour, she sat and talked with Jesus, and surely we only have fragments of the conversation, but she talked with him, and at the end of her conversation, she went with joy into the city.

She had repented. She hadn't done any penance. She hadn't felt sorry for two minutes. She'd just been in a flash that there was something wonderful right there before her, so what she got, and took it, and it was hers, and she didn't want it.

Then you and I think, oh, oh, this is terrible what I've done. The Lord knows about it. I'll go away and I'll weep for a night or two, pray a few weeks about it, and then maybe God will be prepared to do something about changing my situation.

The reason is that people do easily get aware of their sins, but people don't easily get aware of what God has done about your sins. You realize you're not saved by repentance. You're saved by faith, and you're not saved by faith in repentance.

Excuse me for putting it a bit like that. You're not saved because you believe you've repented enough. You're saved because you believe in the grace of Jesus Christ. You've seen something in God, noticed something in yourself.

The whole point of salvation is that you've seen something in God, and you've transcended yourself altogether, and you've received it by a sheer undeserved free gift of the grace of God. And it's easy.

It is so easy to receive from God. Let me just show you another thing about this chapter, or these chapters. You see, one of the things that he prays for, and you know that little phrase in verse 17 of chapter 1, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, the eyes of your heart being enlightened, that you may know, and he goes on to talk about what you may know.

He wants us to see something. He doesn't want us to work at something. He wants us to see something. Now look at this chapter 6, chapter 2 verse 6, and it's raised us up together and made us rich. Now tonight, a good number of us stood up.

Well, that's very nice, it's good. I like to stand up. But you do realize that on the day of Pentecost, though the dressing was very great, it did not make them stand up. It made them sit down. In a sense, it tells us in Acts chapter 2 they were seated as they received the Holy Spirit, and Peter stood up in the midst to preach.

They sat, they received, and they remained seated. They didn't do anything. They just received. It was a mighty outpouring of the grace of God. They just received. Now, you and I know, we know that they prayed for 10 days, and they didn't pray for 10 days only.

They also did a few things, like appointing another apostle. A bit of a bad thing to do, really, when you look at it. They drew straws for him. Maybe you should appoint that messenger, appointing your next elders or whatever.

Draw straws in the church. They gave God a choice, of course. They said, Lord, you know, which of these two? They chose the two, and they let God have the final say between the two. Very good of them.

But for 10 days they prayed. I don't know what they prayed for 10 days. God said to them, stay in Jerusalem. Just stay here. Just stay here. So they stayed. Credit to them, they're obedient, they stayed.

And in 10 days' time, they were seated at 9 o 'clock in the morning, and God poured out the Holy Spirit upon them, out of sheer grace. They hadn't deserved it. They didn't know what was coming. They just received.

Salvation as Christ's Righteous Reward

Now, I want us to know tonight that God has a great fund. And he's desiring to pour out. He wants him to bless. Now, you see, each of us knows, we realise that there must be some grounds for God to bless us.

This is why we do our penance. Because we know there must be a grounds for God to bless us. If there isn't a grounds, he can't bless us. That's true, we realise it. That's why we think that if I give him something, he will reward me.

Now, God is a rewarder. He's a very great generous rewarder. But you see, salvation is not a reward for you, it's a reward for Jesus. Your salvation is not a reward for you, it's a reward for Jesus. And we'll look at that.

Your salvation is not because of what you did, it's because of what Jesus did. But we know that there's got to be something done to get us blessed. And we know that salvation must have a righteous foundation.

We realise that. And so, we tend to suspect that much of the scripture, it actually draws into a hard laborious struggle in order for God to righteously pour out the Spirit. In fact, if you read certain books and have certain ideas, you might come away with the idea that God will only give us an outpouring of Spirit if we come into some frame of mind that is particularly agonising, particularly costing, particularly hard on us.

But after several months or years of hard slog, God will then say, you've reached the point, gosh, I'll give it to you. And then he pours it out. I want you to see that when we pray, we must pray, don't forget that, we must pray.

But we don't pray in order to build up a debt of blessing with God, that God owes a blessing. We pray only for one reason, to put ourselves in the positions where God may give to us all that he wants to give to us and has already determined to give to us in Jesus Christ.

None of our praying, none of our devotions will earn us the blessings that God pours out. They only put us in the place where God will give us them. And remember, the time taken is not the time in order to obtain the blessing, it's the time for you to see what God has done.

Turn with me now to chapter 5 of Ephesians, verse 1. Be therefore followers of God and dear children, and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for his sweet smelling favour.

Christ's Sacrifice as the Foundation of Grace

Now, if you went back in the Old Testament now and you find that that scripture refers to the sacrifices that were given in the Old Testament. They gave sacrifices, they would bring their sacrifice to God, God had ordained it.

