Receiving the Word of His Grace

THE CITY GATE CHURCH

-Welcome to Sunday Service-

SUNDAY SERVICE

MINISTERING: Pst. Oladimeji Elugbadebo

REFERENCE ID: TCGC/SUN-MS-2018-04-08-2

TITLE ID: Receiving the Word of His Grace

Interpretation of Tongues

Tell my people that the siege is over, the battle has been won. I have taken care of the difficulties and even things that they have not thought of. It is over, the battle is over. Victory victory! There is a sound of victory in the Spirit. Rejoice, for I have broken through and you are an overcomer.

I hear breakthrough in the Spirit, difficult situations are being taken care of. I am tackling them with grace.

Message Begins

The economy of the New Testament is grace; it opens the New Testament ministry. There is nothing of God that we can receive in the Son without grace, everything that God wills for His children has been given to the Son. Grace has made all things available to us in the Son. God is not going to bypass the Son to reach out to man anymore; all things are in the Son and has been concluded in Him. There is nothing I can get from God that is not available under the auspices of grace. The blessing of the New Testament can only be accessed by grace through our Lord Jesus.

The first point of accessing this grace made available is by believing in the finished work of Christ. Believing in the finished work of Christ brings all things to us. Access into grace starts by believing. There is nothing that God has for you that grace has not delivered.

Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,
- 2 Peter 1:1-2 (kjv)

We come into life through the abundance of grace; grace must be multiplied to you to access the abundance of life. There are measures of grace; with each measure of grace, we have access to life. As grace increases, life increases. The intention of God is that grace will be multiplied in the life of a believer, there has to be a multiplication of grace and peace. Grace and peace multiply through knowledge. Grace is divine, it is a divine power. Grace is what makes divinity accessible to man. Divinity is mystical and hidden but is it is grace that makes it attainable, it makes divinity accessible. What makes divine life play out in human life is grace. When divine life is being made flesh, it is grace that is at work. Without grace, I cannot access that which is God’s.

Grace makes everything in the Son available and faith causes it to be accessible. A soul cannot become godly without grace, a soul cannot access life, Zoe, without grace.

Grace makes all things available for us in the New Covenant through the Son. Grace brings to us both the benefits of salvation and our inheritance in God. The first step in accessing grace is believing, then you are saved. We grow in grace (2 Peter 3:18). As I grow in grace, I am attaining different realities in Christ.

Healing is a benefit of grace, prosperity, victory over the works of darkness and divine protection are all benefits of grace. There is no benefit of salvation that can be accessed outside grace. When you grow in grace, you are growing faith. Growing in grace is growing in faith; a soul growing in grace is accessing faith levels in the Son.

But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.
- 2 Peter 3:18

As you grow in knowledge, you access new levels of grace. Grace is what downloads the very essential nature of God and integrates it into man. Grace brings to us both the benefits of our salvation and our inheritance.

Grace is the Person of the Lord Jesus; it is not just a Christian ideology, He is a person. The Son is grace personified, he is the Grace Being. When you talk grace, you reveal the person of Christ. There is no access to truth without grace. Grace fosters truth; what grace gives birth to is truth. When we speak of grace, we speak of the very person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We access grace first by believing. When we believe, our spirit is quickened and saved. So if I believe in the grace of God for my salvation, it also means that grace has the power to give to me layers of salvation. Salvation is a journey. Anytime you see truth, what God is doing is that He is saving you.

Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
- Ephesians 2:5 (kjv)

If not for grace no man can be saved. As grace quickened your spirit, you need grace to save your soul. Salvation as a journey is a response to the revelation of grace. Grace must be revealed to you to respond to Him. If grace is not revealed to you, you cannot receive salvation at any level. This is why every epistle is started with ‘grace and peace’. This means that the New Testament is a grace operation. We need to understand the workings of grace. When I get born again, I believe in grace and have faith, by this, my spirit is saved. If I am going to make progress in my journeying to God, inheriting Him, I need to encounter a higher measure of grace.

