Christians are exhorted in the prayers to come boldly before the Throne . . . it’s amazing the things that people think they have to go through to get to that throne. When God says, ‘boldly” that’s what He means. We rush to Him! Flesh is flesh! When sin us bugging you and you fall to it, or whatever it is, it could be gossip or anything. When you’re done doing it, you know it’s sin, because you feel rotten. And you repeat to yourself, “I’m not going to do it again, I’m not going to do it again!” You’re going to put something on your refrigerator, so that every time you see it you say, “I’m not going to do it today, I’m not going to do it today!” And then there’s a weak moment, and you do it today. And you are defeated again, and you feel so bad. I’m just trying to tell you, the Bible says it doesn’t have to have dominion over you.
We are not talking about sinless perfection, but maturing in the Lord some things you ought to be able to have the victory over. And the things that are driving you crazy are the things you need to go to the Lord about. Stop hiding them. Just take them to the Lord. So when I think about we have been redeemed from all iniquity—that’s what it means. Past, being continually delivered in Romans here. And in relation to the future, He will deliver us from the presence of sin that is coming.
“For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body” (Romans 8:22-23).
Now, if you were to take this verse and all of a sudden somebody says that the “to wit” here is italicised and doesn’t have to be here—it’s not in most manuscripts—and, therefore, we just put a period after “waiting for the adoption.” Nobody will catch that. Surely they won’t catch that. When you got born again and got saved were you adopted? It’s not a brain-twister. If you know the Scripture, you were adopted. Right? You were adopted.
So the verse said, right here, the verse says “And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption” . . . Well, if I’m saved and I’m adopted and I’m joint heirs with Christ—and it stops there—that means, maybe I’m not adopted, yet. I’m waiting for the adoption! What about that? Now that makes a different story now. If I’m waiting for the adoption, somebody can come along and say ‘this is what you have to do while you’re waiting, because you ain’t got it yet. No! The last part of the verse clears everything up. It’s talking about your BODY! You body is not saved yet . . . but it will be . . . future! And there’s many more verses like this.
There is a reason in the last days that so much confusion is going on. If a person doesn’t have a solid biblical address to go to to definitely define his relation with God—that devil can rock your boat! How do we know that? Because Jesus Himself said, “It’s written, It’s written, It’s written” three times when He was tempted by the devil. So the devil will destroy “It’s written, It’s written, It’s written” any way he can. He can’t get rid of it but he sure will eliminate a whole lot of things in our understanding.
It’s important to understand with our salvation that we are saved—but the body is not saved.
HOW DOES A CHRISTIAN BECOME CLEAN AND STAY CLEAN?
How does a Christian become clean? Simple. Jesus cleanses by His Blood. We saw that in I John 1:7.
“But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin” (I John 1:7).
This refers to the initial cleasing from the guilt and sin and to our standing before God. Standing? Yes. There is standing and state. A lot of people still don’t believe this, but Scripture proves it. Standing is where? In the Lord. Our state changes—it goes up and down. But my standing is in the Lord. I’m positioned in Christ. He has made us to sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
When I got saved I was born again a new creature. He didn’t use old stuff. He didn’t put new wine in old flasks. This is a new thing. All of have this if we are born again. You are saved unto the day of redemption. And that has been taken care of by our Lord—that is your standing in Him.
But the state of your condition on planet earth in this flesh? Oh man, that fluctuates. It does. So God in that state condition—we are one perfect people.
- He cleanses us with His Blood.
- He washes us with His Word. “That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word” (Ephesians 5:26).
See, the longer we preach and teach, naturally we have this stuff in front of us all the time. So, to me it dovetails a little bit better. I’m in it all the time. I can see how it blends. And some people can’t see how it is all put together. But when it clicks, you all are going to connect this stuff with the Book, because without this you have no power, you have no cleansing—you’re going to find this out. You are going to find this out experientially. When you don’t read your Bible—sometimes for months—you see your spiritual batteries burning out.
We have peace with the Lord, and everything is going so good—we just neglect reading God’s Word here and there—and we don’t notice anything yet. And then something comes up and the word ‘N ... O ...” No, is real weak. We just can’t say no to it like we used to. Whatever it is, and other stuff starts to happen. And the devil is so slick we can never connect the dots. It takes a long time, you either hear a sermon or listen to a teacher, or listen to the Holy Spirit—because He does talk to you. He’ll ask, “What are you reading? That’s a good book, good book here, good book there—I mean, you can have religious books all over the house, like I do. You can read them all the time, but without the Word of God—the promises are only with the Book—God’s promises go with the Book. Other books are written by men that are saved, Lord willing, and they expand your mind with wisdom and different things like that—but they can’t do anything for you except expand your spiritual ramifications so that you understand some spiritual things out there—but you ain’t getting fed by them. “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God!”
You must have a supernatural Book to feed your supernatural soul! And if we don’t do it, we start shrinking spiritually—you start losing power. And some people get so far away, the next thing they wonder is why they don’t like church no more ... they wonder why they don’t like the things of God. And then they start nitpicking and everybody’s a hypocrite. I hear all this all the time. Then I ask them . . . Are you reading your Bible everyday? Are you praying? And then I get the stupidest looks ... like, what in the world does that have to do with what’s going on? It’s the simplest thing that we teach Sunday school kids ... You know, how you Grow, Grow, Grow or you Shrink, Shrink, Shrink. The elementary stuff—if you forget, you’ll soon find out as a saved person—you got to get back to the Book!
“Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word” (Ephesians 5:25-26).
Cleanse it with what? the Word. The washing of the Word of God—it’s very important.
There are those that claim, that memorizing Scripture by the teenagers and everything ... that ain’t gonna help them. Well, whatever. They say, ‘they’re not going to remember this stuff’ ... whatever ...
“Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word” (Psalms 119:9).
Remember the Word that you hid in your heart that you might sin, what, sin against God. Remember that verse? You learned a long time ago, it’s true.
You can have all the programs in the world, and all that, but if a child has enough of the Word of God ... that is what is going to keep him. He’ll have that certain protection. He may go away, but guess what is going to bother him? The Word of God. If the Word of God is not in there—never was in there—very difficult.
“Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you” (John 15:3).
- Whose doing the talking? The Lord Jesus Christ.
- They are clean by the Word.
- They are washed by the Word.
Remember? Only a great God can purify sinful men and women? We know that He cleanses by His Blood and He washes with His Word.
“Jesus saith to him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean, but not all” (John 13:10).
Who is speaking? The Lord, trying to do some washing of some feet. And Peter so boldly said, “No way, man!” You know, recognizing His authority and everything, saying, “No, no! We wash Your feet!”
This shows us the association of humility through the washing . . . that’s the daily walk. You have to keep your feet clean, and you wash them with the water of the Word. And when we don’t do simple little things, we run into problems. That is our daily walk.