And as they brought their sacrifice, they knew that if they brought it there and killed the lamb, and they all did it, they all brought a sacrifice to the priest, and the priest offered the sacrifice for them.

Everybody did it. In fact, everybody in the nations also touched sacrifice themselves, not only the priests, because in the Passover, they all took the lamb, they all killed the lamb, they all applied the blood to the doorpost, they all entered into the house, and they all ate the lamb.

So there was a sacrifice which made them all to kill. There were sacrifices in which only the priests could offer. But there was one sacrifice, the Passover, in which they all became priests, because they all offered and they all ate of the sacrifice, they all were involved with the sacrifice of the lamb.

And it tells us here, that there was an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet, sweet favour. It tells us that when that sacrifice was made, the urge of the sacrifice ascended, and it pleased God.

And because it pleased God, God accepted the people, because of the sacrifice. He said, I accept you, I receive you, I will bless you, because of the sacrifice. But you see, when we turn to the New Testament, we find that there is one sacrifice, and it is Jesus.

He offered us himself. We didn't offer him up, he offered us himself. And more to that, the Father offered him up. If I took you back now, in history, right back to that day of Calvary, and I took you to stand by the cross, and we went there, and listened and observed all that took place in those moments, we would see that there was a great offering up of the Son of God as a sacrifice to God.

It was a sacrifice without blemish, it was perfect, that sacrifice to Lord Jesus, he was absolutely perfect in himself, as he had offered up to God. And he offered us himself. As he went up that hill, and was taken there, and married to that she, we don't know all the agonies.

It isn't even the central point of the Scripture, all we know is that he offered up himself. We know that Father, from his point, did not intervene. We know that Father willed that sacrifice. We know the truth of John 3 -16, that it was God who so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son.

It was God giving his Son a sacrifice. And when that sacrifice ascended, and went up to the Father, you realize that there was this awesome moment of, as God received the sacrifice of Jesus, what did the sacrifice of Jesus say?

Of course it wasn't just a smile. The smile is only a picture, an image. It was all that that sacrifice said to Father, because the sacrifice said this to Father. First thing it said was, Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.

Then the sacrifice said, and this is the favour that reached Father, why has God forsaken you? Why? What's the reason for it? It was not a question as much as an agony. But it's also a question, because there was a reason for his sacrifice, and that reason which will be seen later.

If you like, it was this question, why is this sacrifice being given? It's the question we have to ask ourselves, because when we say, what is this sacrifice for? Do you remember when the woman came to Jesus, and the disciple said, what use is this waste of this ointment?

Do you remember? The ointment that smells so sweet to Jesus. And he received the offering that she brought to him, that precious ointment. She poured it out, she broke it open, she poured it out on him, and it pleased him.

And so on that cross, Jesus Christ went all the way. He didn't come, hold back. He went all the way, and offered himself up, broke himself out, and poured out his life, and the sacrifice ascended to God as a sweet smelling savour.

Just as that woman's ointment, it reached the Father. Now don't imagine that the Father, when I was first converted, people told me that the Father was angry, and that Jesus was holding back the anger of God.

I don't believe that. The Father was not of a different heart to Jesus. He offered his Son, she gave him. Jesus gave himself, Father gave his Son. They were one in the sacrifice, they knew it had to be made.

The Father's Acceptance of Christ's Offering

And as that sacrifice went off, the Father sat there as pleased and as delighted in the sacrifice of Jesus, as Jesus was, and what that woman did for him. When that woman poured out that ointment, and Jesus received it with joy, and with pleasure, he received the worship.

As Jesus offered himself up to God, there was this great joy in God, but also there was this great determination. You see, the Father received the sacrifice of Jesus. There arose in his heart what there always arises in his heart, in sacrifice to God.

There arose in his heart the determination that he was going to answer the sacrifice of Jesus. He was going to pour out upon that sacrifice. He was going to reward that sacrifice. The Father said in his heart as he heard those cries, and those cries reached him, some of those cries pierced his heart like darts, because the agony of the Son was the agony of the Father.

As those cries reached him, there arose in his heart the determination that he was going to answer the prayers of Jesus Christ as they were prayed on that sacrificial day, the day of sacrifice of Jesus.

He heard, and as he heard that prayer, the Father forgave them. There arose in his heart the determination that he was going to forgive them. When the Father heard those words, while herself was brokenly, the Father said in his heart, there is going to be a reason for this sacrifice.

There is a reason for this sacrifice. Even though in that moment of agony, it somehow was obscured from the mind of Jesus Christ, the Father knew that the sacrifice of Jesus Christ would not be in vain.

