Clean in Christ

There's a certain experience I think we've all had. We've all experienced getting dirty, filthy, sweaty, stinky. You have a tough job and might be in the attic with insulation. It was my job when I was working with Dad and building houses and a teenager back in the years when we didn't have blow-in insulation that I had to get in the attic and with roll-out insulation on a hot July or August day steaming with a stick and roll it out and poke it back up in the eaves area. I itch to this day sometimes when I think about it. But just be pouring sweat and fiberglass or whatever it's made of, whatever just sticks to you. Or a hot day and, boy, that grass is dry and it's dusty, but it's got to be cut in every speck of dust and you just get filthy. There's just rivers of mud running on you after a while. And you get finished and you go in and you climb in the shower, tub, lather up, good, nice running water, and you get squeaky clean. And it feels good to be so clean that your skin just squeaks after being so dirty and so filthy. And we've all... I'll say, if you haven't experienced doing that, which I think I'm being facetious because who hasn't done that, then go do a job and get filthy dirty. Shovel out horse stables or something. But get filthy dirty and then go get a good shower. We know what it feels like to really get clean. But you know, as we go through life and we're taken through life and we begin to have certain realizations and understandings, primarily because God calls us and we begin to respond and He begins to turn the light on, and we begin to have the realization that we're spiritually unclean, that spiritually we're filthy. We're unclean, we're filthy, and when that light has turned on enough that we realize that and we realize how, frankly, dirty we are spiritually, it's like, how do I get clean from that? Because no amount of soap, no amount of water, no amount of bath, no amount of showers is going to clean you up. Not possible. Well, if it were possible, then that's how God would have done it. And saved Himself a lot of trouble, a lot of pain, and a lot of suffering. But no amount of water, no amount of water, no amount of bath or showers, there's only one way you can be clean from spiritual filth, and that's clean in Christ. That's the only way. Cleanse than Him. If you want a title, just title this message, Clean in Christ. Clean in Christ. And I could say, Clean only in Christ. There is no other way. Clean only in Christ.

I may do this sermon a little bit more in kind of a Bible study format. Obviously, it's very timely for Passover coming up at this point less than a week away.

1 John 1 and verse 7. I wonder if we fully grasp the wonder of this verse fully.

I think it's very important to try to make sure we do grasp fully the wonder of this verse, the tremendous encouragement and hope. And, of course, again, by the time John wrote this, he had had something like 60-something years to experience the truths of God in living them and to know what to even more fully emphasize.

1 John 1 and verse 7 says this, 2 But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another. And here's what I really want to draw attention to. 3 And the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us. That's the only way you can be spiritually cleansed. It doesn't matter what effort you make. It doesn't matter what you do. And we should make the right efforts. And we should do the right things. Absolutely. 4 But there is no action on our part in and of itself aside from the blood of Christ that can cleanse us from spiritual filthiness. There just isn't. 5 And again, if there were, then God would have done it that way and provided it that way. But it says the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us. That's crucial. 6 But he also goes on to say, he cleanses us from all sin. Are there spiritual sins that his blood cannot cleanse us of? No.

There's not a spiritual sin that his blood cannot cleanse off the record. Here's something that you will experience as a child of God. As God feeds you and leads you, as the life and light of God through his Spirit through Christ enlivens you more and brightens your mind more and more to understand not just God's plan and not just God's way, but to even understand your own self.

7 I baptized a young man up in Chattanooga, Ryan and I did, this past week. He had come to a sufficient realization of his sins and what he needed to repent of and repented of and all that.

That the baptism could be valid and was, is. But here's what happens.

As you go through life and your learning and God's working with you and his light gets brighter and brighter in your mind and you see more and more about God's way and more and more about yourself and the contrast gets greater and greater, you begin to say and realize things about yourself you didn't realize back maybe when you were baptized or let's put it another way.

As you scan back over your life, as you hit 40 and you're scanning back, as you hit 50 and you're kind of scanning in your mind back in 1560 and you remember because you can't wash it completely from your memory, not yet we can't.

