WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:09.759 Please turn with me in your Bibles to 1 Timothy chapter 1, a reading from a few minutes ago. 00:00:09.759 --> 00:00:21.359 1 Timothy chapter 1, and I'll read again verses 15 and 16, very famous words. 00:00:21.359 --> 00:00:28.560 The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into 00:00:28.559 --> 00:00:35.119 the world to save sinners of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason 00:00:35.119 --> 00:00:42.879 that in me as the foremost Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to 00:00:42.879 --> 00:00:58.480 those who are to believe in him for eternal life. Now I'm not a long-distance traveler like many 00:00:58.479 --> 00:01:06.079 of you are, I know. I actually haven't been abroad this century. But we have friends who are just 00:01:06.079 --> 00:01:13.359 back from what they described as a fly cruise. They were in a fly drive to the States last year, 00:01:14.159 --> 00:01:19.280 so this year they thought they'd go one better and do a fly cruise. So they flew to New Zealand, 00:01:19.280 --> 00:01:28.799 cruise around New Zealand, then cruise to Sydney, and then travelled a bit around Australia and flew 00:01:28.799 --> 00:01:35.359 home. I was trying to tell them that because I've just been to the Outer Hebrides, Kathy and I did a 00:01:35.359 --> 00:01:45.680 cruise fly with McBrain and Loganair, but it didn't quite have the same cache. Now as a kid, I really 00:01:45.680 --> 00:01:53.120 did want to travel. I wanted to travel to space. I'm old enough to remember the excitement when 00:01:53.120 --> 00:02:01.440 Yuri Gagarin, Cosmonaut, the first to orbit the earth in 1961, and then I followed the American 00:02:01.440 --> 00:02:13.280 Space Program rather obsessively until the moon landings. Well today I want to think about travel, 00:02:13.280 --> 00:02:20.080 not the kind of travel I've just been speaking about, but the most amazing journeys of all 00:02:20.080 --> 00:02:31.199 that I hope you will wonder at and say, wow, hopefully. Amazing journeys in distance and in 00:02:31.199 --> 00:02:38.639 depth. And I want you to think of them in terms of grace. You can see our context here in verse 14. 00:02:38.639 --> 00:02:49.919 The grace of our Lord overflowed for me, says Paul. So I want us to think of the amazing journeys of 00:02:49.919 --> 00:03:05.599 amazing grace and say, wow. Four things as time allows. Number one, how far grace comes. How far 00:03:05.599 --> 00:03:17.840 grace comes. All the way to Bethlehem because the text says Christ Jesus came into the world. 00:03:19.519 --> 00:03:29.359 Now I want to think of that as both a coming from and a coming into. First it was a coming from. 00:03:29.360 --> 00:03:37.680 We're used here to baby arrivals. I suspect there'll be another announcement about one next Sunday. 00:03:38.560 --> 00:03:45.760 If there was an award for the most fertile congregation in Scotland, we would get it every year. 00:03:46.400 --> 00:03:54.320 But the coming of Jesus, of course, was different from any other baby. Yes, his human life had a 00:03:54.319 --> 00:04:04.319 beginning, but he already was the eternal Son of God. And the author we're reading from today, Paul, 00:04:04.319 --> 00:04:13.919 always assumes this. Here one of his great sayings about Jesus in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, and notice 00:04:13.919 --> 00:04:23.919 the word grace. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for 00:04:23.919 --> 00:04:31.919 your sake he became poor. And Paul is saying that before he came to earth, he was unimaginably rich 00:04:31.919 --> 00:04:39.919 in heaven before the poverty of earth. He came all the way from heaven, from the worship he enjoyed 00:04:39.920 --> 00:04:49.920 in heaven, and the blessedness he knew in heaven. Jesus comes from outside, Jesus comes from above. 00:04:49.920 --> 00:04:59.920 So there's a coming from, and it's a long way. But there's also a coming into, into this world. 