This message is one of the Times Square
Church Pulpit Series.
It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times
Square Church in Manhattan, New York City.
Other tapes are available by writing World Challenge,
PO Box 260, Lindale, Texas 75771, or calling
903-963-8626.
None of these messages are copyrighted, and you
are welcome to make copies for free distribution
to friends.
Let me see your Bibles, if you brought
your Bibles with you tonight.
This is Bible study night as well as
service night at Times Square Church.
I want to encourage you to do something
tonight.
If you could take your Bible and get
the index of your Bible, because we're going
to do a Bible study tonight, and you're
going to have to move fast with me
to be able to get through it.
We're going to be reading a lot of
scripture together.
Now, I believe with all of my heart
that you shall know the truth, and the
truth shall set you free.
That's what Jesus promised.
Free from sin, free from the power of
sin, free from the guilt of sin, free
from the shame of sin, free from the
effects of sin, free from the controlling power
of sin, to live a brand new life,
a resurrected life with the power of God
within us, a life that brings glory to
His name.
Tonight I'm going to ask that you would
ask the Holy Spirit to have a heart
that in spite of your experience, or in
spite of whatever might be going on in
your mind, or has been controlling your mind,
that you would declare, God, this is a
higher law, this is a higher truth.
I'm going to embrace this tonight.
I'm not going to embrace anything that has
been part of my life that is contrary
to what you have declared about me.
You have to have that in your heart
tonight, or you will not embrace the truth
that sets you free.
I'm going to be speaking tonight about being
delivered from the power of shame.
Being delivered from the power of shame.
Father, I thank You, God, for Your Word.
I love Your Word, Lord, and God, Your
Word truly sets people free when we embrace
Your Word with our hearts.
Holy Spirit, You are pleased.
You've been sent of Christ to come and
make that Word a living reality in all
of our lives.
God, tonight I'm asking for deliverance in this
house.
Lord, You said the anointing was upon You
because You had come to heal those who
have been bruised in heart.
There are many people here tonight that have
been bruised.
Because of those bruises, they are still in
part held in captivity by the powers of
darkness.
I stand tonight against these powers of darkness.
I stand against them by the Word of
Almighty God, the One who created the universe
and died for mankind, that whosoever will can
come and be saved and be absolutely set
free.
Father, I thank You tonight that Your Word
has preeminence.
Every power of hell must bow.
Every knee must bow.
Every wicked thought must bow.
Lord, we thank You tonight that by Your
Word, You will bring into captivity every thought
to the obedience of Jesus Christ.
Father, thank You, God.
Thank You tonight that people are going to
be set free.
Absolutely set free.
Totally set free.
Not only, not just for a day, but
for the rest of their lives and into
eternity to praise You, God, for what You
have done and for who You are.
Lord, we thank You for this in Jesus'
name.
Psalm 25, if you'll go there with me.
Psalm 25.
Set free from shame.
This is a psalm of David.
You know, when you consider who David was,
you begin to realize that all humanity goes
through the same struggle.
There's nothing come against you, the Bible says.
Nothing you struggle with that is not common
to all of mankind.
Did you know that tonight?
There's a common struggle in all of humanity.
But the Bible says that God will make
a way for you to escape it.
Psalm 25.
Unto Thee, O Lord, do I lift up
my soul.
O my God, I trust in Thee.
Let me not be ashamed.
Let not mine enemies triumph over me.
Yea, let none that wait on Thee be
ashamed.
Let them be ashamed which transgress without cause.
Show me Thy ways, O Lord.
Teach me Thy paths.
Lead me in Thy truth and teach me,
for Thou art the God of my salvation.
And on Thee do I wait all the
day.
Remember, O Lord, Thy tender mercies for Thy
loving kindnesses, for they have been ever of
old.
Remember not the sins of my youth, nor
my transgressions.
According to Thy mercy, remember Thou me for
Thy goodness' sake, O Lord.
Good and upright is the Lord.
Therefore will He teach sinners in the way.
The meek will He guide in judgment, and
the meek will He teach His way.
All the paths of the Lord are mercy
and truth.
Unto such as keep His covenant and His
testimonies.
For Thy name's sake, O Lord, pardon mine
iniquity, for it is great.
What man is he that feareth the Lord?
Him shall he teach in the way that
he shall choose.
His soul shall dwell at ease, and his
seed shall inherit the earth.
But this is the plan of God for
you tonight.
David clearly says it.