You remember things that you did at such and such a point in your life and now what you did though you were sorry for it, it hit you a lot harder now than it seems to have hit you then because you realize even more so how far out of God's design and against God's ways it is. And then you can begin to feel like, well, maybe God can't really forgive me of that. Maybe that's just too big a sin and maybe He can't cleanse me from that. But here's what I want to point out. When it says, it cleanses us from all sin and I said there is no sin that His blood cannot cover. Do you have a sin? Does a person think, well, I have a sin that the blood of Christ can't cover?

I repented of it and all of that, but I'm not sure Christ's blood can cover that. What you're saying is, my sin is greater than the blood of the Creator.

Think about that for a moment. My sin is greater than the blood of the Creator.

That is almost a statement of arrogance when you think about it.

I am such a great, important person that my sin is so great that the blood of Jesus Christ, the Creator, cannot wash that off my record.

I think we'll get the point. John knew what he was talking about when he said the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son cleanses us from all sin.

And as we call to meant remembrance through the Passover observance and even sermons leading up to it, any sin of thought, word, or deed that we've done can be forgiven us.

There are certain conditions, yeah, but they can be forgiven us.

Revelation 1.5, in that same vein John wrote in Revelation 1 and verse 5.

And if you look at the final sentence in that verse, Revelation 1 verse 5, the final sentence, it says, "...unto him that loved us and washed us." Now, again, we step in showers and get into bathtubs and take the soap and we wash ourselves and we may wash to our squeaky clean and just with the skin and the flesh you can do that.

"...but unto him that loved us..." And we might say, because he loved us, he washed us.

Washed us from what? From the physical stains and the physical dirt and the physical? No. So could take care of that.

He washed us from our sins in his own blood, picturing, showering us, washing us clean spiritually, our spiritual skin, the spiritual side of it, washing us clean in his own blood.

Remember what he told the disciples there in Matthew 26-28 on that evening? And we'll read that, of course, at Passover.

But he talked about taking the wine that it was, or represented, his blood, as he said, shed for many for the remission of sin. Remission of sins.

And in Hebrews 9-12, it says this, Hebrews 9, in verse 12, Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, his own blood, he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us by his own blood.

His blood, I know we don't understand the miraculous power, how God did it fully. We will someday, I believe, when we're spirit beings.

But how that God, the Son, the Word, who was composed of spirit, could willingly allow himself to be made flesh and blood, and his life be circulating in his body, in his blood, his oxidized blood.

We don't understand how that process occurred fully. There's no way to fully grasp it. We just know it happened. God did it. He came. He dwelt among us. But what we understand is that the life is in the blood.

And so when he was spilling his blood, that was actually... He had been changed into a being like us, who is dependent on the flow of blood for life.

I mean, if you're a little toe, if the blood gets cut off to your little toe, your little toe will die.

And it will have to be amputated because gangrene will set in and rot, and it just moved right on up the foot and the leg. The life is in the blood. Well, the blood that circulated in Christ as flesh and blood human, that was where his life as a flesh and blood being was.

Of course, he had got spirit without measure. So when he spilled his blood, he was spilling his life.

And that is the life of the Creator.

If I lived a perfect life, which I can't do. I mean, no human has ever lived a perfect life.

Only he who became a human for a time and then went back to God. But if I could live my life perfectly, if there was such a thing as a human being who lived his life perfectly and died without sin, guess what?

Only he would actually be able to be given eternal life because he did not sin. But it could not pay for anybody else's sins. Only the life of the Creator who created us all.

In Acts 20 and verse 28, when Paul is holding a meeting and saying goodbye to the elders and instructing them here, he says in verse 28 of Acts 20, here at Ephesus, he says, Now notice, to feed the church of God which he has purchased.

You know, I look at you, and I could hold up a mirror and look at myself in the mirror.

I'll go over to Gadsden today and I'll look at Gadsden.

And the church of God has been purchased. You've been purchased.

That's what Paul is saying. Purchased with what? Are you worth $20?

Could you be purchased for $50? Well, I think if somebody's going to purchase me, I'd like to think that it would be worth enough to pay a million for me.

Well, how about being purchased by the blood of the Creator? Because of what Paul says, when you look at the church of God, and he's telling these elders, bear in mind, he's purchased with his own blood.