00:04:59.920 --> 00:05:09.920 The Son of God takes on human nature, body and soul, real humanity. He became what he was not 00:05:09.920 --> 00:05:19.920 while remaining what he was. And he comes into a world that is sinful, and it's so different from 00:05:19.920 --> 00:05:29.920 heaven, from the light of heaven to the darkness of this world. Imagine the sensitivity of the 00:05:29.920 --> 00:05:40.920 divine Son who was so holy. And he becomes this human being who is sinless and holy. And here he is 00:05:40.920 --> 00:05:51.920 in a world of such sin and horror and cruelty and abuse, how it would have felt to his holy soul. 00:05:51.920 --> 00:05:59.920 But he came right into it. And he also comes into a suffering world to experience hunger and pain 00:05:59.920 --> 00:06:10.920 and loneliness and bereavement and all the rest of it. So God really did come all the way down to our 00:06:10.920 --> 00:06:20.920 world and right into our humanity. That's the journey that he traveled. That's the grace of the 00:06:20.920 --> 00:06:31.920 incarnation. That's the condescension of God from a throne to a manger. He came a vast and infinite 00:06:31.920 --> 00:06:42.920 distance when he came from and when he came into. He came on an amazing journey. How far grace comes. 00:06:42.920 --> 00:06:52.920 Let me read from a short poem called Mary's Song, which I've loved for a very long time. It's by Lucy 00:06:52.920 --> 00:07:01.920 Shaw. I think she was born in England, but has been an American citizen for a long time. I can't quite 00:07:01.920 --> 00:07:13.920 say the first line terribly honestly, but you'll understand when I read it. Blue homespun and the 00:07:13.920 --> 00:07:25.920 bend of my breast keep warm this small hot naked star fall into my arms. Rest you who have had so far 00:07:25.920 --> 00:07:35.920 to come. Now nearness satisfies the body of God sweetly. Quiet he lies whose vigor hurled a universe. 00:07:35.920 --> 00:07:45.920 And later on, breath mouth ears eyes he is curtailed who overflowed all skies all years. Older than 00:07:45.920 --> 00:07:55.920 eternity now he is new. Now native to earth as I am nailed to my poor planet caught that I might be 00:07:55.920 --> 00:08:05.920 free. Blind in my womb to know my darkness ended brought to this birth for me to be newborn and for 00:08:05.920 --> 00:08:15.920 him to see me mended I must see him torn. And these last lines take us to the second thing and for him 00:08:15.920 --> 00:08:29.920 to see me mended I must see him torn. The second thing is how far grace goes. How far grace goes all 00:08:29.920 --> 00:08:41.920 the way to Calvary. Surely another wow because the text says he came into the world to save sinners. 00:08:41.920 --> 00:08:51.920 We know from the Gospels that Jesus came into the world to do one thing above all others, to travel to 00:08:51.919 --> 00:09:01.919 the cross to save sinners. The four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John tell us that story with an amazing 00:09:01.919 --> 00:09:09.919 focus on the final week. Remember as we've just been thinking about the baby who came, according to 00:09:09.919 --> 00:09:20.919 Matthew 1 the baby is to be named Jesus which means the Lord saves because he will save his people from 00:09:20.919 --> 00:09:27.919 their sins. That's what the name Jesus signifies. He's going to save his people from their sins. He has no 00:09:27.919 --> 00:09:36.919 sin of his own but he's come to do something to save these people from their sins. Now everything Jesus 00:09:36.919 --> 00:09:47.919 does contributes to that but one event above all others is crucial and climactic, the cross. So later 00:09:47.919 --> 00:09:55.919 in that same Gospel of Matthew the Jesus who was named as the Savior of sinners says at the last supper 00:09:55.919 --> 00:10:06.919 in chapter 26 that the wine points to his blood, quote, poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. 00:10:06.919 --> 00:10:18.919 He has to die to save us from our sins. So the one named Jesus, the baby, grows up and journeys to the 00:10:18.919 --> 00:10:29.919 cross and he saves us from sin by shedding his precious blood for sinners and we still, as we will do this 00:10:29.919 --> 00:10:39.919 evening in this church, we still take bread and wine to remember him by remembering this. We remember the 00:10:39.919 --> 00:10:51.919 cross in obedience to remember me. Now like Jesus, Paul who's writing here is a theologian of the cross 00:10:51.919 --> 00:11:00.919 and I wonder if Paul here actually has words of Jesus in mind, certainly he has the theology of Jesus in mind 00:11:00.919 --> 00:11:11.919 as he writes. If you know Mark 10 and 45 most of you will when I say what it is, Jesus on why he came into the 00:11:11.919 --> 00:11:23.919 world. He says that he came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for the many. 00:11:23.919 --> 00:11:34.919 Jesus is saying I came into the world to die and he uses the language of ransom and you'll notice if you glance 00:11:34.919 --> 00:11:45.919 across that in the next column it was in our reading in chapter 2, Paul refers to Jesus as our ransom. 