He would reward it. And it was with all that offering up of the sacrifice of Jesus, and remember, it's as if at that moment, God, and God certainly did, he ignored, he overlooked every other sacrifice that man had ever given, because this was the one sacrifice he wanted.

He didn't want another sacrifice. All the history, all the lands, and all the bullets, all the things that were offered, were only pointing to one thing anyway, Jesus. The one that somebody might believe in the dread of a land anyway.

They were to believe in something that God was going to do. And so you have this sacrifice, and you've got that glorious day of Calvary. Glorious, it is. Although it's awful. There is something happening in God.

We could look at the agony, but let's look at this moment as something that was happening in God, and Jesus knew it was going to happen. Jesus knew that because he was dying and offering himself up to God, that he was obtaining from man, and he was a man, offering up perfect manhood, he was offering up something to God that would provoke a reaction from God.

The offering up of Jesus was the opening up of a reaction from God. Don't think of it as a purely calculated thing. It was calculated. It was known what they were going to do, but they determined to do it, and they did it not as a cruel calculation.

If it was a cruel calculation, Jesus wouldn't have said, why? It was the only reason what he was doing. It was in the passion and the fire of love that he gave himself. And in that passion and sacrifice of love, he offered himself up without thought to God.

And the Father in his heart said, I will reward this. I will reward it. And so much as it's at that moment when it's finished, he said, it's finished. It's done. That was the sacrifice finished. You can almost hear the leap of joy.

It's done. Nothing further needs to be done. And he died. On that third day, he rose right up to that throne. It's written there in Ephesians what he did. He rose right up to that throne. He sat down at the right hand of God.

And I don't believe he just sat down there and crossed his legs. He sat down there and almost, forgive me my imagination. I don't know how he sat there. I don't know what he looked like. But he sat there and said, now what's going to happen?

Now what is the second place? He knew his Father. Something, Lord, is going to happen. He knew. He knew who Father was. He knew that Father was going to reward what he had just done. Do you understand what I'm saying?

Rewarding Christ in Believers

It's the same tonight. It's not changed. That same attitude of heart is still in God the Father now. Do you realise that Jesus Christ is still sitting there, and the scripture tells us he is seated at the right hand of God, expecting, he is expecting something to happen as a response to what he did.

He knows. He's in perfect heart of it. He knows that something is going to happen. You know this thing is called the righteous reward. I've forgotten how the just reward. Do you know what the just reward is?

It's not the just reward for what I've done. It's not a just reward for anything I've done. It's a just reward for what Christ has done. It's as if on that day there was this great bursting down. You know, I think of it like a, if we build a canopy now, a canopy, occasionally you have these outdoor canopies, don't you?

You know, these things that you build up, and you've got this canvas, and you are there, and then it rains, and then you find that this canvas is filled with water, all right? Now let's imagine that we're sitting under a great canvas tonight, filled with water.

It's there, just above us, within reach, and there's a great, great, great of water in that canvas. What do you do to get the water out? You just put the canvas, and you get it, if it's got a lot of pressure in it, it'll burst out and trickle all over you.

Not trickle, it spills all over you. If you get a nice big knife and cut the canvas, you've got a nice drenching. Do you realize that what we are faced with tonight is a great pressure from above to bottom?

Do you realize that grace has done something, and there's something in God that's taken place that's made it righteous, that God should reward the son? Where will he reward the son? Where will he reward Jesus Christ?

In you. Where will the place be that will make that question have an answer? Where has God forsaken me? Why do I have to be separated from God? Why? So that you may simply, on a day, unspecified but now known as today, you might receive from God the limitless riches of his grace.

Now, in other words, God has done everything for you to receive. All you have to do is receive. It's a bit like, it's good to tell a story of this about a man who owed a lot of money. He owed a lot of money.

The Illustration of the Paid Debt

Just imagine if you were a poor man in debt. I don't know if there's anybody here in debt. But if you were a poor man in debt to a large sum, let me say, let's say a million pounds. Let's give you a last big sum of debt.

Don't worry, I'm only joking. A million pounds in debt. And let me say that I was a rich man. I owned a Mercedes, or a couple of Mercedes, and owned a great big house, mansion, in the south of England.

And you don't know whether it's fictional or not, do you? There you go. I own this great big house, and I've got all this, the riches, and I've got everything. And then I hear that you, my friend, you're in debt.

And I say, well look, you're in debt, you're going to go to prison. But I'm going to sell everything I've got, and I'm going to get a million pounds together, and I'm going to give it to you, pay your debt.

So I go out, I put my heart on the market, I get almost 650 ,000 pounds. I go, I go and get, and I sell my fleet of Mercedes, I get 950 ,000. I sell all my furniture, I get 999 ,000. And then I sell everything else I've got, and eventually I come and I've got a million.

