The REAL Reason Why Jesus Died For You!

I want you to know that I can stand up here, walk from one of those chairs, come up here, and say to you, “Would you all turn to Ephesians one and begin to preach to you, and your relationship with me would change completely.” I would be an “other than.” I would be something out here, something you admire, something you would come up and say, “Brother Edwards, could I have a word with you?” And I would never get the insults thrown at me that Ida throws at me. Well Ida? She could not possibly be mean back if I were ministerial. Every day I live, I pay the price of not being ministerial. It actually leaves me looking like somebody who… “What’s he doing here, anyway?” What does this guy think he’s doing? He’s not a preacher, or maybe he’s a preacher, but he’s not one of them.”

When I pray, I am talking to the Lord, and I’m not talking to you, and I am being as sincere with Him as I know how. I have found my own niche in praying. Everything else I do, I do not do it by ritual or form, nor do I do it by past traditions of other men. Or, in other words, we’ve never had things like a Wednesday night prayer meeting and stuff like that. And I don’t know that we have ever prayed for the President of the United States. And I know that we are exhorted to pray for Caesar. And you know, what really bothers me too is, oh man, do you know there’s no way to win in the ministry? There’s just no way to win. There’s always somebody who, no matter how normal you get, just wants to worship you. Brothers and sisters, I do everything in my power to keep that from happening. It happens anyway, but it is usually short-lived.

Those of you from Chicago, I bet some of you have gone through one or two phases with me. I hope we still love one another very deeply. I won’t tell you I love you all like crazy. That night or that afternoon, I came in and sat down on the floor with you all. You know, God only knows what might have happened to all of us if of us had been pretentious. I don’t think any of us are. I’m completely off the subject, and I don’t even know what the subject was, but I’m off of it.

I know I’m a disappointment to all of you, but boy oh boy, if you can set your eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ instead of me, I’ll be the happiest person. I am not here to sell Gene Edwards. And because I earn my own living, I don’t have to be careful with what I say. That is also an albatross around my neck. You cannot imagine how careful we get when a paycheck is involved, and we do it even unconsciously. Because I am not dependent on the ministry, I unconsciously know that. I don’t consciously know that I unconsciously know it, and therefore I do say things that probably no normal, sane human being would say. But nobody can fire me. If I don’t get an honorarium, my wife and children will not starve.

So that’s enough of that. Does anybody want to say anything? See what you did, Betty, just by coming up here and introducing me? Now I have something I want to say: tomorrow afternoon at 2:30, I would like to invite all the sisters to come in here and sit down with Betty for an hour. Betty, that’s all you get is an hour because we got so many other things going on around here, and I know that women will talk to women in ways they will not talk to men. So, if you will… if you’d be so gracious to come in here tomorrow at 2:30 and stay until 3:30? That’ll make it a very busy day for everybody. Just answer sisters’ questions and talk to them about anything on your heart, anything that’s on their heart. We need more ministry from women. The only thing in the world I would ask of you, Betty, is that you keep your head covered. (laughter) See, I told you I got in trouble with these ways of mine. How intimidating is it for me to put this thing on this way? Doesn’t this bother you a little bit? Captain Hook, thanks.

Well, I was saying before I was so rudely introduced…that was a pun…before I was interrupted by Sister Betty, that you come into these places and you feel very inadequate, but tonight, I really feel inadequate. I’m going to open Ephesians 1 and try to unravel that thing. And it simply cannot be done. We would all have to have an IQ of at least 150… that would be minimal… just to keep the different thoughts in our heads that we have to in order to get through Ephesians 1. It was like Paul was keeping three or four balls in the air here and three or four here and two or three here and maybe juggling one with his head while he wrote Ephesians 1. You can’t just, there’s just no way, and it doesn’t matter what you do, if you deal with one subject, you don’t cover it. If you try to cover all 20-25 subjects in that one chapter, then it’s too this. Excuse me, too that. I just fall back and say, I just don’t want to do this, but I’m going to make an effort.

Now then, for those three of you who are sitting here, one back there, and one who’s out working, I want you to remember that this is not a message, either Paul’s or mine, that has anything to do with the individual. Well, a little bit, but not much. I want us, again and again and again, to remember that this is corporate. Now, who’s your leader? Christy, are you their leader? When I leave here, you’re not going to end. You’re not going to say, hmmm. You are going to deal with these tapes. You’re going to listen to me, and you’re going to get together, and you’re going to talk, and you’re going to bring these things to the Lord, and you’re going to say them with your mouth, which seals them. If you don’t open your mouth, you’ll lose these things. These are too important for you. If you can’t do it for the Lord, and you can’t do it for me, will you do it for John Hus? Well, only half of that is serious. I can’t help but remember that we had a brother here one time, and if I had a little time this week, I’d like to talk to you a bit more about John Hus, some things you may not know about him.

Okay, I’m going to ask you to get your Bible out now and get your nose in it, and let’s try to look at some of these things. In Ephesians 1, we found one negative verse or had negations in it, which was verse 7. In chapter 2, we found verses 1, 2, 3, 4, and part of 5, and verses 11 and 12, which were talking about your sad state before you became a believer. Do you remember that? That was your state number two. Last night, we looked at your state number one, but I’d like to go back and remind you of what I said, because that’s not all I did. I also talked to you about what God was like before he brought you forth. Do you remember that? Then we talked a little bit about your first state.

Now, what is your first state? Can you help me just a little bit? Okay, then I’ll help you. You were predestined to be something wonderful. You were predestined because of love; you were determined to be what you are as part of an eternal plan. This word “plan” keeps coming up, and when it’s not a plan, it’s an administration. A plan has to be worked out. I’ll anticipate here and say to you, you can have a plan, then you have to work it out. The administration of that plan is referred to here, the working out of it. You’re part of it. Actually, it’s rather a mind-boggling plan that he has, in that it is eternal, and it does not have the attributes you would normally expect. For instance, you would not expect that whatever he did when he put you into your first state would be to turn you into praise. Not to turn you to praise, but to turn you into praise. Now, you wouldn’t think that would be part of an eternal plan. Secondly, you would not think that, as fallen creatures as we are, and the shadows and the smoke of the second state always bothering us, you would not think that Jesus Christ would want to inherit us when he could inherit so much.

But that’s part of the plan. And all these incredible things that he extends to you out of his graces, his mercies, and his glory seem to be quite remarkable indeed. Perhaps the most mind-boggling part of this ongoing plan that he is working out is the simple fact that it took the death of God to do it. It took the death of God and the blood of God to accomplish it. What a negative thing to introduce into a plan, an eternal plan and purpose: your own death, and your own blood. You wouldn’t do that, would you? Would you not agree with me? I wouldn’t do that, would you? I just wouldn’t. Well, why did He? What could provoke God to shed His blood, to die, and to do it with foreknowledge? Do you know the answer to that? Because he was so superabundantly endowed with grace. Lavishly endowed with grace.

I cannot conceive a grace so great that God Himself would willingly suffer and spill His blood and die to accomplish a plan. Can you? If I can understand that I can get a hold of a small thing about God. Boy, that song that says, Oh, what love. Oh, what love. Oh, what love. Well, you and I are not going to understand a love and a mercy and a grace like that, but this God of yours was filled with this love, filled with this grace, filled with this mercy before He augmented His plan and then made you part of it. That’s how rich He was, how lavishly rich He was in all these endowments and endowments.