And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
- Ephesians 2:6-7

Grace makes us sit with Christ. Grace made it possible for my spirit to sit with Christ. When I am saved (spirit quickened) and I am also journeying to the end of my faith. My spirit is ascended at new birth, if this has not happened, I cannot make any journey to God. the ascension of my spirit must become my daily reality, therefore, I must allow the word of grace to build me up. In my spirit, I am seated with Christ, but in my soul, I am not but the working of grace makes my soul to be seated where my spirit is.

The teachings of grace are the unveilings of the life that is in God. The ages to come are grace ages, we will still be interacting with grace at a much intense level in the ages to come.

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
-Ephesians 2:8 (kjv)

Grace administers grace. There is no benefit of grace that you can get outside the Son. The beginning of grace is to deliver to you the benefits of salvation; the beginning lessons of grace is for me to have an assurance in the finished work of God. Grace is a person, you do not understand it in one day or at the point of salvation. So the first point of understanding grace is having total assurance in the finished work of Christ. What the grace of God teaches you is to rely on the absolute assurance of God’s love. When you begin to learn grace, you begin to learn what it means to have solid rock assurance in the finished work of Christ. Grace teaches you to have assurance and total dependence on what Jesus has done. By engaging graces, believing in grace, you have assurance in the finished work of grace.

Grace measures faith and love to us; when grae is increasing, faith is increasing.

And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.
- 1  Timothy 1:14 (kjv)

The beginning of grace teaches you to have assurance in the finished work of Christ. This is where many grace teachers have missed it, in teaching the assurance of the finished work of Christ, they teach eternal security. Grace teaches you to respond to God. The life of God is eternal, but there is nothing that is given to man that cannot be rejected. There is nothing like once saved forever saved. The purpose of salvation is to make man perfect in God. We have often taught that man is a spirit (neglecting soul and body); what makes up man is the three entities, spirit, soul and body. So salvation does not end with the quickening of the spirit, God wants your soul to be saved and your body also.

You received grace for salvation or new birth but to continue this process in the soul and body, you must keep receiving grace.

And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.
- John 1:16 (kjv)

There is a grace you received at new birth but this grace is to increase to another level of grace; each level of grace communicates a measure of divine nature to you. You cannot stop the journey of grace, if you stop it, salvation is stopped. So we have to move from grace to grace until we are full of grace.

And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him.
- Luke 2:40 (kjv)

And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.
- Luke 2:52 (kjv)

As Jesus was growing, He was growing in grace. When you are full of grace you are full of wisdom. When you find grace, you know what pleases God. Noah found grace and he began to do what pleases God. The favour that Jesus increased in can also be rendered as grace.

Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:
- Hebrews 12:28 (kjv)

Receiving a kingdom is receiving salvation/our inheritance. The operation of grace exceeds the benefits of salvation. There are things in God that are accessible beyond the level of the benefits. There are higher realities in the Son, if you don't grow in grace, you would not attain to them. You grow in grace by knowledge.

You should not be afraid that you can lose your salvation but you should live with caution. When I got born again, I understood what Jesus did for me, so I am not afraid that I can lose my salvation, however, I am not flippant about my salvation. The bible does not teach us to live anyhow or to be careless with sin and the works of the flesh. I am not afraid because I have faith in what Jesus has done. Many of us gave our lives to Christ over and over again, what we needed at those times was just faith in the finished work of Christ and we needed not go to the altar repeatedly at every altar call.

I have faith in the finished work of Christ, yet I am still on the journey of salvation. Even though Jesus has taken care of sin, you have the responsibility to renounce sin. Grace has taken care of sin because Jesus has paid a legal price for sin. There is no other sin that can arise that Jesus has not taken care of. When He died, He destroyed sin, however, you have a responsibility to denounce sin because God made us a being that has will. You chose salvation and must continually choose salvation daily; this is why as a believer, you should confess your sins. Any teaching that doesn't make you confess your sins is evil. Jesus has saved you from sin, yet you know that you are not perfect and you are on a journey of salvation, so when you sin, you do not claim that you are under grace; rather, you confess your sins in repentance and continue your journey. Any teaching that sears your conscience or hardens your heart is not a teaching of grace.

