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Stage 1: Level 1 - Class 3
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Copyright © 1998 P.F.(Simon) Measures
Anquish over your past wrong doings robs you of joy. This is a very dangerous thing to happen to you. Why? Because to lose your joy is to lose your strength. The Bible tells us, "The joy of the Lord is your strength." Neh.8:10b
Freedom in the blood
In my life there have been moments in which I've made awful blunders; times when I was like Peter following the Lord "a far off"! If I were to go over these blunders now in my mind I would be inviting in remorse and I would end up robbed of God's gift of joy.
I have experienced both the strength of joy and the weakness of its lose. Now I know I can't afford to let myself get robbed of joy by entertaining memories of past sin and failure. I refuse to give such memories any time or space.
It's easy for me to make that decision because I know that the sin of my past has been lifted away by the blood of Jesus. On the very day I confessed with my mouth that Jesus was my Lord His blood removed my sin. The blood of Jesus wiped out the sin of my past. This is what the blood of Jesus has done for everyone who has accepted that sacrifice.
How do we know the blood of Jesus has wiped out the sin of our past? We know this because God's Word declares it.
Apostle Paul writes,
Christ Jesus, Whom God put forward (before the eyes of all) as a mercy seat and propitiation by His blood (cleansing and life-giving sacrifice of atonement and reconciliation, to be received) through faith
Romans 3:24-25 - Amplified Bible.
He continues,
God has done this to demonstrate his righteousness both by the wiping out of the sins of the past and by showing in the present time that he is a just God and that he justifies every man who has faith in Jesus.
Romans 3:25-26 - Phillips' translation.
You say, "I get most of my trouble with anguish about sin over the sins I've committed since I came to Jesus."
I was having trouble with this same anguish too but I now know that in Jesus I have the privilege of forgiveness. This has put a stop to that trouble I was having. Now as soon as I heed the conviction of the Holy Spirit about sin I go straight to the Father and confess it. He is always faithful and forgives me. I receive His forgiveness according to the promise of His Word and the Blood washes me from all unrighteousness.
If we admit that we have sinned and confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins, and (continuously) cleanse us from all unrighteousness (everything not in conformity to His will in purpose, thought, and action).
1 John 1:9 - Amplified.
If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
1 John 1:7 - NKJV.
The privilege of forgiveness is there for you and me. Don't live for a moment in the dark, cold shadow of sin. Go to the Father and confess it so that you may have His forgiveness and know cleansing from all unrighteousness.
Sin: out of sight and remembrance
You are to live under the brilliant shadow of the Almighty God. You are to know that your sin that is remitted and forgiven is gone from sight and is out of remembrance. God has put all that sin behind Him out of His sight and remembrance. God's prophet Isaiah - as He spoke to God in prayer - declared,
You have lovingly delivered my soul from the pit of corruption: for You have cast all my sins behind Your back.
Isaiah 38:17 - NKJV.
God Himself has no remembrance of your sins. Under the New Covenant He swears,
I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.
Jeremiah 31:34 - NKJV.
God doesn't remember your sins against you any more and neither should you. It's the Blood of Jesus that God remembers. It's the Blood of Jesus you are to remember. For it's the Blood of Jesus that has taken away your sin and cleansed you from all unrighteousness. (See 1 John 1:7 and 9)
God expects you and me to be people of joy. We've seen how He provides us with strength in joy. It's also one way He extends His kingdom in the earth!
King David the psalmist had a clear grasp of this and he prayed:
Restore to me the joy of Your salvation...then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners shall be converted to You.
Psalm 51:12,13 - NKJV.
Apostle Paul knew his strength was in joy. His epistle to the Philippians is filled with statements of joy and declarations of how he constantly gave joy place in his life. He testifies,
This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead.
Philippians 3:13 - KJV.
God calls you to do the same; to forget the mess ups and sins of the past and stretch out forwards towards the better things of the future in Him.
Remember now only the Blood of the Lamb and your victories in that Blood. If you must look back, look back to where Jesus was delivered for your offences and raised again for your justification. (See Romans 4:25.)
It's an awesome sight as we look back at Christ's death and resurrection! God loved you and me so much that He gave His Son, Jesus, to die for our sins and then to rise from the very grave for our justification. Now we are justified.
Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Romans 5:1 - NKJV.
The blood of Jesus Christ has seen to our justification.
Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.
Romans 5:9 - NKJV.