When he wrote to the Ephesians in Ephesians 1.7, Ephesians 1, verse 7, He said, "...in whom we have redemption, we've been redeemed through his blood the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace." Now, obviously we know in the various writings of Paul, like if we went to Colossians 1.14, we know in the writings of Paul that he would repeat certain things because they're common things of salvation.

And so in Colossians 1.14, he had said that to the Ephesians about them being redeemed, redemption through Christ's blood and forgiveness of sins. In Colossians 1, verse 14, he says, "...in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins." He emphasizes that to them, too.

Now, Hebrews 9.14 to me is a pretty outstanding verse in terms of targeting something in our human makeup.

Hebrews 9 and verse 14, he says, "...how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit, by the Spirit of God, offered himself?" And again, we don't understand how he was able and he was willing to do it. He was willing to have it done. It wasn't forced upon him. He was willing to give up his spirit composition and his powers of Godhead for a time. He was still divine. He was still God. But to give it up and be composed of matter.

It says, "...who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God." And then this part right here, "...purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God." You know, Satan, who is the accuser of the brethren, he'll push your buttons and get you to remember, "...oh, you did such and such at such and such time." Remember what you did? Hmm. Remember what you said? Hmm. Remember what you thought? Hmm. Yeah. He'll push the buttons. He'll pull the triggers. Because he wants your conscience to really bother you.

He wants it to bother you in a way that you get discouraged about it. You get depressed. You get demoralized. Because that gives him more fertile ground to work on with you. Can you remember something? Can any one of us remember or have our buttons pushed and something recalled to mind that we say, "...oh, I wish I'd never done that." If I could go back, I would not do it that way, but none of us get to rewrite our personal history. It says, "...purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God." But you know, you can counter in your thoughts to, "...yeah, yeah, 20 years ago, 5 years ago, whatever, yeah, yeah, it's a fact that I did that.

But I don't do that anymore. And God has forgiven me of that. My conscience doesn't bother me. Now, I wish I'd never done it, but I did. And it's done. It's not been done again. I'd leave it alone. But that that's on my memory banks, in my memory banks, God's forgiven me of that. And I know He has, so I don't worry about it. And it has the power, knowing that you've been purged from that and cleansed from that, not to pull you down.

If you go to Revelation 7, verse 14, to a time ahead of us. In Revelation 7, during the time that the Day of the Lord is about to begin, that final year of the seven trumpets being poured out, leading up to the final trumpet in Christ returning, and just before the Day of the Lord is about to begin, there are 12,000 from each tribe of Israel, with the exception of Dan, that are sealed.

And John's given to see that. And after that, there's a great multitude, verse 9. It says, which no man could number of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues. And it pictures what they're going to wind up doing standing before them. It's a vision of something that's going to occur, stood before the throne and before the Lamb, noticed clothed in with white robes, which is a picture of righteousness and palms in their hands.

And it's talking about this vast multitude that actually is going to wind up being converted during the Great Tribulation, by the preaching of the two witnesses. But verse 14 says, And I said unto him, Sir, you know, because John is being asked, Do you know what these are, who these are, etc., etc. And I said to him, Sir, you know, and he said to me, These are they which came out of Great Tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. They're those, during Great Tribulation, who respond to God, to the preaching of the two witnesses, who repent. And they're made white, they're washed in the blood of the Lamb.

Notice with me a Scripture that has all the relevance in the world to you and to me. Revelation 12 and verse 11. Now, in this chapter, it talks about in verse 7, War in Heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon, the dragon fighting in his angels, and it's both a historic and a prophetic, because evidently, it has occurred in a time past, it's evidently going to occur again.

Satan's going to try it again. And verse 8, Prevail not, neither was their place found any more in Heaven. And the Great Dragon was cast out, that old serpent called the Devil, and Satan which deceives the whole world. He was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. And, of course, he says in verse 10, There in the middle, for the accused of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.

That's what he does regarding us. He accuses. He accuses and he accuses. Notice verse 11, chapter 12, verse 11 here. They, who's they? God's people, you, me, they overcame him. I overcame him, you overcame him, we overcame him, they overcame him. How? By the blood of the Lamb. I wonder if we understand what that is actually saying when it says, By the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony, and by love not their lives until the death.

