The Power of the Blood

Ephesians 1:1-2

I recently inherited a family heirloom: a pair of silver candlesticks and a pedestalled silver bowl my mother used to call a compote. I treasure these things because they were given to my parents by a grateful congregation my father served almost 100 years ago and because, when I was a small boy, it was my duty many times, especially at Christmas, to polish them. Out came the silver polish and the rags, and after much effort, they shone again as new. The same happened when they first came to me, tarnished by neglect over some time. However, I recently learned something new. I now find that, if I give them a good rub with a clean rag as soon as I see the shining silver become dull, I don't need any chemical polish. I can just use a little "elbow grease" instead. Frequent care saves a lot of work, and requires no special chemicals! It struck me that this is much like the sin to which we are all prone. Get rid of it as soon as we notice it entering our minds, and it requires much less effort to keep ourselves clean from it. Neglect it, and it is hard to erase. By the great effort of Jesus' death -- like the harsh chemical I once used -- we were first made clean. Now we learn how to stay clean the easy way! We can delight Jesus and our heavenly Father by shining every day with the brilliance of newly-polished silver.

The one who originally told that story has set the perfect illustration for what Christ had to do for us. Christ had to remove the years and Holiness is more than mere outward works that make us look good but inner desires that separate us from God. Sin is a lack of conformity to God’s will. Not desiring what God desires is sin. Not acting and thinking as God is sin. In our text today we see three truths concerning holiness that is transformed by the power of the blood of Christ.

The epistle to the Ephesians is believed by many to have been a circular letter. A letter written to many churches. When one church finished then another church would receive it. But there are those who believe the letter was directly written to the Ephesians. But whatever your view may be the letter is clearly inspired and intended for our understanding of God. This letter outlines the establishment and completion of Christ’s body. Simply put this letter teaches about becoming a Christian and what the church should look like.

The first truth we see is that we submit to God’s will. Notice in verse 1 it says Paul. Who was Paul? Well, he used to be Saul, a zealous persecutor of the church. His goal in life was to rid the world of as many Christians as possible. They were heretics worshipping Christ rather than God. He believed wholeheartedly that he was doing the will of God. Yet when Christ opened His eyes to sin and grace, He repented and never returned to persecuting the church but with the same zeal serving Christ and the establishment of the church. He was an apostle, one who had witnessed the risen Lord. One whose calling was to represent God on earth and accomplish the mission of God. He was an official representative of God. He was to do the Lord’s will.

Philippians 3:17 Paul tells them to follow his example which is then contrasted with those who said they followed Christ but did not truly love the Lord but actually hated God.

When I was a pastor, a sharp, fourteen-year-old young man who was well respected by his friends and leaders was in the youth group. He was a good student and an accomplished athlete. Zealous for the things of God, the young man served faithfully and volunteered for every project. He took a missions trip with us, witnessing to almost everyone he met.

At one point in his life he spent four hours a day in prayer. He heard many things from the Lord and shared them with others. What he shared was always a blessing. He acknowledged his call to the ministry and wanted to be a pastor before the age of twenty. He seemed to be an unshakable rock.

I loved this young man, recognized the call of God on his life, and invested my time in him. I had only one concern: He seemed to have too much confidence in himself. I wanted to say something to him but did not have a release to do so. I knew a change would come. He weathered some tough storms and yet stayed strong. Sometimes I questioned my discernment as I saw him endure severe trials.

A few years passed. He moved, and I began to travel full-time. But I kept in touch with him. I knew he would go through a breaking process. Since it had to take place, I had no idea what would happen but realized it was necessary for him in order to fulfill his destiny. This would be a similar process to Simon Peter's sifting.

When this young man was eighteen, his father contracted incurable cancer. He and his mother fasted and prayed, believing that his dad would be healed. Others joined with them as well. Only months earlier his dad had committed his life to the lordship of Jesus.

The father's condition grew worse. I was ministering in another city in Alabama when my wife called, urging me to telephone this young man. I reached him and could see he needed someone to encourage him.