For those who open their hearts to what
God would teach, your soul will dwell at
ease.
The secret of the Lord is with them
that fear Him, and He will show them
His covenant.
Mine eyes are ever toward the Lord, for
He shall pluck my feet out of the
net.
Turn they unto me and have mercy upon
me, for I am desolate and afflicted.
The troubles of my heart are enlarged.
O bring Thou me out of my distresses.
Look upon my affliction and my pain, and
forgive all my sins.
Consider mine enemies, for there are many, and
they hate me with cruel hatred.
O keep my soul and deliver me, and
let me not be ashamed, for I put
my trust in Thee.
Let integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I
wait on Thee.
Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his
troubles.
Now back in verse 2, David is saying,
O God, I trust in You.
Let not mine enemies rub my former sins
in my face.
Let them not steal the victory from me
and triumph over me by leaving me downcast
and in defeat.
There are many, many people in the body
of Jesus Christ who are still bound by
the cords, by the shame of their past
sin.
And the enemy comes against them and throws
these things back in their face continuously.
And it was the cry of David, which
I believe is the cry I prayed specifically
for this night.
I prayed specifically that many of you who
are here tonight would be here.
I said, God, bring those that are bound
by shame and bring them to the house
of God on Friday night.
Move upon their hearts to come, because God,
You're going to set them free.
Not just for a good feeling Friday night,
but You're going to set them free for
the rest of their lives.
Verse 7, David cries out and says, Don't
remember the sins of my youth or my
transgressions.
According to Thy mercy, remember Thou me for
Thy goodness' sake.
In verse 11, he says, Pardon mine iniquity,
for it is great.
In other words, David is saying the things
that I did in my youth were great.
And oh God, I pray that You would
pardon me for them.
In verses 16 to 20, David is saying
to the Lord, Look upon my pain.
He says, Turn unto me and have mercy.
I'm desolate and afflicted.
The troubles of my heart are enlarged.
Bring me out.
Oh, bring down me out of my distresses.
Look on my affliction and my pain and
forgive all my sins.
Consider my enemies, for there are many, and
they hate me with a cruel hatred.
Oh, keep my soul and deliver me.
Let me not be ashamed, for I put
my trust in Thee.
And this is the cry of many of
God's people week in and week out.
They come to the house of the Lord,
have the knowledge that they are saved, have
the knowledge, at least some of the knowledge,
that their salvation is a complete and a
full salvation, yet still are prey to the
shame of the things that they have done
throughout their lives before, and even sometimes after
they initially came to the knowledge of Jesus
Christ.
Now, we need to understand tonight that there
is a purpose for shame.
Shame has its initial purpose.
Zephaniah, don't turn therewith, but let me just
read it to you.
Chapter 3, verse 5, the prophet says that
the unjust know no shame.
And there is a season, I believe, in
everybody's life when you are without Christ, that
many who are here tonight, if you'll be
honest, there's a season where you committed things
and you knew no shame.
You could go and commit abominable sins and
walk out of those places, and because there
was an unjustness in your life, you had
no connection or relationship to God, there was
no shame in you.
But it was through the preaching of the
word that you began to feel shame and
sorrow.
It's only by the knowledge of God's law
that shame comes into your heart in the
first place.
It's just like with the children of Israel
when Aaron built the calf, and when the
word of the Lord returned to them through
Moses, the people then realized that they were
serving their own gods, and they had become
naked and subject to shame before their enemies.
And so when the word came to you,
you saw your need, and shame turned to
sorrow, and sorrow turned to repentance.
You see, there's a process.
You come into the house of God, God's
word is preached.
You begin to feel ashamed for the things
that you've done, and that shame gives you
a sorrow in your heart.
The apostle Paul speaks about that in 2
Corinthians, and that sorrow brings you to a
place of repentance, and repentance is basically saying,
God, I don't want to live in sin
anymore.
I don't want sin.
I've grieved you, Lord.
I'm cut off from you because of my
sin, and I don't want to live in
sin anymore.
I want to be a new person in
Jesus Christ.
Jeremiah, if you'll go there with me, please.
Just go ahead in a couple of books.
Jeremiah chapter 31, and in verse 19, the
prophet Jeremiah says it this way, Surely after
that I was turned, I repented.
And after that I was instructed, I smote
upon my thigh.
That's a typical expression for their generation.
It means like, God, when I was confronted
with your word, I turned.
I had in my heart to turn from
my sin.
And after I was instructed, I smote upon
my thigh.