As you grow in one level of grace to another, the activity of grace works in you for transformation, so that which is legally yours becomes functional. That which is legal, given to you by Christ at new birth must be downloaded into your life daily and become functional realities. When grace is growing in you, He will constantly teach you to learn disobedience to wicked natures. As He teaches you, He will teach you godliness and the nature of Christ, these things are already in your spirit potentially as a seed form. However, that which is in your spirit as a seed form must be grown to become your experience. So you must not just be holy in your spirit, you must be holy in your soul.

In the Old Testament it was very difficult to obey God. The laws in Exodus 20 were summarized by Jesus as love; hence when you love God truly, you will not serve any other God. We learn not to serve any other god by learning to love God more. So when you love your neighbour you will not steal his wife. If the Lord Jesus didn't come with grace, we will keep beholding the law. As they knew the law, they kept breaking it. A measure of this still happens in the New Testament; there is still a war in our members. We know what is good but we do not yet do it; there is a conflict in our soul. When I know something in my head and I am not doing it, I need to expose myself to grace; teachings and light. When I know I need to walk in love and I don't walk in love, I expose myself to teachings of love, so grace comes to me as knowledge, when I do this, I find it easy to love, when I start doing this, I have received grace. Grace teaches me to do what I don't know how to do.

If you are not meek you cannot receive grace. Grace is given to the broken; when you are proud you cannot receive grace.

But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.
- James 4:6 (kjv)

You need to repent and forsake sin when you sin, you do not just claim that you are covered. For example, when you have issues with masturbation, you need grace. God hates the sin but loves you, so you go to God with a meek and repentant heart, be open, do not try to cover up your state but confess it and receive grace. Look for scriptures that has to do with the issue, keep engaging them and believing them, gradually the sin will drop.

The process of you receiving the word and changing is the process of receiving grace.

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
- 1 John 1:8 (kjv)

This scripture is not for unbelievers. Trying to claim that you do not have sin is only a deceit, even Satan knows that you still have sin. We should not overhype ourselves, we are saved and we are still being saved, it is a journey. God desires truth in our inward part and not in our head.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
- 1 John 1:9 (kjv)

This is not confessing your sins religiously but an heart that is repentant and truly sorry. God sees your heart and He knows. Many times, we don't even know that we have done something bad until light comes; this is because we have our own justice system but when light comes and we see that we have done wrong, we will feel ashamed, when you feel ashamed what you should do is to repent. Repentance is for believers, we must repent and turn.

Cleansing from unrighteousness is not that the blood of Jesus comes and cleanses us at that point; but when I confess my sins, I am in a state that I can receive grace, then grace comes to me.

If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
- 1 John 1:6-7 (kjv)

Walking in the light is responding to truth, you can be receiving light and yet not walking in light. If you do not walk in light by responding to the truths you receive, you are covering your nakedness; you need to expose yourself to Light to get delivered.

When you walk in light, you are responding to light and not covering your nakedness.

When light comes to you and you are receiving instructions, confess your faults at that moment, when you are doing that, you are receiving grace and you are walking in light. So when light comes and you are not responding, you will not change. With each truth and light that comes, instructions are coming. Anytime light comes, your response should be ‘Lord, what can I do to be saved?’ this is an attitude that receives grace.

What causes the activity of cleansing is light. It is when you walk in light that you receive a practical cleansing from your unrighteousness.

Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:
- Hebrews 12:28 (kjv)

Grace empowers you to serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. A Measure of grace quickens my spirit, other measure of grace brings me to the stature of Christ.

And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.
- Acts 20:32 (kjv)

When you are at the first point of receiving grace, grace has not started building you up. The whole thing is a grace ladder and there are levels in grace. The work of grace is to raise you; your sins are attached to the level that you are, grace wants to raise you. So a man can stay at the bottom level of grace where he is receiving grace for pardon but he is not being built up. You need to move from just believing in grace to hearing the word of His grace. Grace makes faith and love available for us.

And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.
- 1 Timothy 1:14 (kjv)

Through abundant grace, we reign in life. When you are learning abundant grace what you are learning is faith and love. When you are coming to the abiding order, you journey from things that pass away. There are things that are part of the blessing in God but they are not eternal. As you journey, you move to things that are eternal and abide.