What does it mean to be justified? It means to be accepted and declared righteous.
What does it mean to be righteous? It means to be in right standing with God or to be able to stand right before God.
You can never come into a place of right standing with God by your own diligence in law keeping. The Bible declares, "For all have sinned." Romans 3:23
Thank God there is a righteousness available to you and me that has nothing to do with what we have managed to achieve by our law keeping. This righteousness is the righteousness of God and it is quite apart from the law.
Now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets.
Romans 3:21 - NKJV.
What is this righteousness that is apart from the law? It is one that is "given to, and operating in, all who have faith in Jesus." Romans 3:22 - J.B. Phillips' translation.
The letter to the Romans teaches us about "the righteousness which is of God by faith".
Paul writes to the Romans and speaks of Abraham. He shows how righteousness was credited to Abraham long before the law was given. He shows how righteousness was credited to him on account of his faith.
This is how it is with you and me too. Our right standing with God was never, is never and can never be dependent on our observance of God's law. Righteousness is accounted to us because of our faith.
Read how Paul explains this to the Romans,
Abraham remained absolutely convinced that God was able to implement His own promise. This was the "faith" which was counted unto him for righteousness. Now this counting of faith for righteousness was not recorded simply for Abraham's credit, but as a divine principle that should apply to us as well.
Romans 4:21-24 - J.B. Phillips' translation.
So strong is this divine principle that Paul writes,
We see now that a man is justified before God by the fact of his faith in God's appointed Saviour and not by what he has managed to achieve under the law.
Romans 3:28 - J.B.Phillips translation.
The weakness of human flesh makes it impossible to achieve righteousness by what you have managed to achieve under the law. If you're trying you're fooling yourself. You, I and everyone else have to take this route of faith to obtain righteousness.
God knew man couldn't attain to righteousness by the law and yet He longed for us to be in right standing with Him. For this reason He raised Jesus from the dead "that He (God) might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus." Romans 3:26 - NKJV.
Jesus rose from the grave for our justification. He went and ministered His blood in the Heavenly sanctuary to see that we were accepted as righteous. The blood made the way for us to come into right standing with God. Our faith has brought that right standing upon us.
Now we can go and stand right before God. We can always come into His presence. He accepts that our right standing with Him has been accounted to us because we believe, not because we have achieved.
Don't ever look to what you've managed to achieve as you seek to come and stand right with the Father. Look to the Blood and its provision of righteousness. It is accounted to you because you believe.
Our God is an awesome God and a wonderful Father. He's never satisfied until He's gone to the ultimate point of salvation for His creation man - when He cleanses with the blood He also sanctifies with the Spirit.
God saw the blood of justification upon you and then He poured out on you His Holy Spirit of sanctification. When He did so you were immediately created like unto God in righteousness and true holiness. You became a new creation known in Heaven as the "righteousness of God".
Christian, it is not simply that you have righteousness accounted to you. God has gone further and made you the righteousness of God! By the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit you were made a new creation called the righteousness of God. Titus 3:5-6.
Now you are a new creation spirit by the power of the Holy Spirit. You - the new creation spirit - are called "the righteousness of God". 2 Corinthians 5:17,21.
God wants you to be righteousness-conscious. He wants you to be conscious of the Blood that made you righteous. He wants you to be conscious you stand in His righteousness by the Blood. He wants you to know that you are the righteousness of God.
God wants you to be established in His righteousness for your establishment in righteousness will have a direct impact on your life right now. The Bible exhorts us to be established in righteousness and it tells us what that establishment will do.
In righteousness you shall be established: you shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear; and from terror, for it shall not come near you.
Isaiah 54:14 - NKJV.
Your establishment in righteousness will set you up in absolutely supernatural assurance. When problems and troubles hit, other people may be panicking but you'll be quiet; others may be fretting but you'll be confident in your God.
Established in righteousness you'll be one of those all-too-rare saints of God that sees every storm through in quietness; that stands assured in your God; that knows joy resident in your spirit and soul!
It's God's Word that will establish you in His righteousness as you lay it up in your heart day by day. Start today! Ask the Lord through His Word by His Spirit to teach you and establish you in His righteousness!
Copyright © 1998 P.F. (Simon) Measures
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Printing/Copying
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This class is part of High Impact Christianity - now available as a five part book series!
Next class: "Your Father's Care" - a lesson on angelic protection.
Previous class: "Walk As The King's Child!" - a lesson on the new birth.
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