00:11:45.919 --> 00:11:55.919 Verse 5, there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus who gave himself as a ransom 00:11:55.919 --> 00:12:04.919 for all. So what Paul is saying in this whole passage and that's why I read right into chapter 2 or ask Billy to read. 00:12:04.919 --> 00:12:17.919 Jesus came into the world to save sinners and he achieved this by paying the price to rescue them, to redeem them 00:12:17.919 --> 00:12:29.919 through the cross. The cost of our forgiveness and freedom from the guilt and the power of sin was the blood of the 00:12:29.919 --> 00:12:41.919 Son of God shed on the cross. Jesus came into the world to save sinners and he does that by dying for us on the 00:12:41.919 --> 00:12:52.919 cross as our ransom. Still thinking about the cross, I want to take just two or three minutes to return to the theme of 00:12:52.919 --> 00:13:06.919 this amazing journey that Jesus takes to the cross and the idea of the descent of grace again in distance and in depth. 00:13:06.919 --> 00:13:15.919 The distance and depth that Jesus was willing to travel. If you think for example of the way Paul tells the story in 00:13:15.919 --> 00:13:24.919 Philippians 2 from verse 5, one of his famous passages in the New Testament, he tells us that Jesus in heaven was in the form of 00:13:24.919 --> 00:13:35.919 God but he took the form of a slave by coming to earth and becoming incarnate and then he humbled himself to the point 00:13:35.919 --> 00:13:49.919 of death, even death on a cross. There's the journey from heaven all the way to the cross. How far Jesus was willing to go 00:13:49.919 --> 00:13:59.919 for you and for me. Or think about another couple of verses with Paul's theology of the cross and ask yourself, 00:13:59.919 --> 00:14:17.919 did Jesus go far enough for me? 2 Corinthians 5 and 21. For our sake, God made Jesus to be sin, the one who knew no sin. 00:14:17.919 --> 00:14:32.919 He made him sin on the cross. Is that enough? Or Galatians 3 and 13. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse 00:14:32.919 --> 00:14:47.919 for us. He became a curse. He became the cursed thing. Is that enough? Or think just of the descent of the whole 00:14:47.919 --> 00:14:59.919 gospel story as you read the gospels. The shadow of the cross is over the whole of Jesus' life. And at last he goes down to 00:14:59.919 --> 00:15:13.919 Gethsemane and down to Golgotha and then down to the grave. Far enough? Or think of him just in one detail on the cross. 00:15:13.919 --> 00:15:26.919 What I believe is his descent into hell on the cross. Without leaving the cross, he experiences hell on the cross. 00:15:26.919 --> 00:15:39.919 That seems to be what's being portrayed in the darkness that you know about around Calvary. Remember Jesus said that hell means darkness, 00:15:39.919 --> 00:15:52.919 outer darkness. And there on the cross at noon, he is shrouded in darkness. And remember also that Jesus spoke about hell as abandonment, 00:15:52.919 --> 00:16:05.919 that he would one day say to some, depart from me, go away. And what does he have to say in the cross, but my God, my God, 00:16:05.919 --> 00:16:17.919 why have you forsaken me? Why have you abandoned me? In that experience of abandonment and that cry out of the darkness, 00:16:17.919 --> 00:16:36.919 Jesus is experiencing our hell for our sins so that we might not go to hell. What I'm saying is Jesus could not have gone further for you 00:16:36.919 --> 00:16:51.919 and for me. Jesus could not have come further than from heaven into human nature in this sinful suffering world. And Jesus couldn't have gone further 00:16:51.919 --> 00:17:02.919 than what he did for you and for me on the cross of Calvary. And when you hear that and understand that and appreciate that, 00:17:02.919 --> 00:17:17.920 then you realize that Jesus deserves your thanks and your trust. And he deserves that today, now, and every moment of every day from now. 00:17:17.920 --> 00:17:29.920 He deserves your gratitude and your commitment and faith and love because he did all that for you. He could not have done more. 00:17:29.920 --> 00:17:41.920 He could not have come further. He could not have gone lower and it's all been done for us. So how far grace comes all the way to Bethlehem. 