Priority 1: The Sacrifice of Jesus

Chapter 6 - Power of the Blood of Jesus #3

God told Moses, "take a vessel of oil and dip your finger into that vessel and put just a little tiny bit on the ear and the thumb and the toe." Now He said that indicates the persons thinking, mind and senses. That indicates his service, his walk. There are a lot of people putting a lot more emphasis on the walk then the spiritual life. But God says; "now Moses I want to show you the emphasis that I put on the abundance, the joy, the overflowing, and the excitement." He said take all the rest of that oil and pour on the top of his head and let it run down over his beard and down his clothes.

 

What He's actually saying is that there's more of the Holy Spirit for the abundant life than there is for all of these other things put together. So that's why I jump every once in awhile. If all I did was hard work all the time it could get kind of boring. But God says you can mix business with pleasure. But this isn't available until the blood of Jesus is applied. So you get the cleansing when you recognize the power of the blood, when your faith is in that blood it not only makes salvation available to you, it not only opens the door of heaven, but it makes the power of the Holy Spirit available to you, you're a candidate when you ask God.

 

Our study is the power of the blood of Jesus, and we're on lesson #3, reconciliation. Now are Scripture reference is Romans 5:1-11, and 15-21. We are reminded once again as we ponder the power of Jesus' blood of the overwhelming love of God. So great was this love that his entire purpose revolves around this plan to restore man to a place of fellowship. Though this revelation of His love is seen in all of His dealings with man, it reaches its highest peak in the message of the atonement. This message is woven into every part of the Bible and shows us the importance He places on the completed sacrifice of Jesus.

 

In this study we will consider the need, the importance, the power, and the results of reconciliation. First of all the need. Sin became a barrier between God and man. There could be no fellowship until this barrier was removed. God's wrath appeased. A brief picture of this plan is seen in Romans 5. "Therefore being justified by faith we have peace through our Lord Jesus Christ. The benefits that have been made available to us through the blood are: number one justified, justified by blood.

 

Number two, we have peace with God. The separating barrier that sin had raised is destroyed through reconciliation. And you have peace with God. Number three is access to God's grace. Then He said not only peace but also the doorway. The wall between you and God has a doorway, an open access. So he said, "By whom we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand." We have hope, we rejoice in hope. Then in verse five it says, "Hope makes not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts."

 

So because the barriers are down now and the cloud is erased in between, the warm rays now of God's love are coming in. And the term shed abroad is the same term for light. All of these are made available by His blood. Then he said, "Now much more then being justified by His blood," but He said even more we shall be saved from wrath through Him. A promise and an assurance that we're not only going to be saved here, not only has the enmity been destroyed but we have assurance of what is going to happen tomorrow. That on that judgment day, "for if when we were His enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more shall we be saved by His life." Underline the much more's.

 

I would say one of the greatest problems people have that see me are their fear that they might fall, but the Lord is able to keep us from falling. And Paul said I discovered this that if you believe He gave this justification much more. Then he gave his reason for believing this. If when you were his enemies, and you didn't love God at all and you were in a force that was opposing God, you were His enemy, He was your enemy and He justified you and picked you out, if God justified you when you had a gun pointed at Him, how much more now when you're a member of His family shall we be saved by His life. As long as you know He's living there, He'll keep you from falling. He won't keep you from falling if you want to fall. You can wrench yourself loose and fall. But He wants you to know for those who desire to live for God and the people that are having all this trouble aren't people who want to quit living for God.

 

It's some of God's choicest believers who are filled with fear constantly, and God wants us to relax in Him. He said the blood was a gift of grace, meaning something you can't earn or merit a special favor from God. He tells us because of the blood, because Jesus died for us, because of the sacrifice we can receive the gift of His grace. Then because of the gift of grace you can have the ability to control your life. I realize that many people have up and down experiences in the Lord but you don't have to have them. When you can understand your position in the Lord you can have a life that is a life of victory. God would not be God if He wasn't able to provide you with a life of victory. So He tells us the basic things that we need to have this life of victory are denying themselves, there are so many people who feel that their relationship with God is based on their ability to produce righteousness, goodness and to meet certain demands. They think, "And if I could do this then I could have a life of victory, I'll be able to make it." But that isn't what God says. God didn't say that those were the kind of people that would reign and have control in this life. He said much more they that receive the abundance of grace, that free gift. Those that reach out and say, "God I'm taking it, I didn't earn it but you gave it to me anyway. Those who receive an abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness, what Jesus has done. Jesus I'm taking that covering that you have for me, I'm going to pull it over my life, which is the atonement that is so real and rich. It's not of works lest any man should boast; it's by grace that you're saved. It's His grace, so when we accept that free gift of grace this is something that grows, and spiritual victories are a product of accepting His righteousness first.