That would be like a man beating upon
his heart today, a woman beating upon her
heart, and saying, Oh, God, how could I
have done these things?
How could I have fallen into such a
depth of depravity and wickedness before you?
And then he goes on to say, I
was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did
bear the reproach of my youth.
Now, there are many people who go through
these experiences when they're coming to Jesus Christ.
There has to be a knowledge of wrongdoing,
or you really haven't had a genuine conversion.
If you are among those who have perhaps
come in here tonight, and you think you've
always been a wonderful person, then you've missed
the whole point.
Everything that you've done is an abomination when
faith is not at the core of it,
when it's not in a living relationship with
the Son of God.
Paul says in 2 Corinthians 7, verses 9
and 10, he says, Now I rejoice not
that you were made sorry, but that you
sorrowed to repentance, for you were sorry after
a godly manner.
Now, I've seen that hundreds of times at
this altar.
People hearing the word of God, coming to
the altar of God and the house of
God, and there is a genuine sorrow.
There are a lot of tears.
And Paul says, The purpose of the gospel
was not just to make you sorry for
your sins, but to bring you to a
place where you would have a desire in
your heart to turn from those sins.
That's what a godly sorrow was all about.
He says, There's a sorrow of the world
that just works death.
That's the man or woman who is just
simply sorry because of what they did.
They're sorry they got caught.
They're sorry it's brought consequences into their life
and into their home, but not sorry enough
to want to turn from it and to
begin to walk with God.
And Paul says, You were brought, in verse
10, to a salvation not to be repented
of.
That's an incredible thing when you think about
it.
You sorrowed after a godly sort, and you
were brought into a salvation that's not to
be repented of.
Now, Paul is saying it's a salvation that
does not make you sorry.
It is full, it is entire, and it
is complete.
When you came to Jesus Christ, those who
had a godly sorrow that turned you, that
created in your heart a desire for repentance,
you came to a salvation that is absolutely
entire and complete, a salvation that was won
for you by Christ on Calvary.
You were clothed with a righteousness that is
not your own.
It is the righteousness of Jesus Christ that
was given to you.
The Bible says clearly that the memory of
your sins was blotted out in heaven, and
the God, who says He can do all
things, says, I will cause myself to remember
your sin no more.
That's an incredible thing.
I serve a God tonight who cannot remember
my sin that I have committed before I
came to Christ.
Can you imagine that?
There is no record of my sin in
heaven.
You need to know that tonight.
You need to understand that.
If you get to heaven and stand before
the throne of God, you're going to have
to tell Him about it, and everybody around
about the throne of God is going to
say, well, we'll have to take your word
for what you did because there is no
record of it, and we have absolutely no
recollection of anything you did.
When we look upon you, you have been
received because of the blood of Jesus Christ.
God looks upon you, and you have become
the righteousness of God through Jesus Christ.
That's an incredible truth, folks.
You have to understand that tonight.
You are the righteousness of God.
You can be the most struggling saint in
the entire church world tonight.
You can be crawling literally.
When others seem to be running, you're crawling.
You're walking through, and the devil is there
to condemn you at every step of the
way.
But you need to know tonight that you
have one that stands before the throne of
God the Father, and He presents your name.
Even in the midst of your darkest hour,
He is boasting about you before the throne
of the Father.
He is talking about His love for you.
He is talking about your love for Him.
He is talking to God about what the
Holy Spirit is going to accomplish in your
life.
He is talking continuously, standing before the Father,
and the Father looks at Him and says,
My son, I accept this person as absolute
and entire, completely righteous because of what you
did for them on Calvary, and because they
have trusted in you for their salvation.
Now, the enemy loves to use the crippling
power of shame to keep God's people from
entering into the fullness of our salvation.
Go to Psalm 44, please.
Go back in your Bible, just a few
books.
Psalm 44.
Let's hear the rustling of the leaves tonight.
Psalm 44, and verse 15 and 16.
The enemy loves this power, because he knows
the day that you get out from under
the power of shame, that you are going
to become appraised to the name of God
in the earth.
Your countenance changes.
Your step changes.
Your outlook changes.
The sense of who God is changes.
Everything begins to change when you step out,
when you are taken out from under that
reproach of the things that you may have
done before you came to Christ.
And keep in mind, even after you came
to Christ, there are things that you may
have done.
But if in your heart you are still
trusting in God, you love Jesus, you know
He knows it, you are trusting Him for
your salvation, there is no imputation of your
sin to you.
