I have a little daughter who loves to give me things. Every time I am gone for a day or two, she will find something around the house to give me when I return. When I came back the last time, she had carefully wrapped up a little, feminine, flowered handkerchief for me.

I said to her, "You're giving this to me?" She answered, "Yes, I'm giving this to you. I want you to have it." I said, "Well, since you've given me this gift, that means it's mine now, not yours?" She said, "That's right, daddy." Then I told her, "That means I can do anything I want to with this, is that right?" She said, "You can do anything you want to, daddy, because it's yours, it's not mine anymore." I said, "Do you know what I want to do with it?" She answered, "No, what?" I said, "I want to give it back to you." Then, I gave it to her.

When you come to God and you give yourself to Him, He gives your life back to you. You come to God and you say, "Lord, here I am. I give you all I have and all I am." And He says, "Does that mean that I have the complete right to you and that I can do anything I want with you?" And you say, "Yes, God." And He says, "All right, I give you back your life, forgiven and new, but it's yours; it's yours to spend the way you want. I'm not going to put any chains on you."

And so you serve God with love; you serve God with compassion. You serve Him in the newness of spirit, not in the oldness of letter. And you don't serve Him because you are walking under the threat of breaking rules and regulations, that if you step out of line one moment, one day, you have lost your salvation; that if you somehow wander off the path, not following the great blueprint that God has for your life, you have lost forever the will of God. No, God is not that narrow, mean and cruel. The Bible says, "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask Him" (Matthew 7:11).

So, you have given God your life. And He has given it back to you, new--a fresh start. Now, are you going to spend this new life wearing the robe of righteousness that Jesus died on the cross to make for you, or are you going to take this life and spend it feverishly laboring under the burden of a hundred rules and regulations?

I can remember a ship I traveled on once, and there were these people in the front of the ship. I don't know what nationality they were, but they were sure hooting it up. They had accordions and guitars, and they were singing--they were having a marvelous time. Then, there was this other group of people on board. They were griping, grumbling and throwing up overboard; they were sick, miserable and wretched.

Brothers and sisters, when you receive Christ as your Savior, you are in the ark of safety. We are all in the same boat. The only difference is that some of us have got the accordions, the guitars and the music, and we are having a good time; and the rest of us are grumbling and mumbling, throwing up and complaining, murmuring and striving, and struggling and straining. There are two kinds of Christians, but they are both Christians. One kind is enjoying the trip and the other is enduring it.

Once, somebody asked me about an old man in our town who had just died. She said, "Was that man a Christian?" I said, "Yes, he was a cantankerous old Christian, but he was a Christian." She said, "Wait a minute, what did you say?" I said, "He was a cantankerous old Christian, but he was a Christian." And the woman said, "You know, something just fell off of my eyes when you said that. Do you mean it is possible that somebody could have a behavioral default and still be a Christian?"

You see, God doesn't see that behavioral default in a Christian; He sees the robe of righteousness.

Now, you can lose the joy of the Lord, and you can be despondent and suffer needless depression, but you have not lost your salvation. You have still got the robe of righteousness on, you are still in the boat--you are just not enjoying the trip.

Christian, would you dare believe that you have come before the Bar of Justice and God has said, "Guilty or not guilty?"; you have said, "Guilty, Lord" and by His divine power, He has pounded the gavel down and said, "Not guilty, free of all charges!"? Do you dare believe that?

Don't you see how much glory believing that brings God? What glory does it give God when you bring before Him some tattered thing you call your righteousness. The Bible says that "all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags" in the sight of God (Isaiah 64:6). It brings glory to God when you accept His Son.

Let me ask you a question. Now, personally, I love God, and I would give anything the Lord wants me to give; but I don't want God to take any of my children. I cannot say, "God, if you want one of my children, take him." I cannot say that, and you cannot either. You would give God anything, but would you give Him your son? I wouldn't. Well, you don't have to, because God did. The Bible says, "Shall I give . . . the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?" (Micah 6:7). What do you think the fruit of your body is? It can be your child, or it can be your works and labors.

God has offered His Son as a priceless redemption. You accept it or reject it. The Bible says not to offer the blood of God's sacrifice with leavened bread (Exodus 34:25). It means that when you drink the blood of Christ's sacrifice (receive Christ as your Savior), you are then acceptable in God's sight on those terms and those terms alone.

What is bread? It is the bread of life, it is the word of God. If I were to offer you the blood of Christ's sacrifice mingled with other rules, regulations and contingencies, then, I would be offering you the blood of His sacrifice with leavened bread.

Jesus said, "While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light" (John 12:36). And what is the light? That if you have come to Christ, God looks at you and He sees Jesus. Do you really dare to accept and believe that you are righteous in God's sight and that He receives you because of Christ's sacrifice? Or secretly, honestly, are you harboring a multitude of contingencies in your heart and thinking, "Well, when finally . . . finally . . . when I get those things worked out, then I will be acceptable in the sight of God." You are only acceptable in the sight of God because of the robe of righteousness that He put on you when you received Christ into your heart.

Will you dare believe that He saved you? Have you really received Him as your Messiah? "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God" (1John 5:1). Your salvation rests, not on something that you are going to do tomorrow or next week; it rests on the unchanging fact that almost two thousand years ago a man bled and died on a cross. He said, "Father forgive them." He said, "It is finished."

What is finished? The road to salvation. The way to Heaven. IT IS FINISHED!