But, if you ever stop to think, or try to explain to somebody, what does it mean they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb? He overcomes Satan by the blood of the Lamb. How many times has a person who has been baptized, who's in Christ, who's clean in Christ, after they were baptized, along the way, slipped up, messed up momentarily, or maybe even for a little period of time, slipped back into an old sin, or had good intentions to do the right thing because they knew the right thing to do, but they couldn't rise above a certain habit, or they couldn't rise above a certain way of thinking, they couldn't rise above for a time an addiction that they turned their back on, but it still got some tentacles.

Well, whatever, it doesn't matter what it is. Way of thinking, way of speaking, and they slip back, either momentarily as an event, or even fade a bit for a time, whatever. And they've become spiritually unclean again, because they've taken sin back on, not deliberately, not that they just want to be in that condition, but in weakness or whatever, they've messed up. And who doesn't, to some degree, mess up? Now there is some spiritual filth again. So what is the solution?

They have to get clean in Christ again. I don't mean go get baptized again, but they have to repent, they have to recognize that they messed up, they've got to repent again of it. And guess what God does? He forgives them of that again, and He cleanses them. They overcame Him by the blood of the Lamb. There is a continual cleansing that goes on, a continual cleansing. And hopefully as you go along and you learn and you grow and you develop, there will be less and less times of that additional cleansing.

You put something on the record, it has to be washed off again. You go to God, you're sorry, you do mean it, and He says you do mean it, and He cleanses you once again. Well, guess what? There's a process going on. Overcame Him. Overcoming takes time. But there's a continual cleansing process that goes on and you stay in, and eventually you are totally, spiritually successful. Remember in the Old Testament, and I'll just give you one reference on Deuteronomy 12, verse 23. Deuteronomy 12, verse 23, the blood is in the life.

They will not eat the blood, because the blood, you know, no blood puddings, as some folks in certain parts of the world like, can eat, no blood puddings, no drinking the blood, no eating the blood, because the blood is the life. The life is in the blood. Deuteronomy 12, 23. Therefore, when Jesus made the statement in John 6, there's a number of places there, but in John 6, verses 53 through 56, where He talks about drinking His blood, that was problematic to the Jews who didn't grasp spiritually what He was talking about.

It was a hard enough saying because it was cannibalistic. And some of His disciples from that day walked no more with Him, because it was a hard saying. But He was talking about partaking of His blood as a covering sacrifice. And, of course, those who didn't abandon Him, who hung around, they came to realize, obviously, in time, the value of His blood as a covering sacrifice.

I said, clean in Christ only. Cleanest in His blood only. But how do you come under that cover? How do you come under the covering? How are you in Christ? How do you get into Christ? Well, through baptism. Through baptism. Let's look at Romans 6, verses 3 and 4. Paul said, No, you're not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ. We're baptized into His death. Under the coverage of His death, baptized into His death, meaning His death covers for our death.

Verse 4, Therefore, as we are buried with Him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we should also walk in newness of life. In Colossians 2, verse 12.

If we are baptized, we are buried into His death. We're buried with Him. And it says in Colossians 2, verse 12, Buried with Him in baptism wherein also you are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God who has raised Him from the dead.

And verse 13 says, And you being dead in your sins, and the uncircumcision of your flesh, just simply saying, dead in your sins, your sins put the death penalty on you. And that's the second death. That's the death of extinction and the lake of fire. I mean, smoke and ashes, that's it. That's what we have brought upon ourselves.

And the uncircumcision of the carnality, the unconversion of your flesh, as He quickened or enlivened together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses. And one of the things at baptism that we emphasize in the statement and in counsel is that every sin you have ever committed, a thought, a word, or deed, it is washed away.

You know, frankly, it's not possible for somebody at age 20, 30, 40, whatever age you want to pick out, it's not possible for a person to know every single word they ever spoke they shouldn't have spoken. It's not possible to know every sin you've ever committed. But when you look at the ones you do know, which is more than sufficient for God to see if you're really meaner than I, He knows there are aspects of your makeup, sins you've committed, that you're not aware of, but He sees that with what you see and know, it's sufficient to tell Him if you really meaner than I.