Christ took your sin upon Himself.
You are still clean in the sight of
Almighty God.
Now, Psalm 44, verse 15.
The psalmist says, My confusion is continually before
me, and the shame of my face has
covered me.
For the voice of him that reproaches and
blasphemes by reason of the enemy and the
avenger.
There is a voice.
That's the devil's voice that will come against
you all day long.
And listen, the psalmist says, My confusion is
continually before me.
I'm hearing that I'm righteous in the house
of God, but I feel so unclean.
I go home after church, and I'm all
excited, and I wake up Monday morning, and
that voice is right back there again saying,
Remember what you did.
Remember the things that you were involved in.
Remember the sins of your youth and all
that you've done.
And you'll never amount to anything.
You'll never get out from under this.
And oftentimes that voice says, If the people
around you ever knew what you used to
be, they would reject you.
They would cast you away out of their
presence.
And then if we swallow that lie, this
is the voice, keep in mind, of the
one who blasphemes the work of God.
That's what the scripture says in verse 16.
That voice is a blasphemous voice, because that
voice is declaring that the work of Jesus
Christ is not full and complete, and did
not cleanse you completely, and there is still
a record of the wrongs that you have
done in the past.
It's a blaspheming voice.
And the psalmist cries out and says, God,
deliver me from that blaspheming voice.
The only way you will ever get set
free is not by emotion in the house
of God.
It's not by any measure of jumping up
and down in God's house.
It's not even by responding to a thousand
altar calls.
It's when you and I hear the word
of God, and we say, God, this is
true, and let every other voice be a
lie.
Let God be true, the scripture says, and
let every man be a liar.
God, your word is true.
We make that decision.
We say, God, you're not a man.
You can't lie.
I'm not going to accuse you of lying.
If you've said I'm clean, God, I'm clean.
I'm absolutely clean because you said I'm clean.
Hallelujah.
David cries out again in Psalm 25, verses
4 and 5.
He says, show me thy ways, O Lord,
and teach me thy paths.
Lead me in thy truth and teach me,
for you are the God of my salvation,
and on you do I wait all the
day.
Show me.
And if that's the cry in your heart
tonight, then I'm going to open the scriptures
with you, and as we read the word
of God, I'm believing the Holy Spirit will
show you once and for all that the
condemner has nothing in you at all.
Go with me to the New Testament, the
book of John, chapter 8.
A familiar portion of scripture where there was
a woman who was caught in adultery, in
the very act of adultery.
Now, keep in mind, in those days, adultery
was punishable by death.
It was a horrible sin.
It was as terrible, I suppose, as anything
that can be committed because it was punishable
by stoning to death the offending parties.
Now, chapter 8 of John, it says that
Jesus went up into the Mount of Olives.
That's verse 1.
And early in the morning, he came again
into the temple, and all the people came
to him, and he sat down and taught
them.
The scribes and the Pharisees brought to him
a woman taken in adultery, and when they
had set her in the midst, they said
to him, Master, this woman was taken in
adultery in the very act.
Now, Moses in the law commanded us that
such should be stoned, but what do you
say, or what sayest thou?
This, they said, tempting him that they might
have to accuse him, but Jesus stooped down
and with his finger wrote on the ground
as though he heard them not.
I'm anxious to get to heaven, and I
want to look up in God's library what
it was that he was actually writing on
the ground at that time.
So when they continued asking him, he lifted
up himself and said to them, He that
is without sin among you, let him first
cast a stone at her.
And again he stooped down and wrote on
the ground, and when they had heard it
being convicted by their own conscience, they went
out one by one, beginning at the eldest,
even unto the last, and Jesus was left
alone and the woman standing in the midst.
Now when Jesus had lifted up himself and
he saw none but the woman, he said
unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers?
Hath no man condemned thee?
And she said, No man, Lord.
And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I
condemn thee.
Go and sin no more.
Now that's an incredible passage of scripture when
you begin to understand what it is that
God is saying.
He's saying that if you even have committed
a sin that is worthy of death, but
in your heart you begin to understand who
I am and you turn to me.
He said, I have a voice that is
greater than any voice that will ever come
against you.
I have a power that is greater than
any power that will ever try to destroy
you.
And if I have called you clean, there
is nobody around who dares to anymore call
you unclean.
If I don't condemn you, because God was
speaking to her, if I don't condemn you,
then no man on this earth, no voice,
no power of hell has the right to
condemn you if I have declared you clean.
