Now He saved us by His infinite, marvelous, wonderful grace, but you and I are in a world today—and it’s a wicked world and it’s a rough world. And like the children of Israel out in the wilderness, this world is a wilderness as far as God is concerned, and sin is in the world. And God saves us by His marvelous grace. But then we’re told that we have a fight and we have an enemy. And Paul said to a young preacher in 2 Timothy 2:3, “Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” And he said again, “Fight the good fight of faith.”

“Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures.” There are things that are above human comprehension, and only the Spirit of God can make these things real to us. And our prayer ought to be, “Open Thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy Word.” We need to bring a humble mind to the study of the Word of God. Just because you read it in the Bible, does not mean you know it. The Spirit of God will have to make it real to you. If you bring to the Bible an honest heart and you sincerely want to know God’s truth, if you have doubts, then bring them to Him.

Jesus died. He was buried. He rose again. What does that mean to you? Did you accept Him as Savior? And when I say that, what do I mean? I mean did you believe He died for you? You believe that when He was buried, that means your sins were absolutely buried. The sin question was settled. And that when He rose again He rose—well, let me turn it around. You and I rose in Him, and we’re now “in Christ.” And God sees us “in Christ.” And His righteousness has been made over to us; what He is, His standing becomes our standing. And that’s all that you and I have of which we can boast today.

“The Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not.” And you notice our Lord says, “I have prayed, though that you’re going to deny me—I prayed that your faith fail not.” And today He’s our Intercessor. He knows whether you’re moving to the place of failure and of stumbling. And if you’re His, my friend, He’s already prayed for you that your faith fail not. If you belong to Him, your faith will not fail—though you fail, your faith will not fail—and the reason it will not is because He’s prayed for you. You see, He’s our Intercessor. He prays for us today.

“He spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint.” Now He’s giving the other side of prayer. Before He said that you don’t have to storm the gates of heaven and knock the door down to get God to hear you. But He’s also saying here, don’t be discouraged in your prayer life. And just keep plugging at it. I think that we just need to keep praying. I want God to intervene. My, how wonderful it is to have Him intervene. You know, we live in a day when there’s turmoil and trouble and crisis and criticism, doubt, and disaster. And there’s only two alternatives for you today, friends. Either you’re going to faint or you’re going to pray.

I believe that He was God manifest in the flesh. But I also believe that He was not any less God because He was man. But, on the other hand, I believe that He was not any more man because He was God. I think He was a perfect man, a real man. I think, very frankly, had you been there in that day, you would have enjoyed His company. I think it would have been a real privilege to have been in His company and to have heard His laughter. Our Lord was so human. You’d have loved Him to have known Him.

“Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine? There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger. And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole.” In other words, his sins are forgiven. The others were healed, but not saved. That’s an interesting thing. This man, because he came back. Today thankfulness is that which must be in a Christian’s heart. Why do you go to church on Sunday? Do you go there to worship God and to thank Him? Well, that’s part of your worship is to thank Him. And that’s about the only thing that you and I can give God—is our thanksgiving.

There’s a third son in the parable of the prodigal son. You see, the younger son broke the father’s heart, and the elder son was out of fellowship and without sympathy. But who is the third son? Well, the man who uttered the parable—God’s Son. He’s His ideal Son without sin. He came to a far country, not as a prodigal, but as the Prince of Peace to shed His blood for the sins of the world. And He says, “To as many as receive him, to them gave he the right to become the sons of God,” even to those that don’t do any more nor less than just simply believe in His name.

You know, when you’re in the will of God, walking with Him, you have the best time you’ve ever had. Christian friend, you’ll never have fun in the far country. And then in the far country, there were tears of trouble; now there are tears of sheer delight. He got kicks in the far country; now he gets kisses. We’re told, “Draw nigh to God and He’ll draw nigh to you.” The very wonderful thing here is that you have this story of the prodigal son. May I say to you, my friend, there is this man that got away from God, and he came back to God, and he came back by confession. The father didn’t even let this boy finish his confession. He brought him right back in. This is the way that a child of God that sins, the way he can get back to God.

Remember that old Pharisee there when he saw that woman washing His feet. He was a Pharisee, and she was a prostitute. But the Lord Jesus said, in the light of heaven, this woman who had many sins, and she’d been forgiven much. And the one forgiven much is the one that will love Him much. You know the measure of your salvation is the measure of your sin. What you think of Christ is what you think of yourself as a sinner. If you are a little sinner, you need a little savior; but if you see yourself as a hell-doomed sinner, then you’re going to need a heaven-bound Savior. May I say, it makes all the difference in the world.