And He forgives you of all your sins. You might go along 10 years under the covering blood of Jesus Christ with God's Spirit and have gone along 10 years or 20 years and one day realize the way I used to think about such and such, or what I did, that was wrong. That is not of God. Well, that was the sin. I'm sorry, God. You knew it and you've forgiven me of it.

And I've just now come to realize about that. That's growth. That's development. That's the light being turned on brighter and brighter in our mind. It doesn't mean you weren't converted. It doesn't mean you weren't forgiven. It just means you're becoming more and more aware because you're being educated more and more in what is truly spiritual and what is not.

I'm cleansed of all sin. And I love Colossians 3 and 3-3. A lot of times at Passover I will read this one. But I love Colossians 3-3. For you are dead, the death penalty is satisfied for you. You are dead. That penalty has been satisfied. And your life is hid. It is safe with Christ in God. And then Galatians 3-27.

I want to be cleansed in Christ. I want to be cleansed of spiritual filth. I want to be viewed by God the Father as clean. And when He can view me through Christ, through the covering blood of Christ upon me, He can view me as a clean vessel. Though He knows that I make mistakes, though He knows I have to keep fighting and overcoming. And there's a continual washing going on. And as long as that continual washing is going on, I am continually cleansed and will totally overcome, you know, in this process of life that's happening. Galatians 3-27. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. Very encouraging. Totally encouraging. One is only clean in Christ, and one can only be in Christ through baptism. And for it to be baptism versus just getting wet, versus getting dumped. Guess what has to be? God's conditions have to be met. Now, you can program it, you can process it, you can lay it out point by point. You can say you're only clean in Christ spiritually. And that's the only way to be spiritually clean, is in Christ. That's true. That's the reality. And to be in Christ, you have to be baptized into Christ. And baptism into Christ, if one just gets wet, if they just get dunked, that's not baptism. God is sitting there at His throne, He says, well, they just got wet, they just got dunked. You may as well go down to the county fair and get in the dunking booth, you know, let them throw balls at you and win prizes for dunking you. That's all you've got. No God's conditions have to be met, and God's conditions are centered. You could take God's conditions for a valid baptism, and you can center them, heart and core, in the word and meaning of repentance. It's that simple. That's the heart and core of the conditions, repentance. This is why, on that day of Pentecost, Acts 2, verse 38, and I'll go back and read it. I think we know it well enough we could just simply quote it, certainly most of it. But I always think about verse 37, how that when they heard this in the crowd, there were those that God was extending opportunity to and who responded. It says, they were pricked on their heart. They were cut to the quick. They were cut in their conscience. And they said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? They wanted, where do we go from here? We're sorry. You know, repentance was taking hold in them, and they wanted to know, how do we respond from here? What shall we do? And Peter said to them, and again, as I pointed out, and as Peter put it, the very first word was repent, because that has to be hard and core. The qualifications of God center, hard and core, on what the word repentance is all about. Repent and be baptized, because if you don't repent and you're baptized, it's not baptism, it's getting wet or getting dunked only. That's all it is. You can do that in a hot tub, shower, a bath, and use soap for physical cleaning, but it won't wash away anything spiritual. No spiritual dirt, no spiritual filth. Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins.

And then you shall receive, because you're now viewed as a clean vessel in God's sight, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Here is a reality that will not be taught in the Protestant world. It will not be taught in Catholicism. I'm not saying that you couldn't run across a preacher or minister someplace who wouldn't say this or maybe understand this point, but you're just not going to really hear it preached or taught it there. This reality, and that is this. And again, going on the basis that they don't understand fully and truly what repentance is.

But here's the bottom line. And it's the bottom line as to why Peter said, Repent and be baptized for the remission of sins. Without repentance, there is no forgiveness. There is no cleansing. See, without repentance, there can be no forgiveness. There can be no cleansing. If there could be, then God could just tell Satan and the demons, I'm just going to say you're clean. I'm going to say you're clean, pronounce you clean. You don't have to repent. You don't have to change from your corrupt ways. You don't have to do any of that.