And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
- 1 Corinthians 13:13 (kjv)

In Christ, grace is made abundant to us, grace, faith and love. The word of His grace is a revelation of Christ, when grace is preached, Christ is preached. The preaching of grace works out the nature of Christ in us. The destination of grace is to make vessels that are compatible with the glory of God. The glory of God can only tabernacle with vessels that have been raised. The word of grace is the preaching of Christ that was given to raise the stature of the soul.

Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,
- 2 Peter 1:2 (kjv)

Grace teaches Christ and the Father; He is a teacher of eternal life. When I am receiving grace I am learning the Lord Jesus. As I am learning Jesus, grace begins to reveal the father to me.

And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.
- Acts 20:32 (kjv)

Principles of grace gives you the benefits of salvation and the Word of His grace gives you inheritance. The principles of grace is the beginning of our faith; they are the introduction to grace. There are teachings that introduce us to grace, learning grace is learning Christ. The doctrine of Christ is grace. The Church must learn the teaching of Christ; the core essence of Christ, knowing Him as a person, far beyond what he does. When you know God, you will know what He can do but when you just know what He can do, and stay at that level, you may not know Him. Grace initiates you to know God. Therefore, when grace prompts you to pray more or study, respond to grace. When you do not respond, you frustrate grace. When you respond to grace, you leave the level you are and are promoted in the spirit.

Grace makes you work. Paul said he had more grace than other apostles and this made him labour more. So when grace comes, it makes you labour more in understanding and service. When you see someone in church doing something extraordinary, do not castigate them, they have grace. Some even have grace to give, it's not because they have money, they just have grace to give, so appreciate them.

Grace builds you up as a temple and sanctifies you. There is a sanctification we received at new birth but there is a sanctification we must receive to inherit God. Obedience to truth is obedience to measures of grace, when truth is separating you to God, you are getting close to your inheritance.

In the bible, the face of God is always tied to God’s glory. As believers, you have an assurance of God’s hands, which represents his divine intervention and we need God’s hand. However, the scriptures place emphasis on seeking His face.

The word face is from a word that means, God’s presence, so when you are seeking God's face, you are seeking a practical presence of God that represents who He is. The Jews have a confidence of God's hand, when they are not enjoying His Hand, they know that they have erred and they know they need to make peace with God. What they really desire to see is His face.

Although we need God’s hand but we do not focus on this because we know we have access to it by faith; nevertheless, our calling is to seek His face. The face of God is always attached to God’s glory and His ways.

You want God’s power, please learn His ways. Our fathers in the faith, Pastor Adeboye and Bishop Oyedepo, know the ways of God, that is why God can entrust them with power. Many of them when they hear this truth bear witness to it in their spirit but because of their ordination, heaven has not permitted them and many others to focus on them in their teachings. They have prices they pay and the cross they carry. Many of them have light that they did not teach but they walked in.

There are many things about God’s ways that we must learn, it is our calling. Do not be afraid, His hand is always with you, do not make it a subject of focus.

Psalm 113:7

There was more to Moses than what he was doing; he knew the ways of God and he did even more acts. There are many things about the ways of God that Moses custodes. Many view Moses based on the commandments in the Old Testament but Moses is more than that. Moses did not live by the law he received, he lived directly from the realm of God; in fact, he did not need the tabernacle to access the glory of God. Aaron accessed the glory once a year but Moses was living in this glory. So do not use a man’s message to judge him or his walk with God, they only teach and preach what they are permitted to.

Your calling is to learn God; you cannot even finish learning His face, His face is not just for now, it is for all ages.

And the LORD spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned again into the camp: but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle.
- Exodus 33:11 (kjv)

The Lord called Moses a friend.

Grace brings God’s face to you. Do not stop at the grace that measure God’s hands to you, grow in grace.

And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto Aaron and unto his sons, saying, On this wise ye shall bless the children of Israel, saying unto them, The LORD bless thee, and keep thee:
- Numbers 6:22-24 (kjv)

Grace brings God's face to you. When God is gracious to you, you will understand Him and you will know Him.

The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace. And they shall put my name upon the children of Israel; and I will bless them.
- Numbers 6:25-27 (kjv)

For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
- 2 Corinthians 4:5-6 (kjv)