00:17:41.920 --> 00:17:57.920 How far grace goes all the way to Calvary. Thirdly, how far grace reaches all the way to Paul, all the way to Saul, Paul. 00:17:57.920 --> 00:18:12.920 Now this man, Paul, formerly known as Saul, a Pharisee as was, Saul the Pharisee would have known himself to be sinful. 00:18:12.920 --> 00:18:23.920 Okay, he would not have thought of himself as a sinless human being. But it's interesting to know that he would have kept the term 00:18:23.920 --> 00:18:35.920 sinners for others. So for example, he would have talked of pagans and the Gentile world as sinners. 00:18:35.920 --> 00:18:47.920 Or scandalous immoral Jews, they would have called sinners. Remember, you can look yourselves at Mark 2, 16 and 17 sometime, 00:18:47.920 --> 00:18:59.920 there's Jesus eating with sinners and the Pharisees criticized Jesus in verse 16 that he deans to eat with people they call sinners. 00:18:59.920 --> 00:19:09.920 Sometimes Pharisees would even apply the category sinners to Jews who didn't adhere to their own very strict phariseic standards. 00:19:09.920 --> 00:19:22.920 So basically, there's the Pharisees and then the rest. Now Saul would have seen himself, Saul, Paul would have seen himself in a different category, 00:19:22.920 --> 00:19:33.920 the category of the righteous. You can see in Mark 2, 17, the same passage I just referred to, that Jesus is playing with that language 00:19:33.920 --> 00:19:40.920 when the Pharisees criticize him for spending all this time with sinners and he just turns and he says to them, 00:19:40.920 --> 00:19:50.920 well, shouldn't I have come for sinners? I mean, I haven't come to call the righteous to repentance, meaning the Pharisees. 00:19:50.920 --> 00:20:02.920 I haven't come for the righteous. You guys, you of course are okay, but I've come for sinners. So shouldn't I spend time with the sinners? 00:20:02.920 --> 00:20:13.920 I hesitate to say this, but if there is such a thing, not saying that is, if there is such a thing as sinless sarcasm, 00:20:13.920 --> 00:20:26.920 then that was sinless sarcasm. I haven't come for the righteous, you good guys. I've come for the sinners, so let me spend my time with the people who need me. 00:20:26.920 --> 00:20:42.920 So Saul would have kept this term, sinners, for everybody else except his own circle. But now you can see here that he includes himself in the category of sinners, 00:20:42.920 --> 00:20:57.920 but he also says, I am the foremost. I am the chief of sinners, he says in verse 15. Why? Because as he says in verse 13, I was a blasphemer, 00:20:57.920 --> 00:21:07.920 a persecutor, an insolent opponent of Jesus, but I received mercy. It's amazing, the chief of sinners. 00:21:07.920 --> 00:21:15.920 And there's the humility also in verse 13 of, I acted ignorantly in unbelief. 00:21:15.920 --> 00:21:27.920 You can think about it for a second. Paul would have thought of himself in his pharaoh Pharisees as the epitome of believing people, people of faith. 00:21:27.920 --> 00:21:38.920 And he would also have thought of himself and his learned colleagues as the most able theologians on the planet. 00:21:38.920 --> 00:21:48.920 So here's this very knowledgeable Paul who had seen himself as a professor and a believer. 00:21:48.920 --> 00:22:00.920 He's saying, well, when I opposed Jesus, I acted ignorantly in unbelief. I was an idiot. 00:22:00.920 --> 00:22:06.920 And he was enemy number one of the young Christian church, as he knew as we know. 00:22:06.920 --> 00:22:16.920 We might even say that he saw the Jesus movement as the deadliest of viruses. 00:22:16.920 --> 00:22:23.920 He believed in a coming Christ Messiah, but Jesus, he knew, wasn't the Christ. 00:22:23.920 --> 00:22:31.920 So for him, this was the Christo virus. And he sought to contain the virus. 