I drove all that night after my last service, arriving at his house at four in the morning. His father's condition was so severe that the doctors gave him only days to live. He could not even communicate.

The young man was confident that his dad would rise up healed. I ministered to the family and left several hours later. The next morning we had a call saying things had taken a turn for the worse.

Lisa and I prayed immediately. As we did, God gave my wife a vision of Jesus standing by this man's bedside ready to take him home. Thirty minutes later the young man called and told us his father had passed away. He seemed to be his same strong self. But that was only the beginning.

That night he called some of his close friends to tell them his father had died. When they answered the phone, they were crying. He wondered how they had already heard the news. But they hadn't heard. The tears they were crying were for one of his best friends who had just been killed in an accident. In one day he had lost his father and a very good friend.

The shaking had begun. He was bewildered, frustrated, and numb. The presence of God seemed to have eluded him.

A month later, driving home, the young man came upon an accident which had just taken place. He had had emergency medical training and stopped. Everyone in both cars was a close friend of his. Two died in his arms while he was trying to help.

My young friend had reached his limit. He spent three hours in the woods praying and crying out to God. "Where are You? You said You would be my Comforter, and I have no comfort!"

It seemed as if God had turned His back on him. But this was, in fact, the first time his own strength had failed him.

He became angry with God. Why had He allowed this? He was not angry at his pastor, his family, or me. His offense was with God. He was consumed with frustration. God had failed him in his hour of greatest need.

"Lord, I've served You and laid many things down to follow You," he prayed. "Now You have abandoned me!" He believed God owed him something for all he had given up to serve Him.

Many people have experienced hurts and disappointments that are less extreme and some that are more. Many become offended with the Lord. They believe He should take into consideration all they have done for Him.

They are serving Him for the wrong reasons. We should not serve the Lord for what He can do but rather for who He is and what He has already done for us. Those who become offended do not fully realize how great a debt He has already paid for them to be free. They have forgotten from what manner of death they were delivered. They see through natural eyes rather than eternal.

This young man stopped going to church and started running around with the wrong crowd, frequenting bars and parties. In his frustration he wanted nothing to do with the things of the Lord. He wanted to avoid any contact with God.

He could not keep up this lifestyle for longer than two weeks, for his heart was deeply convicted. But he still refused to approach the Lord for six months. Even then the heavens seemed to be as brass. The presence of the Lord seemed nowhere to be found.

Over a year had gone by. Through several incidents he saw that God was still at work in his life. He approached God, but now it was different. He came humbly. After this time of trial was over, the Lord showed him how He had never left him. As his spiritual walk was restored, he learned to put his confidence in God's grace, not in his own strength.

I kept in touch with him. A year and a half later he told me things he had seen in himself that he never knew were there. "I was a man without character and shallow in all my relationships. I was raised by my dad to be strong outwardly, a self-made man. I could never have grown the way God wanted me to. I am thankful the Lord did not leave me in that condition.

"But what grieved my heart the most was not running around in bars and drinking. It was that I turned my back on the Holy Spirit. I love Him so much. My fellowship with Him has never been as sweet as it is now."

A lot of shaking occurred in his life. Self-confidence was eliminated. But this young man had the foundation that Simon Peter had, and it could not be taken away. Instead of building his life and ministry through pride, he is building by the grace of God.

What the Lord desires of us in following Him is found in the second part of the very opening phrase of Paul, by the will of God. That we be conformed to His will and follow in His ways. There is no other possible means to being conformed to the will of God than to be found cleansed in the shed blood of Jesus Christ.

The second truth we see today is we are saints. We are not becoming saints but if we have been cleansed by Christ, we are saints! No questions, no hesitations. We are saints. Paul does not qualify his statement by saying, “To the saints at Ephesus, except those who do not read from the KJV or NIV, or who have never heard Billy Graham in person. Or who has not been certified as a FAITH witness partner or has never used the Four Spiritual Laws to win someone to Christ. Or you never were a Lad in RAs or a part of mission friends.” No qualifications. If you are saved you are a saint!