If I don't condemn you.
In other words, God was saying to this
woman, There is no judgment in me towards
you.
I do not hold you accountable for the
thing that you have done.
He saw something in her heart.
He saw repentance.
There was a desire perhaps.
Some say that this was Mary Magdalene.
There are some Bible scholars who believe that
this was Mary Magdalene who was the one
really who went in effect to his tomb
after he was crucified.
I don't know that for sure.
Or possibly one of the ones that followed
him later on and ministered to him out
of their substance.
But he looked upon this woman and it
was the eye of God that was looking
at her, caught in her sin and says,
I don't condemn you.
There is no judgment in me.
There is no condemnation whatsoever because your heart
is towards me.
Now go to the book of Acts chapter
10.
Acts chapter 10 beginning in verse 9.
This is a story about the apostle Peter
going up on a housetop and beginning to
pray.
And as he prayed, the Holy Spirit was
about to change his thinking about something.
Verse 9 says, On the morrow as they
went to their journey, chapter 10, verse 9
of Acts and drew nigh unto the city.
Peter went up upon the housetop to pray
about the sixth hour and he became very
hungry and would have eaten.
But while they made ready, he fell into
a trance.
Or in other words, he began to pray.
God began to speak to him and he
saw heaven open and a certain vessel descending
unto him as it had been a great
sheet knit at the four corners and let
down to the earth wherein were all manner
of four-footed beasts of the earth and
wild beasts and creeping things and fowls of
the air and these were considered unclean despicable
things in the sight of Peter.
And there came a voice to him Rise,
Peter, kill and eat.
And Peter said, No, not so, Lord for
I've never eaten anything that is common or
unclean.
And the voice spake to him again the
second time and said, What God has cleansed
call not thou common.
This was done thrice and the vessel was
received up into heaven.
Now here's the situation.
God was about to tell Peter something.
There was a line of demarcation in society
in that generation and those who were not
Jews were considered unclean.
They were considered cast out or outcast at
the presence of God.
Salvation was for the Jews and for the
Jews alone.
And the Holy Spirit was now beginning to
speak to Peter about something.
A man who considered certain types of people
unclean certain things they did unclean perhaps certain
practices that they had were considered unclean as
unclean as the four-footed beasts and unclean
things that were in that sheet let down
from heaven.
And God began to speak something to Peter
and he said, Peter, I'm about to do
something.
I'm about to cleanse the people that you
don't understand.
You don't understand the nature, the depth of
my mercy.
You don't understand the fullness of my power.
You don't yet understand the great depth of
my redemption.
But Peter, I'm telling you what I have
cleansed.
I'm about to clean an entire populace that
you consider unclean.
And when I clean them, I give you
no power to call them common or unclean
anymore.
You cannot raise your tongue.
You cannot raise your hand against the work
that I'm about to do.
Now I have a question for you tonight.
Has God cleansed you?
Are you still allowing the devil or perhaps
you're still letting down the sheet of the
past and calling yourself unclean?
And many people do that.
Come into the house of God to have
a mental ascent, I suppose, to the truth
of God.
But go home and in times of solitude
or quiet or prayer or meditation, one more
time that sheet comes down from heaven and
all the unclean things that you've ever done
are in that sheet.
And I know I'm speaking to many hearts
tonight.
The memories of the past.
Some you've suffered sexual abuse.
There are others that in your youth and
some of that you got involved in homosexual
experiences.
There are all types of things that have
gone on.
Things that you wished you had never been
involved in, things you wished you had never
done.
But nevertheless, they did happen because you were
living in sin.
And when you go back, even with a
mental understanding of who you are in Christ
again, one more time, that sheet comes down
and all these creeping things are in it.
And the natural tendency of the human heart
is to condemn oneself as unclean.
But God was saying something to Peter, the
very thing that he's saying to us tonight.
He's saying, if I have cleansed you, you
have no right anymore to call yourself unclean.
If I declare you clean, you don't have
a right anymore.
I've not given you the right.
God is speaking to us tonight.
He's speaking to you tonight.
You know, your dilemma is just this.
If you are still calling yourself unclean because
of experiences of the past, you have, in
effect, thrown Jesus Christ off the throne of
your life.
You have taken the throne and you've become
God in your own life.
In other words, you consider yourself a court,
in effect, that's supreme over the court of
Almighty God.
You've been declared judicially set free.