00:22:31.920 --> 00:22:38.920 He sought to quarantine the virus by putting Christians in prison and isolate them. 00:22:38.920 --> 00:22:45.920 He sought to eradicate the virus of faith in Jesus. 00:22:45.920 --> 00:22:51.920 And everyone around would have thought Saul to be an impossible case. 00:22:51.920 --> 00:22:55.920 When you look around and say, who's going to become a Christian? 00:22:55.920 --> 00:23:00.920 The last person you ever expected was Saul. 00:23:00.920 --> 00:23:11.920 Let me apply that to your impossible cases, either close to you, family, or colleagues at work. 00:23:11.920 --> 00:23:15.920 Who's the last person you'd offer as you think would ever become a Christian? 00:23:15.920 --> 00:23:21.920 Well, pray for them, because if Saul could be reached, anyone could be reached. 00:23:21.920 --> 00:23:27.920 Who's the last person when you watch the news you think will ever become a Christian? 00:23:27.920 --> 00:23:35.920 Well, pray for them. Even perhaps especially if you can't stand them, that Jesus would touch them with his grace. 00:23:35.920 --> 00:23:47.920 Jesus can reach any impossible case, because Paul is saying, grace reached down all the way to me, even to me. 00:23:47.920 --> 00:23:53.920 And it's a wonderful thing that when he talks about his conversion, he never got blasphemy about sin. 00:23:53.920 --> 00:23:58.920 Still the chief of sinners. And he never got blasphemy about grace. 00:23:58.920 --> 00:24:04.920 There's still doxology there in verse 17. He's always bursting into praise. 00:24:04.920 --> 00:24:09.920 There was always humility and always doxology. 00:24:09.920 --> 00:24:19.920 And as we face our sin, I want you to think of it especially in terms of your attitude, my attitude to Jesus. 00:24:19.920 --> 00:24:28.920 If I'm not a Christian, what's my attitude to Jesus, all the way from complete apathy to hostility? 00:24:28.920 --> 00:24:35.920 They're all wrong. Or if I'm a Christian, what is my attitude to Jesus today? 00:24:35.920 --> 00:24:45.920 And where do I need to repent of my lack of love or my lack of faith or my lack of depth or whatever it might be in your life? 00:24:45.920 --> 00:24:51.920 We face our sin. Saul's great sin was his opposition to Jesus. 00:24:51.920 --> 00:24:59.920 And our greatest sin is always not taking Jesus as seriously as we should. 00:24:59.920 --> 00:25:07.920 So Paul sees his story as an encouragement for anyone to come to Jesus. 00:25:07.920 --> 00:25:16.920 Verse 16, I received mercy for this reason that in me, as the foremost of sinners, Jesus might display as perfect patience 00:25:16.920 --> 00:25:21.920 as an example to others who were to believe in Him for eternal life. 00:25:21.920 --> 00:25:30.920 He considers himself the ultimate trophy of the incredible long-suffering patience of Jesus 00:25:30.920 --> 00:25:36.920 because he's saying, Jesus, first of all, withheld His judgment from me. 00:25:36.920 --> 00:25:39.920 He could have zapped me anytime. 00:25:39.920 --> 00:25:44.920 And then Jesus poured out His grace on my life and into my life. 00:25:44.920 --> 00:25:49.920 Verse 14, the grace of our Lord overflowed for me. 00:25:49.920 --> 00:25:54.920 He flooded Paul's heart with faith and love. 00:25:54.920 --> 00:26:05.920 So Paul is offering himself as a prototype, a pattern, so that anyone afterwards may know that they can come to. 00:26:05.920 --> 00:26:08.920 They can be changed too. 00:26:08.920 --> 00:26:20.920 His logic is, if Jesus can change me, then He can change anyone. 00:26:20.920 --> 00:26:29.920 There's a scholar, many of you will know the name of Tom Wright, N.T. Wright, I think still in St. Andrews University. 00:26:29.920 --> 00:26:36.920 The only thing I have in common with that genius, I suppose, is that, well, we're both Christians. 00:26:36.920 --> 00:26:45.920 But the other thing I have in common with him is that we both watched the Lone Ranger on TV 00:26:45.920 --> 00:26:49.920 when there weren't many channels to choose from a very long time ago. 00:26:49.920 --> 00:26:51.920 So we're about the same age. 00:26:51.920 --> 00:26:57.920 If I'm remembering rightly Saturday afternoons, after spending all day outside playing football, 00:26:57.920 --> 00:27:04.920 came in for the football results on grandstand and then watched the Lone Ranger. 