Clean And Clear

Transcript

Alright thank you very much, and hello again radio friends. How in the world are you? Doing Alright? I trust everything’s going well at your house, bless your heart. If some of you’ve struck a rough day look up and say, “Lord Jesus see me through this one”, and He will. If you begin a day trusting, you’ll end the day triumphant, okay? If you begin the day trusting, you’ll end the day triumphant, I promise you.

We’re looking at Colossians 1:13 where Paul says that, “God has delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the Kingdom of His dear Son”. The power of darkness is a real power, the victory of the believer is a real victory, and you and I need never fear as long as we are trusting in our wonderful, blessed Lord. The power of Satan is real-he’s been defeated by Christ, but oh how he works hard to afflict the righteous. The Lord said unto Satan, “Behold all that he hath”, that is talking about Job”, “is in thy power, only upon himself put not forth thine hand”. He claims authority over the present world system. The Devil said unto Christ, “All this power will I give thee in the glory of them, for that is delivered unto them”.

Sinners are under the domination of, of Satan, “To open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins”. Satan blinds the minds of people who refuse the Gospel, “In whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ who was the image of God, should shine unto them”. He wrestles against us, he opposes us. I talked about that the last time we got together. Paul says, “We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places”. He is the author of what in the Bible calls, lying wonders, “The working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders”. He slanders the Saints, he inflicts disease, he opposes the righteous, and he even tempted our Lord Jesus Christ. The power of darkness.

Now the word, the keyword there, the emphasis, is not on Satan’s power, about on our deliverance, remember that. You don’t have to dwell on the power of the enemy, you can rejoice over the reality of your own victory in Christ, Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness. Rejoice today in the fact that when the Lord Jesus Christ cried there on the cross, “It is finished”, when that cry went forth the victory was won, Satan was defeated, God’s righteousness was vindicated, and the arms of God were opened wide in welcome and in pardon and forgiveness for every returning sinner that comes to trust the Lord Jesus Christ. Delivered. You don’t have to be under the power of Satan’s threats, his accusations, his deceptions, or his opposition. You are delivered. Hallelujah.
Now, it says, “Hath translated us into the Kingdom of His dear Son”. Change, entire change, change of location, change of attitude, change of loyalty, change of responsibility, and change of life itself.

What is the essence of having been changed into the Kingdom of God’s dear Son? Remember first, you talk about redemption. We have redemption through His blood. Second, forgiveness of sins and third, the Lordship of Christ in all of creation, including you and me. The next, the preeminence of Christ, He is before all things, in all things He might have preeminence. And this matter of being in the Kingdom of His dear Son involves peace, “Having made peace through the blood of His cross and reconciliation with God. He’s reconciled you who one, at one time, were alienated and enemies in your mind because of wicked works”. That whole passage hangs together there, dear friends, if you read it as an outgrowth of that statement we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins, and so on. Translated us into the Kingdom of His dear Son.

Now a kingdom is someone with the King, and a King has absolute authority, and I would remind you that the Lordship of Christ is more than a polite sentiment about which we talk now and again, and concerning which people sometimes get around to act. I’ve heard young people say, “Well. I trusted Christ as Savior, but I didn’t make Him my Lord yet”, and I just, I feel uneasy about them at that point, wondering if they really know, if they really know the Lord Jesus Christ, because Romans 10:9 says that, “If thou should confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shall be saved”.

Saul of Tarsus says, his first cry on the road to Damascus was, “Who art Thou Lord?”, and second he said, “Lord, what will Thou have me to do”? My own conviction is that you get to know the reality of salvation when you make the Lord Jesus Christ Lord of your life and then trust Him to save you from your sins and forgive you in that order. Kingdom of His dear Son. To recognize the fact that Jesus is Lord, “God had given Him a name”, we read in Philippians, “which is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father”.

So, you may not agree with me on this but if you don’t that’s Alright. My father used to say, “We’ll be in Heaven someday and you’ll know I was right”, but the truth is there, isn’t it? To make the Lord Jesus Christ Lord is essential, if you go to be in His Kingdom. If He isn’t your King how can you be in His Kingdom? You see my point? Take just a moment beloved, just a little moment right now, and think about some areas that you need to turn over to His control. Think about some areas in your life that you need to turn over to His control.

I read again Evelyn Christenson’s book, Gaining Through Losing, and she remarked that she thought she had dealt with every bit of pride in her heart, but as she began to seek God on one occasion, as He was dealing with her, He opened up other areas of pride that needed to be dealt with and she had to confess and forsake them and put them by faith under the blood of Christ. An honest appraisal of her own experience with the Lord, which of course has been helpful to many thousands of her readers.

The same I think is true of you and of me. The Kingdom of His dear Son means let Him be King over every part of all of your life. There is that initial submission to Him that comes when you accept Him and submit to Him as your Lord and Savior, and then as you grow in grace, and the faithful Holy Spirit deals with you and speaks to your heart and conscience, there are other areas than that open up that you can yield to Him by faith and let Him control.

Now what is involved in all of this? First of all, redemption. If you’re in His Kingdom, you’re redeemed with His precious, shed blood, and that word redeemed of course means to buy in the market and buy out of the market, in other words, our Lord Jesus went into the slave market of sin and saw us there enslaved and paid the price so that He could take us out and set us free. That’s the concept of redemption. He paid the price for us, bought us literally, so that He can set us free. Free to serve God, free to be what God intended us to be. Redemption through His blood.

Now, what is the “tasting point” shall we say, what is the experiencing point of redemption? Well, it’s the forgiveness of sins. You see, the fact that Christ redeemed us is an historical fact, but the experience of it comes when you know that in your own heart you’ve been forgiven, your conscience is cleansed as the writer to Hebrew says, “From dead works to serve the living God”, your conscience is cleansed and you know that you’re forgiven, that’s when redemption becomes a reality in your own life. That’s why Paul puts them together, “In Him, we have redemption through His shed blood, even the forgiveness of sins”.

Have you learned the delicious reality of sins forgiven? I must say that I meet many a believer who has yet to the experience the delight of complete freedom from guilt through having brought some error to the Savior, and having been completely forgiven. “If we confess our sins He is faithful”, that means He never fails to do it, He never fails to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Today, if there is some area that troubles you, some nagging guilt that has been hanging on for years, bring into your Lord and plead the merits of this promise that I’ve just quoted to you from first John 1:9. Confess really means agree with God, He already knows the score about you. Tell God the truth, verbalize out loud to Him what the truth is about you in this matter concerning which you feel guilty, and then lean hard upon the promise that God has given, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful”, means He will never fail to do this. He will never fail to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Now when you bring an area of guilt and failure to God, He does two things. One, He does forgive. That is to say He expunges the record of your sin entirely and it’s no longer there, it’s gone. He said, “Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more forever”, it’s gone. And the second thing He does is to undertake, to reconstruct your own life so that this error, this failure, doesn’t happen again, “To cleanse us”, He says “from all unrighteousness”.

See the unrighteousness is in you and that’s what made you do what you did, and so what God does when you bring this area of distress to Him, when you bring this area of guilt and distress to God, He removes the guilt, expunges it from the record, it’s gone forever, and then by the faithful, indwelling Holy Spirit, He goes about reconstructing that part of your life that needs help, so that you don’t repeat that failure again. This is how our blessed Lord works, forgiveness of sins. We’ll go on the next time we get together in just thinking a little farther what it means to be translated into the Kingdom of God’s dear Son. So far we talked about redemption and forgiveness, and we’ll go on to some other things as well.

Dear Father today, may we enjoy the thrill of being in Thy Kingdom and being cleansed by the precious blood shed on Calvary, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Till I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!