 

People that are struggling with bondage and that are stumbling along with constant fear so that they're not able to have enough spiritual energy to produce what they want to produce. When they quit struggling and they just accept that free gift of His righteousness and start loving Jesus and drawing that strength that comes from Him, they begin to grow and they're able to kick the devil right out of the way.

 

One of the worst concepts that believers have is that Christ wants to reign in our lives. Indirectly yes. But He says, Christ says to you; "let me put you in the driver's seat. You can reign, I've given you the power, I've given you the grace, and I've given you the righteousness." When you see something coming you can say I have the power to overcome this thing. But when we feel like its God job to do the driving and we fall and we say I sure don't know why Christ didn't help me that time, I prayed and I asked the Lord but I don't have any direction. Reigning comes about by the blood of Jesus. God wants to direct you but He wants you in the driver's seat. Because man was separated from God he had to have reconciliation, enmity had come, God said that the soul that sins shall die, and the very justice of God demands judgment on sin. And that sin was there and so the wrath of God was there pulsating striking out at sin. But the blood of Jesus Christ and God's judgment upon sin where He took our sins, the wrath fell, the anger in God's heart was appeased and the Word tells us now His anger is turned away from us. Now it's at the very heart of God's plan this reconciliation. It wasn't an after thought; it started way back before the world ever began. We see it in the sacrifices, in the tabernacle, in the feast. Colossians 1:20-22. This is the whole purpose of Jesus coming, Praise God. "And having made peace through the blood of His cross....and you who were once enemies He reconciled..."When the Lord took me into the throne room to let me see things the way He sees them, the first thing He did was make me feel at ease so I didn't have to feel under strain, I didn't have to worry if I said the wrong thing or if I looked the wrong way with the wrong kind of expression that He was going to reprove me. He let me know that I didn't have to worry, that He wasn't looking for something to reprove me for. I didn't have to feel I was walking on eggs around Him and be pious. God's plan for His people was to bring them to a place where nobody could lay a charge on them, that nobody could blame them for anything. And this is why it says in Romans the eighth chapter; He said that God refuses to listen to any charge laid against His people. This is the unblameable part. Oh there are a lot of things you do wrong but God isn't going to listen to them. He refuses to accept any charges against you, you're unblameable. This was His plan, people have got so mixed up in reading the Bible in taking little bits and pieces and they miss the whole plan. God's plan for people right at the very beginning was to bring them to a point where there wouldn't be anything that they could blame man for. Then He used another word, He didn't say that they would be unreproved that would be present tense. But those who've slipped their hands into His and are wanting to walk with God and are putting their faith in that blood, He said that you're unreprovable.

 

That means that you can look right up into God's face now. You might do some things and say some things but the blood of Jesus keeps washing away. But sometimes you're aware of it but God can't find anything to reprove you for, but you can find it and your family can find it. So God was very careful to add a little word, in His sight. Not in people's. So don't go around and say I'm the most perfect guy around here, you and all of your friends know that your blamable, and you're reprovable and you need to get kicked in the seat of your pants to get moving sometimes. But because your faith is in the blood, He has a gift of grace and righteousness over us and when He looks down at that gift of righteousness which is imputed to us you know what He's looking at, He's looking at the righteousness of Jesus and He says, "I can't find anything to reprove here." Hallelujah. Quit being afraid.

 

God says we can have victory in this life, we can reign in this life, and we can be right on top because of the blood of Christ. See it not only does something between us and Him but as we go into this study of the blood we will find out how the blood then begins a work under this covering. We're going to be taking sanctification next week, how the blood sanctifies and cleanses underneath this covering. He does a work that helps us to minister to people and to let people see what's happening underneath the covering. The blood doesn't just stop working there but you have to know that reconciliation exists before you can have any other. You can try any method you want to but if you haven't taken that free covering that God puts over the top, you're working off the wrong end. Unreprovable, unblamable in His sight, did you underline that?

 

In Ephesians 1:4, God's plan for us before He even made the world would be that we would be holy and without blame not before the world but before Him. Our problem is that we look at how we see ourselves, we look at how people see us and then we project that up to God and say, "God look at me and all my failures and everything else," God wants us to know that we can look up at God's face unreprovable!

 

That word propitiation means reconciliation for our sins. The blood is given for the reconciliation of us. Rom. 6:14, sin shall not have dominion over you. So He removes the power of sin. We often think that it's still there, but because of faith the power of sin is removed, not only the power of sin but also even the guilt of sin is removed. Through the blood of His cross the guilt is gone and we can look up into His face and say, "ah thank you Jesus it's gone." And then it removes the barrier of God's wrath. In Romans 5:9 it says that God had removed the barrier, when we were His enemies we were saved and we shall be saved from wrath now through Him.