You've been declared righteous before Almighty God in
the highest court in the universe.
You've been declared.
And yet so many people, even though God
has declared them clean, they say, no, it
can't be.
My thoughts have got to be higher than
God's thoughts.
My ways have got to be higher than
God's ways.
And they sit on the throne of their
own heart and they condemn themselves.
Now, it's such a tragic thing when you
think about it.
It's such a foolish thing to do, to
condemn yourself for something that Jesus says you
are absolutely there's no record of it.
You're absolutely set free.
You're a brand new creature in Christ, a
brand new creation as it is in Christ
Jesus.
Now, go to 1 Corinthians chapter 6 with
me, please, if you will.
Very quiet.
Are you always this quiet on Friday night,
or is it?
You're all wondering where Pastor Neil is tonight.
That's what the problem is.
Is that right?
Well, it's his birthday tonight, so we gave
him the night off and he's out with
his wife.
Hallelujah.
Now, 1 Corinthians chapter 6.
Listen to what Paul is saying to the
Corinthian church.
Verse 9.
He says, Know ye not that the unrighteous
shall not inherit the kingdom of God?
Be not deceived.
Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate
means homosexuals, nor abusers of themselves with mankind
that be the immoral, nor thieves, nor covetous,
nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit
the kingdom of God.
But then he goes on to verse 11.
And such were some of you.
So he's speaking to a church, the Corinthian
church, and in that church were every one
of these things that are listed in verses
9 and 10.
But listen to what Paul says.
But you are washed.
In other words, you're cleansed.
You're not that anymore.
God has come, and with His blood He
has washed you.
These things are not part of your life
anymore.
You may still be fighting some of the
struggles.
Coming to Christ doesn't mean folks that were
not tempted.
Christ Himself, the Scripture says, was tempted in
all points like as we are, yet without
sin.
To be tempted is not sin.
It's to give in to the sin and
to begin to enjoyfully, as it is, participate
in it again.
That is a dangerous place to be in.
But temptation itself is not sin.
The devil would have you believe it is,
but it isn't.
Such were some of you, but you are
washed.
You are sanctified.
That means that the Holy Spirit is now
in your life.
You have the Spirit of God.
You have the One who created the universe
who is now in you.
And folks, I guess this is the easiest
way to explain it, what sanctification is.
When you came to Jesus Christ, the lawful
requirement of God for the punishment of your
sins was fully satisfied.
God laid all of His wrath upon His
own Son.
His own Son took everything that you deserved
and I deserve for every sin we've ever
committed.
So tonight, we have the knowledge that we
stand before the throne of God, in Christ,
fully justified.
Absolutely justified.
There is no court in the universe that
can condemn us.
There's no voice that can condemn us.
We are justified in the name of Jesus
Christ.
Hallelujah.
That's an incredible truth.
There's big words we use in the church.
One of them is justification.
And that's what it means.
We are completely justified.
Now that means the devil can't condemn you
anymore.
Because if Christ does accept, that's why Paul
said, if God before us, then who can
be against us?
God is for me.
There's no voice in the earth or hell
that can come against me because God is
for me.
He has declared me in the highest court
in the universe free.
Absolutely free.
The price has been paid.
My sin is not imputed to me anymore.
Now, regeneration is another word we use.
Regeneration is God's gift to us as the
church of Jesus Christ.
When we believed in Jesus Christ, the Holy
Spirit came into our life and we were
regenerated.
That means we were made alive from the
dead.
We were brought into, by the power and
mercy of God, we were brought into the
very life of Jesus Christ.
We've been quickened and we live together with
Him in heavenly places.
That's what the Paul says in the book
of Ephesians.
We are His body.
He is the head.
We are partakers.
We are co-heirs with His life.
That life that God the Father gave when
He raised from the dead is yours and
it's mine.
We don't have to live under the dominion
of sin anymore.
We don't have to live in the weakness
of the flesh.
We've been regenerated.
We've been given new life.
It's by that power that we become new
creations in Christ Jesus.
And then the scripture says that we are
sanctified.
Now, sanctification is the Holy Spirit coming into
my life and continuously bringing about in me
the victory or the nature of Almighty God
through Jesus Christ.
Now, my standing is completely justified, but my
state may be way down here.
And sanctification is an ongoing process.
Sanctification is not making me holy.
Do you understand that?
This is the end of side one.
You may now turn the tape over to
side two.
When you understand these things, the devil can
know.
Some people confuse that.