00:27:04.920 --> 00:27:12.920 A story of a Texas Ranger who's the only one left after his family and his colleagues are killed. 00:27:12.920 --> 00:27:20.920 And what Tom Wright focuses on in relation to this text here is the Lone Ranger and Silver. 00:27:20.920 --> 00:27:27.920 When we first meet Silver in the story, the horse is unbroken and untamed. 00:27:27.920 --> 00:27:36.920 And all the experts, the Native American experts, all the horse whispers and the rest of them say, 00:27:36.920 --> 00:27:40.920 this one will never be tamed. 00:27:40.920 --> 00:27:45.920 There's a willfulness and a wildfulness that means everybody gives up. 00:27:45.920 --> 00:27:48.920 And they say it's a waste of time trying to train him. 00:27:48.920 --> 00:27:50.920 But the Lone Ranger is determined. 00:27:50.920 --> 00:27:57.920 This is the horse for him and by some secret means he brings the horse to respond 00:27:57.920 --> 00:28:02.920 and become his servant and his friend. 00:28:02.920 --> 00:28:06.920 Now Tom Wright says, the point I want to make is this. 00:28:06.920 --> 00:28:11.920 From the moment when the Lone Ranger shows he can tame the untameable horse 00:28:11.920 --> 00:28:14.920 and make it his servant and his friend, 00:28:14.920 --> 00:28:21.920 the viewer knows that he will be able to conquer all other obstacles in his path as well. 00:28:21.920 --> 00:28:28.920 He's taken the hardest case and the easy ones will be well easy. 00:28:28.920 --> 00:28:33.920 And that's the point Paul is making when he talks about what God had done in his life. 00:28:33.920 --> 00:28:39.920 God had taken the wildest, most violent of blaspheming persecutors 00:28:39.920 --> 00:28:43.920 and transformed him into a believer and an evangelist. 00:28:43.920 --> 00:28:49.920 If God can do that, Paul is saying, there is nobody out there anywhere. 00:28:49.920 --> 00:28:51.920 There is no heart so hard. 00:28:51.920 --> 00:29:01.920 There is no anger so bitter that it remains outside the reach of God's patient mercy. 00:29:01.920 --> 00:29:08.920 Above all, I think Paul's story is showing the heart of Christ to sinners. 00:29:08.920 --> 00:29:15.920 We remember the heart of Jesus on the cross, Father forgive them, for they know not what they do. 00:29:15.920 --> 00:29:20.920 And that is the heart of Jesus still in heaven. 00:29:20.920 --> 00:29:23.920 And Jesus invites everyone to come to him. 00:29:23.920 --> 00:29:31.920 That's why chapter 2 verse 6, where I refer to a ransom says, he's a ransom for all. 00:29:31.920 --> 00:29:38.920 An expression highlighting the free offer of the gospel to anyone and everyone. 00:29:38.920 --> 00:29:45.920 And you see the logic is, if it's for all, then it's for you, whoever you are today. 00:29:45.920 --> 00:29:53.920 If Jesus is a ransom for all, then he's offered to you as your Savior. 00:29:53.920 --> 00:29:57.920 And this Jesus is worthy of your trust. 00:29:57.920 --> 00:30:01.920 Verse 15, this is a trustworthy saying. 00:30:01.920 --> 00:30:08.920 In a world of lies then and now, Paul is saying, this is worth believing, this is worth sharing, 00:30:08.920 --> 00:30:12.920 this is worth retweeting, this is worth whatever. 00:30:12.920 --> 00:30:21.920 It's a reliable saying because it's about the reliable Jesus who has proved himself in life and death and resurrection 00:30:21.920 --> 00:30:28.920 to a Savior who deserves our trust and countless multitudes through the generations and across the cultures 00:30:28.920 --> 00:30:34.920 have proved Jesus to be reliable, have found this to be trustworthy. 00:30:34.920 --> 00:30:41.920 And then Paul says this saying deserves full acceptance, literally all acceptance. 00:30:41.920 --> 00:30:47.920 That could mean everyone's acceptance, Jesus is worthy of the trust of the whole world. 00:30:47.920 --> 00:30:57.920 Or it could mean wholehearted acceptance, he's worthy of my whole acceptance, all of my being, which is true too. 00:30:57.920 --> 00:31:04.920 Paul is saying Jesus is worthy of everyone's complete trust. 00:31:04.920 --> 00:31:07.920 He's worthy of my trust and your trust. 00:31:07.920 --> 00:31:12.920 And we're invited to rest our faith on him. 00:31:12.920 --> 00:31:21.920 It is literally towards the end of verse 16, to believe on him, to come exhausted to Jesus with all my baggage 00:31:21.920 --> 00:31:29.920 and say, I believe you're the truth, I will now rest my faith, rest my soul, my heart, my life, my eternity. 