And I say, there you are, I've got a million. And you say, oh good, but wait a minute, before you pay your debt, let me say something too. I've still got five pounds left that I've paid off. I want to put something towards it.

I want to do something so that on the day that it's made known who paid my debt, they know it was a joint affair. Here's my five pounds, and you take out a guilty old five pound note, you put it on the top of a pile.

And you know what you've done? You've dishonored the whole pile. You've dishonored the whole sacrifice. And the man who read that would say to you, I don't know what he'd say to you, but you would be insulting him.

You would insult his sacrifice. So you see, there's people who come to the Lord, and they believe that they have contributed to their salvation. There are people who believe that they have contributed to the glorious things that God are doing.

There are people who believe that because we've done various kinds of things, we are actually the cause of the blessings. All you do to cause a blessing, you just receive it. So that's the best thing to do, isn't it?

Just receive it. You know, just open up your heart and receive it. All you do is to learn. Thank you. You realize that Jesus Christ died for you, while you were still in sin, when you couldn't deserve it.

Then there's nothing you could do, but it has to be by grace. The thing is that when people have received grace and so forth, after some time they begin to think, oh well, now it's all going on because I'm quite good.

I'm good at prayer, I'm faithful in prayer, I'm a good Bible student, I've read my Bible through. Have you? And they go on with all this list of things that they've done, and they think, yes, I am a candidate for much grace.

Until it stops to flow. It ceases to flow. Because the blessings of God are never by work. Never. They're always by grace. They're all by grace. We're all saved by grace. It's all the gift of God. All.

Without exception. And so now if you go back, we're not going to Suriname, we've already told you, if you go back to the Acts of the Apostles, and you look at that chapter there on, and you realize that there's something going to happen, you can almost sense it, that Jesus Christ must have spoken like this.

He must have said, you carry in Jerusalem, till you receive the promise of the Father. He wouldn't have just said it in a calm voice of a bit of disinterest. He would have said, you carry, till you receive.

Carry, till you receive. Don't move, till you receive. It doesn't mean it's going to be very hard. No, no, no, just carry. Wait. Sit down, relax, enjoy your time. Just wait. Receive the promise of the Father.

So they waited. And on that day, they just waited a short time. They've done nothing to deserve it. They've done a lot to undeserve it. And they received it. God rewarded Jesus in them. There was Jesus saying, Father, I've done all this.

Please give me a reward. What's the reward, Jesus? It's all about the Holy Ghost, isn't it? That's all it is. Yes. That's what I want to do, too. There it goes. And you see, if you think now, we're now 1992.

That's right, isn't it? Got the right year, at least. We're now in 1992. That's a long time after that sacrifice. For God, the sacrifice has not grown old. It has not grown old for God. It isn't that God said, oh, that's taken place then, now.

The thing for God is that in the presence of God, for Him, it is as if the Lamb has just been slain. This very moment. This great desire to pour out, this great imminence of blessings, this great pressing in on us with the blessing of God and the grace of God, is the same tonight as it was on the Day of Pentecost.

The realisation comes to us that because of what Jesus has done, God is prepared to pour out upon us just the same as He's poured out on anybody. All you have to do is to go there with your little heart and say, Father, here am I.

Include me in it. Reward Jesus in me. And you find some people then say, well, yes, reward Jesus in me, but please do it like this. I would like you to give me the Spirit, but not in song, not with song.

I don't want to speak in song, because I don't like that. I want to be calm. You see that it's an audacious thing to do, to tell God how He rewards you. The point is, all you do is say, oh Father, here am I.

I see, I see my sin, I see my failure, I see everything I fail to do, I see my difficulties in prayer, I see my failures in all this. If you haven't, even now, if God was going to bless us this night because of the prayers of the faith only, what would we do?

We realise God's going to bless us because we're here and we'll candidate because Jesus did it for us. He did it for you. He didn't do it just for the apocrypha. He did it for you. Because He did it for you, He's going to do it for you.

Not because you've done anything, or because somebody else did it, because Jesus did it for you. He did it for you. I can't say it in proper words. He did it for you. He really did. He really had you in mind when He did it.

He planned it for you. It was for you that He did it. Let's look in Ephesians again and we'll close, because I want us just to receive. I want us to open our hearts and just receive. Now look in this chapter 2 again, and let's read these verses through.

Verse 3,. Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of lusts even as others.

That's the point we understand. But then, but, and remember how the apostle must have written it. He would think back to that day on the Damascus road. I often think back to the day on my Damascus road.

I often think back to it. And I think, oh God, why me? Before I said, why me? I said, why me? But then I said, why me? This is it, verse 4,. But God, who is rich in love for His great love, wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead, in sins and could do nothing.