They say sanctification has come to make me
holy so that I'll be acceptable with God.
No, I am fully acceptable, accepted with God
through Jesus Christ.
Sanctification now is the Holy Spirit coming and
making my standing a reality in my life
down here on the earth.
That's why Paul says in one of his
epistles, it's not as though I have already
attained.
He's not talking about salvation, but he says
I press on to the mark of the
high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Paul said I'm called to something.
I'm called to be a praise to God
in the earth.
When you understand these things, the devil can
no longer condemn you.
He can't speak against you.
He can't point his finger against you.
He can't remind you of your past sins
because they're gone.
They're in a sea called forgetfulness and nobody
has the right to dig them up again.
Not the devil, not anybody on the earth,
not any demon power, nor your yourself.
Nobody has the right.
God says I took that right away when
I judicially declared you clean.
You are clean.
You are absolutely clean in the sight of
God.
Hallelujah.
I had a friend one time who was
a marvelous testimony for Christ and a missionary
later on in life, but had a problem.
And that problem dealt with the past.
And I remember he used to always say
to me, he said, oh, if they only
knew what I did.
Oh, even if you only knew what I
did before I came to Christ, you'd reject
me and God would reject me.
He said it so often, finally one day
I said, well, just tell me.
I don't care what you did before you
came to Jesus Christ.
I know who you are now.
I know who God has made you.
I understand your position in Christ.
Oh, no, he keeps saying if you only
see this, this is a man totally in
the grip of the voice of the condemner.
This is a man that every time he
prays, there comes down the sheet of all
these unclean former activities condemning him.
God, the voice of God unable to get
through.
But you need to understand that I remember
there was a sense in this man that
if they knew they would reject me, they
might even spit in my face.
But listen, I want to show you why
you can know that there is no condemnation
now to those who are in Christ Jesus.
Go back to Isaiah 53 with me, please.
Isaiah 53.
The Bible tells us clearly that Christ took
our shame.
He took our shame, not just our sin,
folks.
He took our shame.
He took the shame of our sin, not
just our sin.
And you need to understand this tonight.
He took it all.
Isaiah 53.
He is despised and rejected of men.
A man of sorrows and equated with grief.
And we hid as it were our faces
from him.
He was despised and we esteemed him not.
But listen to verse 4 now.
Surely he has borne our griefs and carried
our sorrows.
The things that made us sorry.
The things that brought us to a place
of that contriteness or the things that produced
shame in us like the Apostle Paul says.
He bore these griefs and carried our sorrows.
Yet we did esteem him stricken and spitten
of God and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions.
And he was bruised for our iniquities.
And the chastisement of our peace was upon
him.
And with his stripes we are healed.
For all the wrong things he did, he
was wounded.
For all of the wrong things that we
have done, he was bruised.
And all the wrath of God the Father
for the sins that we have committed in
our youth and throughout our lives were laid
upon him.
He bore it in its entire totality.
And by his stripes, that means by the
cross, by the death he suffered on the
cross, we are healed.
In other words, a person who is healed
is healed.
You're not partially healed.
You are healed in Christ.
All we like sheep have gone astray and
turned everyone to his own way.
And the Lord has laid on him the
iniquity of us all.
Go back to Isaiah 50 very quickly with
me.
Isaiah chapter 50.
I hope you love the word of God.
Here's what Jesus did for you.
Verse 6, I gave my back to the
smiters and my cheeks to them that plucked
off the hair.
I hid not my face from shame and
spitting.
Jesus was saying it was my face that
was spit in for all the wrong things
that you have done.
For everything that you have committed before you
have given your life to me, my face
was the one that took the spitting.
I'm the one that took the blows upon
my face.
I'm the one that bore the shame of
it.
I took it all upon myself on the
cross.
The victory we have in Christ is a
complete victory.
It is not partial.
It's not a victory that just saves us
from our sins but leaves us to wallow
in our shame.
It is a total complete and entire victory.
We are absolutely clean.
There is no record of our sin at
all in heaven.
Hallelujah.
Now go with me to Psalm 71.
Psalm 71.
If you're not shouting by the time this
is over, well, I guess this doesn't apply
to you.
Psalm 71.
Listen to what the psalmist says.
Verse 19.
Thy righteousness also, O God, is very high,
who has done great things.
O God, who is like unto Thee?
Thou which hast showed me great and sore
trouble shall quicken me again and shall bring
me up again from the depths of the
earth.
