Our Weapon –
The Blood of Christ
Outline taken from sermons by
John Hoole– February 7 & 14, 2010
Adapted by
Rev. Charles W. Pendleton, Jr. for the
Fitchburg Nazarene Church
October 9, 2016
So far in our look at the Weapons that We Fight With, we have looked at:
- Forgiveness
- Praying the Word
- Praise
Our Fourth Weapon – THE BLOOD OF CHRIST
One of Satan’s chief tactics is accusation.
We covered that in our look at Satan’s weapons.
In Rev. 12:10, Satan is called“the Accuser of the brethren.”
And unfortunately, we often give Satan the cannon fodder to sling in our direction. We do this when we sin, as believers.
Now, we can be on shaky ground here when we talk about sinning – and – being believers at the same time.
I think it wise here to go on a little bunny trail in order to be certain there are no misunderstandings about what I’ve just said.
We will come back to THE BLOOD OF CHRIST.
To engage this topic, I think we would do well to look at our Articles of Faith for the Church of the Nazarene to get an inkling into what it is your pastor is saying here.
Our Manual states that,
“We believethat sin is of two kinds: original sin or depravity, and actual
or personal sin.”
“We believe that original sin, or depravity, is that corruptionof the nature of all the offspring of Adam by reasonof which everyone is very far gone from original righteousnessor the pure state of our first parents at the time oftheir creation, is averse to God, is without spiritual life, andinclined to evil, and that continually.
We further believe thatoriginal sin continues to exist with the new life of the regenerate,until the heart is fully cleansed by the baptism withthe Holy Spirit.”
Importantly, “We believe that original sin differs from actual sin inthat it(original sin) constitutes an inherited propensity to actual sin forwhich no one is accountable until its divinely provided remedyis neglected or rejected.
We believe that actual or personal sin is a voluntaryviolation of a known law of God by a morally responsible person.
It is therefore not to be confused withinvoluntary andinescapable shortcomings, infirmities, faults, mistakes, failures,or other deviations from a standard of perfect conductthat are the residual effects of the Fall.”
(Which may still be rightly called – “sin.”)
1 John 5:13-21
13I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.14This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.15And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.
16If you see any brother or sister commit a sin that does not lead to death, you should pray and God will give them life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that you should pray about that.17All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death.
18We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the One who was born of God keeps them safe, and the evil one cannot harm them.19We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.20We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true by being in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
21Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.
It seems pretty clear – anyone born of God does not continue to sin (knowingly, willfully, commits a voluntary violation of a known law of God
If we were to back up to 1 John 1 (which we are doing), we see John talking to whom????
Believers!
What does he say to them?
1 John 1:5-10
5This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.6If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth.7But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from allbsin.
8If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.10If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.
Because we are not yet glorified, we find ourselves constantly falling short of the glory of God; constantly failing to be like our elder brother, Jesus.
Falling short of a standard of perfect conduct, as was stated in our manual.
In essence, sinning – missing the mark of what it means to be the redeemed of the Lord.
Failing to be what we were created to be:
- the Imago Dei (image of God)
John says that when we become conscious of being found in this state – we are to confess our sin.
We are to “bring it under the blood.”
Okay, back to where we were headed at the beginning of this message.
When we sin we give Satan opportunity to accuse us, both directly and through others.
The reality is, we have all sinned.
When Satan adds to our sin, his accusation, we can become condemned and discouraged.
That is,if we are ignorant of the power of the blood of Jesus, and how it can be applied to this issue.
First of all, we need to praise God that the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son cleanses us from all sin(1 John 1:7).
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from allsin.
Two verses later, John tells us that when we do sin, we are to “…confess our sins, and He will be faithful to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”(1 Jn. 1:9)
When we confess our sin, we are continuing to “walk in the light”.
We are responding (walking in the light) to the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
As Jesus said in John 14:23-26,
23Jesus replied,“Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.24Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.
25“All this I have spoken while still with you.26But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
We need to believe that no matter what sin the Spirit teaches us that we are guilty of, the blood of Jesus is there to cleanse us.
We can be restored by this blood to a place of complete acceptance with God, as well as peace with ourselves. It is because Jesus paid the price for our sins with His own blood, and took the punishment we deserved, that we can be forgiven and go on after temporary defeats.
Praise God for the blood!
Revelation 12:11NKJV
11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.
Although this specific passage is about a future group of people, the message is equally applicable to any of God’s children in Christ.
I believe our success and victory in this life depends on a vital living revelation of the power of the blood of Jesus Christ in your life.
As I’ve been thinking about spiritual warfare, I thought of some of the tactics Satan uses. Amidst my thoughts were the fact that Satan tries to deceive us by counterfeiting as many of the holy things of God as he can.
In this way, he might interject a small amount of truth which he will twist in an attempt to deceive us into thinking what he proposes is ok.
But the thoughts and notes I was accumulating had a head-on collision, when this topic of the blood of Christ and Satan’s counterfeits came together.
- Satan has absolutely no way by which he can counterfeit the blood of Jesus Christ.
- He has absolutely no answer for it or defense against it.
Because of this, Satan hates the blood of Christ.
Satan fears the blood of Jesus because he has no response to it.
He has no answer; no counterfeit!
And it is by that blood that we can overcome our enemy.
Because of the blood of Jesus, nothing Satan brings against us will stand, no lie, no slander, no accusation, no condemnation, no guilt, no shame. In every instance we overcome by the blood of the Lamb.
But we must be under the blood.
When we first came to faith in Christ, He placed our sins under His blood.
Our sins were covered.
Covered be the Blood of Jesus Christ.
The Penalty for our sin (death) was paid in full by Christ.
Ephesians 2:13NKJV
13But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
The blood of Christ has the power to draw us closer to God. And the closer to Jesus, the more secure our victory over the enemy.
When the Spirit of Christ convicts us of sin, he is speaking what Jesus wants us to know.
John 16:7-15
7But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.8When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment:9about sin, because people do not believe in me;10about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer;11and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.
12“I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.13But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.14He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you.15All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”
The Blood of Christ is a great weapon against our enemy, but it is only useful when we agree with what the Spirit convicts us of during our Christian walk.
If we fight the Spirit – if we deny the prompting of the Spirit when he tries to do His restorative work in us…..
…..we are fighting against the cleansing of Jesus Christ in our lives, and those things which He has been trying to get us to change in our lives – remain outside the covering of His blood.
Closing Prayer