 

In reconciliation His love and His wrath join hands. His wrath destroys and consumes the separating barrier. Because God's a just God, He could not justify us while sin was still there so there has to be love and the wrath together. His wrath destroys and consumes sin because it has to fall on sin and disobedience. It destroys the barrier and the sin. And when Jesus took on His own self the sins of the whole world the wrath of God reached out and darted forth and struck that sin. Jesus took the full charge there because of the sin that was on His life. And now any barrier or sin that would come in between God and man when man looks to God in faith the wrath of God that would be reserved for that sin and that would also strike man because he was associated with that sin, the wrath of God reaches out and consumes that sin and then turns around because it sees the blood and the reconciliation turns around and hides itself in the love of God. So this is why Paul could say, "I could still be just and the justifier of the one who puts their faith in the blood of Jesus. My wrath is still there for sin but I can justify that person because my wrath sees the blood and knows judgment has already struck and it turns around and hides in the love of God." Don't fear His wrath today, when your faith is in the blood the wrath of God cannot penetrate because it has already spent its charge on sin.

 

Then the fourth thing on the blood is the removal of remembrance of sin. God's taken care of it. He removes the power of sin, He removes the guilt of sin, He removes the barrier between, and now He removes even the remembrance of sin from His memory. "I have blotted it out," it's gone from His memory. You can stand before God and say, "God you remember this and this about me, I'm so glad you took care of that." God will just have to look at you and say, "I can't remember a thing about it." He removes the remembrance of sin.

 

Let's go to the results. We shall be saved from wrath through Him. Reconciliation is made up of three Greek words. Helios which means: to make cheerful, to remove the reason for gloom to lift the fallen countenance, to cover sin, to find God gracious, and merciful. Then the last of that word is to overt calamity because the world is heading towards judgment. But there's reconciliation for those who place their faith and trust. It averts the calamity. Through the blood we are restored to divine favor or the original position with God. Restoration. To restore to put back in it's original condition. So this word means the taking that life and that life which was in such fellowship and such peace where they could walk with God and talk with God and have wonderful fellowship as they did in the garden.

 

So when reconciliation is complete man is restored into a place where they can slip their hand into God's and say let's go for a walk. We can talk and we're not wondering what about all of those things that I'm sure God has in his heart about me; I wonder when He is going to start telling about it, and the fear of coming into God's presence. But as you walk along with Him, you can know that you're unblameable and unreprovable in His sight and you don't have to worry about the situation because you can't hide from Him anyway. He can look right smack through you. He knows all that's there so there's no point in being anything but yourself. But when you're with Him you're in the safest place there is in the whole universe. Hallelujah.

 

Don't you love this study? You know why it's so rich and wonderful? It comes right out of God's heart. This is the heart of the Bible; it's the heart of His whole plan. "Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature old things are passed away and behold all things are become new. And all things are of God who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ and has given unto us the ministry of reconciliation." When we have been reconciled then He says, "I want you to go out there and apply this to some other people, let them know how real it is," He's given unto us the ministry of reconciliation, of taking the barrier down, of taking people's hands and linking them with God and letting them know the goodness.

 

He's given us the ministry of reconciliation. Not imputing their trespasses, or blaming them for their sins or reproving them. God was in Christ doing that because this was in His heart. Then He said and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. God says, "You tell them that I'll do it and I'll back you up. And I'll do it." That's the word of reconciliation. So because of this we become His voice, "now then we are ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you beg you by us, we pray you in Christ stead, be reconciled to God and allow this to take place in your life." This is the word of reconciliation, be ye reconciled to God. Now people need to know what it is. They need to see reconciliation written all over you. They need to see the lack of fear and the joy; they need to see the relaxation they need to see it rubbed all over your face. And then you can say here have a bite, praise God. And He tells us why for He has made Him to be sin; He took the full stroke of God's judgment for us who knew no sin that we would be made the righteousness of God in Him.

 

We're just going to have to stand now and worship the Lord. I'll tell you God is so wonderful. We got to tell Him in our own words not in any canned phrase or anything else just in your own words how much you love Him and how much you thank Him for the reconciliation. As you leave today, don't allow any fear to come but a new life of victory over sin and anything else awaits you as you have your faith and trust in what Jesus has done.

 

Jesus we praise you for what you mean, for what you have accomplished, we can look up into your face with our hearts as clean and spotless as new born children. Praise God. Oh the richness of the love of God which passes all understanding. Glory to God. How we love you Jesus, Praise the Lord.

 

END