Don't worry about it. I'm just going to wash you spiritually clean. Even though your thinking is corrupt, your actions are corrupt, your words are corrupt. Don't worry about it. I've got it covered. It doesn't work that way. In human affairs, with God working with us, without repentance, there can be no forgiveness and cleansing. This is why Peter says what he does and why this has to lead the way. See, without repentance, there just simply can be no bona fide, valid baptism. One just gets wet. Let me see. Let me get this right, somebody might say.

God says that I can only be clean in Christ. And to be in Christ, I've got to be baptized. Well, there's a pond right over there. There's plenty of water to be completely submerged. Hey, take me down there and put me under. Well, what if it doesn't take?

What do you mean, what it doesn't take? God says baptism needs to be completely submerged, and you can completely submerge you. Yeah, we can walk down there, we can walk out into the pond, and I can completely put you under. Well, God said to do it that way. Yeah, He said to do it that way. That's His methodology. You know, if you could just follow the pattern, and God had to honor it. You know, let's say you call a true minister that is one of God's true ministers, and He baptizes the person.

And because, you know, God's sitting there at His throne again, He says, well, so-and-so is one of my ministers, and He's baptizing the person. He's not sprinkling. He's not doing any of that. He's putting him completely under water and doing it the right way on the methodology. I guess I'm held hostage. I have to cleanse him, have to give him my spirit. If you could hold God hostage to methodology, I have baptized people sometimes.

And sometimes all you can do is baptize somebody. They've got the right words. They say the right things. It appears that they've truly met God's conditions. And I baptized them, and the fruits show at a later time that they just got wet. That can happen. It would be a poor situation if God was held to methodology and had to forgive, even when He saw that the person has not repented.

Really doesn't intend to repent. Really doesn't even understand what repentance is about. Now, this is why the repentance is what determines if it's going to be valid or not. And that requires change in attitude and action. I guess on the one hand, people would say, and I'll go back to Luke 646, or just go to Luke 646.

I guess on the one hand, a person could say, well, to call Jesus Lord, Lord is a good thing. Well, it is from the standpoint that He is Lord. But He has something to say about that. In Luke 646, He says, why do you call Me Lord, Lord? There's nothing wrong with calling Lord, Lord. I mean, He is Lord. But the oxymoronic situation is, if you're going to say, I'm Lord, but then, which also can mean boss, but you won't do what I say, well, you've got a contradiction here.

Why don't you call Me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? Boss, what time do you want Me to be here tomorrow? Why don't you be here at 8 o'clock? So you're up at 10. Well, I told you to be here at 8. Well, so? Well, you call Me boss and ask Me what time you wanted Me to be here, and I told you, and you're 2 hours later, well, I just decided I'd rather come in at 10 than 8.

Now, if you worked in a job like that, it wouldn't be very long. You wouldn't have that job. You'd be looking for another job. So we understand it. And, of course, remember King Saul, who couldn't wait on Samuel to get there, went ahead and took on certain duty and responsibility, presumptuous, and, frankly, just sinned. And Samuel told him, Saul, to obey is better than sacrifice. To obey. Acts 5.32, and again, how hard is it to grasp what Peter said in Acts 5.32, that God gives His Spirit to those who obey Him? And in that, again, famous Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 7.21, in one of the concluding statements, Matthew 7.21, Not everyone that says to me, Lord, Lord, boss, Lord, master, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that does, and that's action.

And that's obedient to action, but he that does the will of my Father, which is in heaven. God doesn't want me to do drugs. He doesn't want me to mess up the marvelous creation of the brain and the mind that He has given us. He doesn't want me out ruining my life, doing things that hurt my body, that hurt my mind, that hurt my emotions, that cut into future happiness and joy and peace. He doesn't want those things done.

And when people have messed up to whatever degree, and everybody has some amount of sin, of thought, word, deed, and we come to realize it, and we realize we've got to make a change, and we truly want to make a change. That's repentance. Here's the challenge that is upon us in two forms. Number one, the challenge is to meet God's requirements to be in Christ, to meet His requirements to be in Christ, and number two, to stay in Christ by continuing to meet His requirements.

