Unmerited Favor Abounds

1996

You have to differentiate between selling your soul and selling your inheritance. You could say Moses, in essence, sold his inheritance by striking the rock, but he didn’t sell his soul. His destiny changed as he made a choice, and yet still on the Mount of Transfiguration there he was, full of glory. You could say the same for Pharaoh, as you read the book of Romans when you see the discussion of Pharaoh and of Esau. Pharaoh’s choices didn’t have to do with his salvation. Pharaoh’s choices had to do with the eternal purposes of God. The destiny of the whole thing when God hardened Pharaoh’s heart--was that unto Pharaoh’s termination spiritually? No. He hardened Pharaoh’s heart unto His eternal purposes being worked out that He might make a testimony for Himself.

When the Israelites balked when the ten out of the twelve spies came back with a bad report, instead of two years we end up with 40 years in the wilderness. There was a change in the course of history because of their disobedience because they balked. Yet that didn’t have anything specifically to do with their salvation. It had to do with God’s eternal purposes and how much God could accomplish in their lives.

We will find that same thing true in our lives again and again and again. Yes, we can change the course of our own history, our own effectiveness. Our foolishness can cause us to escape as one through the flames but all of our work be burnt up. That’s not His desire. His desire is that we build with gold, silver and precious stones. We’re careful how we build and we build on the foundation of Christ and it’s unto the habitation of God by the Spirit with ever increasing glory, and the glory of the latter house exceeding the glory of the former house. Those are things that are written on God’s heart, but we’ve blown it year after year and generation after generation by stiffening our necks, hardening our hearts and turning our eyes away from Him onto things that we’ve built or even onto things that He has built and not focused and fixed our eyes on Him.

As for Esau, the issue there, for Pharaoh, for Moses--you can go down a list that is very, very lengthy. David couldn’t build the house of God. Why? Because he was a man of blood. Solomon built the house of God. There were things that changed in the course of history because of mistakes that were made and foolishness. Moses and his rock, a lack of faith and a lack of insight into God’s ways. Those things can affect the course of history, but our salvation is secure in the Name of Christ, by the Blood of Christ, by faith in Him. Everyone that calls on the Name of the Lord shall be saved. No one who puts their trust in Him shall be put to shame. How far He can use us in the maturity and the stature and the fruitfulness of Christ…what “greater works than these” that we can do is dependent on our willingness to bear that cross.

In 1 Peter 2, there’s a direct correlation between the cross and Pentecost. And the cross and Resurrection Power. Those are the choices that we make. I would say that even though there are things that we’ve done in our past lives that have made certain aspects irreversible, you can also look at a testimony as long as from here back to Lake Camelot of men like David with Basheba, etcetera and God used them in a tremendous way.

I’m not sure exactly what the nature of your question was or what drove that question, but I can say this much for sure, that no one who puts their trust in Him shall be put to shame. Absolutely no one who puts their trust in Him shall be put to shame, first of all.

And secondly, God has a way of taking the very worst things that we could ever do and use them against satan. The things that we’ve fallen into, He’ll take it and push it right back in satan’s face. God takes the things that are not, He takes the ones that suffer the most, that have lost the most, those are the very things, the rejected and despised things. As we have all of our self-inflicted wounds and we’ve turned ourselves upside down and made a lost cause of ourselves, those are the very best things in God’s sight to make a Name for Himself instead of us stealing His glory.

Whatever it is that we think has happened in the past, it may be to our shame, and it may be an error on our part or some failure that has brought this about. Smile in your heart, because God loves to take the most difficult things, the things that are not, in order to shame the things that are.

The most unlikely ones--the prostitutes and the tax collectors are going in way before, way before those that have kept their reputation and have never failed and everything is together and their minds are clear and their focus is clear and their fruit is good. Those will enter far behind the prostitutes and the tax collectors, because those that are forgiven much learn to love in a way that no one else ever could.

I don’t know what you were thinking of when you were thinking of Esau, but I think there’s a tremendous message of hope in the fact that God is a God of taking the weak and the lowly and rejected things, the failures and bringing them to a place in the forefront, taking the last and putting them first again and again. That’s done my heart a lot of good when I have messed up. It’s not something to hide behind and rationalize and make excuses about, like “Well, that’s okay. I can sin so that grace may abound.” But I tell you what, when you do sin and you turn to the Lord, grace will abound. Unmerited favor will abound. He loves to do that.