The Greek word for saint is hagios. Such as the Hagia Sophia. (too bad it is now a mosque) Anyway, it means holy ones. Saints are holy ones. If Christ has cleansed you are now holy. Are you conformed to the will of God? Are you conformed to His likeness? Do you resemble your heavenly Father? We are clean, pure, holy, but how?

“For a child to become clean, something else must become dirty.” Laws of Parenting, #2

I read the previous statement in an email recently and as I considered it among the others statements I could not help but realize how true this was. It was meant to be humorous and most parents can relate if they only reflect back on bath time for the kids. Almost without exception, the end result of a clean toddler or adolescent was a filthy tub or shower. How many times have you mothers (or maybe even a dad or two) had to follow-up bath time with a cleanup of the tub or shower? You remember the ring around the tub don’t you? Or maybe it was the muddy hand prints on the tub walls or even the dirt that made it all the way to the towel when drying off. Let’s face it! It’s true! For a child to become clean something else does have to get dirty!

Is this the only proof of the truth of this statement? Not in the least! How many of you have dipped paintbrushes into a crystal clear fluid only to see it immediately cloud up with the pigments of the paint on the brush? In automotive repair shops there is a hand cleaner that aids in removing the grease and oil from the mechanics hand. In the can it is white cream but when rubbed on the hands it is transformed into a grimy, filthy carrier of the dirt onto towels or rags or whatever is used to clean the hands. Are you getting the picture? For something to get clean, something else must become dirty. The principle is universal for the most part and also has spiritual application as well.

In the book of Isaiah we read “For all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; and all of us wither like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.” (Isaiah 64:6, NASB) The prophet tells us that we are unclean. Even the “good deeds” we do “are like filthy garments.” How did we get that way? Simple. The answer is Sin. We are all sinners (Rom 3:23) and because of God’s holiness that sin separates us from Him (Isaiah 59:2).

Through Isaiah the Lord has reassured us that not all is lost though, “Though your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they will be like wool.” (Isaiah 1:18, NAS) We can be cleansed!

Wait a minute! If I am to be cleansed something must get “dirty”. The filth of my sin when leaving me will fall upon something else, isn’t that the premise of our understanding? Yes, indeed something else carried away, and continues to carry away the filth of sin from me and from all that have their faith in God and His ways. That something is none other than the Son of God and His “soul cleansing blood”. On the cross of Calvary, one dark day, the Son of God faced the penalty we all deserve. He was alone, forsaken by the Father Who had sent Him for this purpose.

"As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see {it} and be satisfied; by His knowledge the Righteous One, My servant, will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities." (Isaiah 53:11 NAS)

Our sin rested squarely upon Him in His trial and we are cleansed. He carried my sins to His grave, yet He did not remain there. On the third day He arose and is now seated at the right hand of the Father making intercession for us. (Rom 8:34) May God be praised without end for His mercy!

In order for us to be called saints Christ endured our sin. He became dirty for us. It is through His shed blood that we are clean. Every time you disobeyed and stayed out past curfew has been paid. Christ paid it for you. Every time you drank alcohol before you were legal has been paid for you. Every time you insulted someone has been paid for you. Everyday you were living in your own will and not God’s has been paid for you. Every sin has been cast upon Him. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says that God made Him who knew no sin to be sin that we might become righteous. Have you allowed the righteousness of God to be your righteousness? What do you cling to for your salvation? What drives you in life?

The third truth we see today is that we are faithful. You might be thinking, how? In what way? How can we be faithful? Some of you might be thinking, Amen preacher, that’s right we are faithful.

How can we who were sin be holy and faithful? When you read in the papers about pastors who aren’t faithful, you know supposedly the cream of the crop, how can the church be called faithful?