I've been baptized 52 years. I had to meet God's requirements 52 years ago. I had to meet His requirements to be in Christ. And that was 52 years ago. I had to meet the requirements. I spent 52 years with the challenge of continuing to meet His requirements, because to meet the requirements to come to be in Christ, that's initial. But you have to continue to meet those requirements. You have to meet the challenge of staying in Christ.

And this is why when Paul was signing off to the Corinthians with his second letter, in 2 Corinthians 13.5, and we'll go there, 2 Corinthians 13, verse 5. Now, you think about this. In the early 50s A.D. and this church of God purchased with the blood of Christ, where Corinth was one of the sin cities, I mean big time, of the ancient world. And the membership that made up that congregation as a whole had come out of all kinds of bad stuff. And, of course, they had to grow, they had to overcome, they had to stay in Christ.

And so he tells them in this second letter, he writes, Examine yourselves. And as I said, we can't look to somebody else to examine us. We have got to live in open-canded honesty with God, and be willing to truly look at ourselves in the light of God's Word, in His Spirit, and seek His... He's going to search us. He's going to know us. But when we really want, not only Him to do that, but we want to know ourselves so that we can address what we need to, and we can grow, we can develop. Makes all the difference. But picture Paul writing to the Corinthian church, to the church there in Corinth. Examine yourselves. Notice what he says. Whether you be in the faith.

I wonder how many of God's people in this past year of 2020 have examined themselves to see if they're really in the faith. Really in it. Prove your own selves. Know you not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you. Except you be reprobates. He's not calling you reprobates. He's saying, you know, if you're a reprobate, we've got a major problem. Because He is in you, unless you're a reprobate. But you've got to examine yourselves. Examine yourselves whether you be in the faith. And what does He mean? Whether you're truly living it. It's easy to profess faith. Brethren, it's easy to profess faith. It takes living faith to be obedient to God. And if people can't stand before COVID-19, if they can't stand in living faith to obey God with what we've seen in 2020, how in the world are they going to stand with what's coming?

Prove your own selves. In other words, responsibly deal with yourself. Be honest with yourself. And again, know you're not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you.

Because if you're in Him, He's in you through His Spirit. I mean, the Bible makes that plain.

Except unless you be reprobates. And what is He saying that for? He's saying, except, or that is, unless you're not truly living a repentant way of life.

See, when we put those things together, that's why He put through Paul the most severe of all warnings to us. In Hebrews 6, verses 4 through 6, that is the most severe warning we have given through Paul.

In Hebrews 6, verses 4 through 6, I am not in this category. I never want to be in this category. I never want to slip into this category. I never want this category to ever be true of me. I'm warned of it. For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened where the lights were turned on, verse 4, and have tasted the heavenly gift. Christ is the greatest of all heavenly gifts and remained partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good Word of God and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away to renew them again to repentance, seeing they crucified to themselves the Son of God afresh and put Him to an open shame.

Impossible, it says, to renew them again, seeing they crucify, that is, they have killed to themselves the sacrifice. In other words, it has become a dead sacrifice for them. They are no longer in Christ.

It has become null and void and useless for them.

See, what He is pointing out is this. A loss of repentance takes you out of Christ.

A loss of repentance takes a person out of Christ. They are no longer in Christ. Therefore, they are no longer clean. It's sin that has taken them out that they have given in to. They are no longer in Christ. They are no longer clean. They are back under their sins, along with sin's ultimate penalty.

I find it very interesting and very significant that one of the final messages, in fact, as far as the messages are concerned, the final message of all to the church is a warning about that. The church is warned, and it's warned to watch for it.

That's why in Revelation 3 and verse 20, and again, I don't think we can overemphasize that this is God's church. It's dealing with, in that message to Laodicea, Revelation 3.20, where He says, Behold, I stand at the door and knock. He's outside. He's not inside.

And yet this is His...these are, quote, church people.

If any man hear my voice, open the door, I will come into Him and will eat with Him, suck with Him, eat with Him, and eat with Me. But He's outside. He's not in. He's not inside. What allows Him to come in? What allows the person to be in Christ, in connection, in true relationship, truly in Christ? It's verse 19. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten, be zealous therefore, and repent, because the repentance is fading away.