00:31:29.920 --> 00:31:37.920 I will just collapse them onto you and trust you to take the weight forever. 00:31:37.920 --> 00:31:45.920 We are to believe on Jesus, he's trustworthy and we can rest our faith on him. 00:31:45.920 --> 00:31:49.920 How far grace reaches all the way to Paul. 00:31:49.920 --> 00:31:54.920 And the fourth point, I won't go into my time, the time I was given as up. 00:31:54.920 --> 00:32:00.920 How far grace lasts, all the way to eternity. 00:32:00.920 --> 00:32:12.920 I was going to speak about grace taking us and guaranteeing eternity because verse 16 talks about believing for eternal life. 00:32:12.920 --> 00:32:20.920 When we've been there 10,000 years, amazing grace's praise is only just beginning. 00:32:20.920 --> 00:32:28.920 And also I was going to think a little about grace in eternity, grace in glory, because grace means God's generosity. 00:32:28.920 --> 00:32:32.920 And we will never exhaust God's generous grace. 00:32:32.920 --> 00:32:38.920 He will always be giving us new things to enjoy forever and forever. 00:32:38.920 --> 00:32:45.920 So if I can sum up what I was going to say, grace guarantees glory forever. 00:32:45.920 --> 00:32:51.920 And grace saturates glory forever. 00:32:51.920 --> 00:32:59.920 And this grace is secure for us. 00:32:59.920 --> 00:33:08.920 I also concluded basically a five minute riff on angels going back over all of this and saying, we don't believe it. 00:33:08.920 --> 00:33:10.920 He's not going to come that distance. 00:33:10.920 --> 00:33:16.920 He's not going to go for the womb and a manger and diapers and whatever. 00:33:16.920 --> 00:33:22.920 And then the cross, he's not going to go that distance and then Paul, he's not going to go into his heart. 00:33:22.920 --> 00:33:26.920 And then eternity, we're not going to shade eternity with these people forever. 00:33:26.920 --> 00:33:41.920 10,000 years is fine, but I let you yourselves speculate on two gossipy angels being amazed at the journeys that Jesus travels in grace for us. 00:33:41.920 --> 00:33:50.920 But I want to finish with this because it struck me just a couple of days ago as I was thinking about this security of grace. 00:33:50.920 --> 00:34:02.920 And on Thursday, I went to one of the, what name the bookshop to buy Hilary Mantel's third volume of the trilogy about Thomas Cromwell, The Mirror and the Light. 00:34:02.920 --> 00:34:05.920 And you've got a free tote bag with it. 00:34:05.920 --> 00:34:13.920 Well, it's 900 pages, so I should think 25 quid 900 pages that should give you a free tote bag. 00:34:13.920 --> 00:34:18.920 But on the tote bag was written what I presume is a quote from the book. 00:34:18.920 --> 00:34:27.920 And it says, your whole life depends on the next beat of Henry's heart. 00:34:27.920 --> 00:34:38.920 Now, that's a capricious king. You never knew when Henry was going to say, even to family and friends, off with their head. 00:34:38.920 --> 00:34:46.920 Capricious. Your whole life depends on the next beat of Henry's heart. 00:34:46.920 --> 00:34:58.920 But the Christian is so different because of God's grace. We know that we have always been in God's heart. 00:34:58.920 --> 00:35:03.920 And we will never be plucked from the love of his heart. 00:35:03.920 --> 00:35:12.920 And we know that in our King Jesus, we are secure forever in the love of Jesus. 00:35:12.920 --> 00:35:25.920 That's the most amazing thing in a sense about amazing grace, that it's committed, guaranteed, sealed in the blood of Jesus. 00:35:25.920 --> 00:35:35.920 And God cannot go back in His word when you trust in Jesus, when you trust in grace, when you receive Him into your life. 00:35:35.920 --> 00:35:43.920 God is saying, your mind for evermore, I will never go back on my commitment to you. 00:35:43.920 --> 00:35:50.920 Nothing will separate you and me from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. 00:35:50.920 --> 00:36:04.920 We don't have a capricious king. We have a king who in grace guarantees Jesus to us with all that Jesus has done in all of these great journeys of grace. 00:36:04.920 --> 00:36:14.920 And this Jesus is guaranteed to me and you forever in God's amazing grace. Amen.