This is faithfulness according to the standard of God. How is it that we are faithful? I was an avid fan of the Dallas Cowboys. Every Sunday during football season I came home from church and turned on the game. I waited to change out of my suit during a commercial. If my wife needed help, for­get it. "Honey, the Cowboys are playing!" We ate lunch at halftime or after the game.

On one particular Sunday there was a crucial game. The Dallas cowboys were playing the Philadelphia Eagles. The winner would earn a seat in the playoffs; the loser would he eliminated.

The game was exciting, wⁱth only eight minutes left. The Cowboys were behind by four points, but they had the ball and were on the move. I kept thinking, They're going to (rive the ball clown the field and win this game in the last few minutes like they've done many times before. I was on my feet in my living room along with the crowd in the sta­dium.

All of a Sudden the Spirit of God entreated me to pray! The burden was tremendous. I knew it wasn't something to which I could respond later. It was for now!

I pleaded, "Lord, there are only eight minutes left in the game. Wait and I'll pray five hours when this game is over." How could eight minutes .hurt anything, I reasoned. Surely I can pray about whatever He wants me to after this game. But the urgency and burden did not lift; it became stronger.

I bargained again, "Lord, I'll pray the rest of the day and even into the evening if I have to. Just let me watch these last couple of minutes."

After all, I thought, I'm being generous! But the burden remained, and there was a deep knowing within that my negotiations had been denied.

I comforted myself with what I thought wa^s a fair com­promise. I'll pray for hours. Surely nothing could happen in the next few minutes that couldn't be covered in five hours of prayer. I knew it was a compromise I could keep because the rest of my day was free.

So, do you know what I did? I watched the rest of the game. When it was over I immediately marched off to my bedroom and locked the door behind me. I got down on my face, prepared to pray for a minimum of five hours. I meant what I had promised.

For fifteen minutes I wrestled and tried to pray, but it was a struggle. It was as dry and boring as any prayer could be. The urgency and ability to pray was gone. The burden had lifted. I knew I had been wrong. Conviction overwhelmed me. God showed me that what I wanted had taken greater importance than what He desired. After sev­eral minutes of dry silence, God spoke, "Son, I don't want your five hours of sacrifice. I want obedience!"

These words riveted me. I lay speechless before a holy God. How could I have been so deceived as to count the eight minutes trivial when God was calling me then. How could I have treated His desire and will so lightly! I had chosen a carnal football game over obeying God...

Returning to my example of the Dallas Cowboy's football game, I had been a Christian for quite awhile. I served diligently in full-time ministry, often fifty to seventy hours a week and at Sunday services. I was often the last one to leave the building. Having done all this, when the Spirit of God came upon me to pray, I felt I could ignore His calling voice because, after all, I was His faithful, hardworking servant.

So by my unspoken attitude I was asserting to God that I had the right to pick and choose When I would listen to and obey His voice. It was optional because I was so loyal and hardworking. We must remember that a thousand acts of obedience do not justify one act of disobedience!

That I could have been so ignorant and arrogant now makes me want to weep. Jesus gave His very life for me, and I smugly judged His leading as optional because of my menial works! May God keep us from the subtle deception that leads to disobedience!

Our faithfulness is only due to His strength in us provided by His blood for us! We can never claim our greatness but only His. We are righteous and holy because of His righteousness in us. Leviticus 11:45 tells us to be holy for He is holy. We are to be holy because God himself is Holy. That is His nature. Our nature is sinfulness and selfishness, but His nature is holiness and purity. We are to be conformed to His image. We are to be as He is. This idea of faithfulness is applicable to two areas of life. Who we are. We are to look like Christ. And what we are. We are to be devoted, zealous followers of Jesus Christ. He is the object of our faith. Our faith and faithfulness are to unite us to Christ and to His people. We are citizens of this earthly world but we are also citizens of God’s kingdom. May we be found faithful to His kingdom above this passing world.

Some thoughts of response.

Are you devoted to God or man’s desires?

Are you found holy according to God’s standard or the checklist of man?

Are you faithful to do the work of God above the work of man?