True repentance does generate living faith, and living faith is what's required to obey.

If faith quits being living and active, obedience begins to fade away, replaced by disobedience.

Revelation 3, verse 2 to Sardis, in verse 2, be watchful.

Wow! Be watchful! Be watchful! And strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die. They're really weakening. For I have not found your works perfect or mature, complete before God. Remember therefore how you have received and heard, and hold fast, and repent.

If therefore you shall not watch, I will come on you as a thief, and you shall not know what hour I will come upon you.

Notice verse 5. He that overcomes, the same shall be clothed in white raiment.

Now, there are people who will tell you that once your name is written in the book of life, it can never be erased.

Then read verse 5. And I will not blot out His name out of the book of life. It can be blotted out.

But it's not blotted out because God ever just arbitrarily says, well, I decided I don't want so-and-so in my kingdom, so erase His name. Blot His name out? No.

Our loss of repentance, just picture a name there beginning to fade, and fade, and fade. All of a sudden, there's no vestige of that name anymore. It's blotted out. It's gone.

So He says, He that overcomes, the same shall be clothed in white raiment, righteousness, and I will not blot out His name out of the book of life. And again, the constant and continuous challenge upon us is to, number one, meet God's requirements to be in Christ.

And to, number two, stay in Christ by continuing to meet His requirements. My challenge 52 years ago was to meet God's requirements. My challenge for 52 years has been to maintain those requirements. Because I came into Christ 52 years ago in the challenge of staying in Christ.

And again, the need for Paul's words that we read in 2 Corinthians 13.5, not just previous to Passover each year. Obviously, this is the most crucial and relevant time, but that's a process that should be going on throughout the year.

So we ask ourselves as we come up on Passover and about to start another Holy Day cycle, is we ask ourselves.

Each of us ask ourselves, is true in deep repentance actively there? It is an active operation in our lives. Is there an active living spirit of obedience? Are we actually actively obeying God? Am I reachable? Am I teachable? Is there a reachable and teachable humility? Try to reach somebody and teach somebody who's caught up in pride and vanity and ego. It's a good challenge. It's basically an impossible challenge. But somebody who has the humility that they should, they're yielded to God, they're reachable and they're teachable. But if the answer to the question should be, no, that there's, you know, I don't have true repentance, I'm not actively living obedience, I'm not reachable, I'm not teachable, then the person may as well just say, regardless as to what's been done, I'm not in Christ. Maybe they were in Christ at one time and they've come out of Christ. They've come out of Christ. But, you know, they do something about it again. But if a person says, yes, I have repented and I'm still repentant and I'm repenting, and yes, I am striving with the spirit of obedience to obey God, and, you know, I am reachable, I am teachable, then you can say, yes, I am in Christ. And I'm very thankful for that. And I never want to lose that. Brethren, it's a wonderful state to live in. I don't get up in the morning and think, you know, I'll never sin again. I'll never have a thought I shouldn't have. I'll never say a word I shouldn't say. I'll never do... I mean, from this point forward, because I'm in Christ, I will just never, ever, ever sin again. God would say, I kind of heard you say you would like to pastor till you're 80 if you can.

Well, if I were to bless you to do that, that's 10 more years. Do you think you can go 10 years without thinking something you shouldn't? Do you think you can go 10 years without saying something you maybe shouldn't? Somebody runs you off the road? You don't think you'll have a challenge with your thoughts and your attitude for the moment? You know, the answer is obvious. As long as we're human, we make mistakes. It's just that simple. But as long as we stay in Christ by meeting God's requirements, we are continually cleansed and we overcome the accuser through the blood and by the blood of Jesus Christ. So again, the challenge to come to be in Christ and then the challenge of staying in Christ. But I do get up in the mornings and I know I'm in Christ and it feels good to face into the day and say, whatever challenges I have to deal with today and whatever comes up, God, you're with me. That's a wonderful feeling. God has given us the opportunity and the wonderful blessing to live clean in Christ. That's continually please guide by exercising that option and that opportunity. I will see you folks Friday evening.