Thou shalt increase my greatness and comfort me
on every side.
This is a promise of God to you
and to me.
God says, I will increase your understanding of
who you are and me and I will
comfort you on every side.
The psalmist says, I will also praise Thee
with the psaltery, even Thy truth, O God,
will I unto Thee will I sing with
the harp, O Thou Holy One of Israel.
The psalmist is saying, God, I will praise
You with Your truth.
I will praise You with Your truth.
I will declare back to You who I
am in Jesus Christ.
I'll not come into the house of God
looking at myself.
I'll not come in with my head hanging
down.
I'll not come in with my hands dragging
on the carpet the backs of my hands.
God, I will lift up my voice and
I will praise You with Your truth.
I will praise You, God, for taking my
iniquity upon Yourself.
I will praise You because You are standing
before the throne of the Father and You
are declaring me clean right now.
Even if I have the worst week of
my life, You are still boasting about me
before the Father.
I will praise You, my God, according to
Your truth.
Hallelujah.
That's why elsewhere in the psalms the psalmist
says, sing praises with understanding.
Not just mouthing words, but let those words
grip your heart.
Come to an understanding of who You are
in Jesus Christ and what God has determined
to do within each one of our lives.
My lips, he says, shall greatly rejoice, verse
23, when I sing unto Thee in my
soul which Thou hast redeemed.
My tongue also shall talk of Thy righteousness,
not my righteousness, Thy righteousness all the day
long.
Now here's what happens when we begin to
understand that our righteousness is in Christ Jesus.
For they are confounded, they are brought to
shame that seek my heart.
As my righteousness is in Christ, there's not
a voice that can condemn me.
Tell me, who can condemn you if your
righteousness is in Christ?
If Christ has cleansed you, what voice has
the right to call you common or unclean?
What voice has the right to remind you
of your past sin and drag it up
and throw it before your face?
Tell me, what voice?
There's not a voice.
There's not a voice in heaven, not a
voice in the earth.
Every tongue must confess that Jesus Christ is
Lord.
He has triumphed over all of these things.
Hallelujah.
Now go ahead to Isaiah 54 now.
Isaiah 54.
Hallelujah.
Follow through with me.
In Isaiah 54 I'm going to read the
whole thing from verse 4 to the end.
Isaiah 54.
Fear not.
Verse 4 says, For thou shalt not be
ashamed, neither be thou confounded, for thou shalt
not be put to shame.
Thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth,
and shall not remember the reproach of thy
widowhood any more.
Hallelujah.
God says, I'm coming to do a work
in you, and you're going to forget the
shame of your youth.
You're going to forget the reproach that was
on your life before you were betrothed to
me.
That's what he means by the reproach of
your widowhood.
For thy maker is thine husband, verse 5,
and the Lord of hosts is his name.
And thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel,
the God of the whole earth, shall he
be called.
For the Lord hath called thee as a
woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a
wife of youth, when thou hast refused, saith
thy God.
For a small moment have I forsaken thee,
but with great mercies will I gather thee.
In a little wrath I hid my face
from thee for a moment, but with everlasting
kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith
the Lord thy Redeemer.
For this is as the waters of Noah
unto thee, for as I have sworn that
the waters of Noah should no more go
over the earth, so I have sworn that
I would not be wroth with thee, nor
rebuke thee.
God says, I have sworn, those who come
to me, I will not be angry with
you, and I will not bring you into
a place of rebuke.
For the mountains shall depart and the hills
be removed, but my kindness shall not depart
from thee, neither shall the covenant of my
peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath
mercy on thee.
Neither shall my covenant be removed from you,
God says.
Oh, now listen now, there's so many people
this applies to in the body of Jesus
Christ.
Oh, they're afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not
comforted.
I think that applies to some in this
house tonight.
This is what he says, those of you
who are afflicted, you are tossed with the
storms and you have, there's seemingly unconsolable because
of the sins you have committed.
Behold, he said, I will lay thy stones
with fair colors and lay thy foundations with
sapphires.
He says, I'm going to rebuild you.
I'm going to rebuild you first in your
thinking.
I'm going to lay a new foundation in
your life.
Hallelujah, because my thoughts are not your thoughts,
and my ways are not your ways.
God says, I'm going to take you from
the ground up, and I'm going to make
you into a brand new creation.
Hallelujah.
Your righteousness is going to be of me
and not of yourself.
And I will make your windows of agates,
and your gates of carbuncles, and all thy
borders of pleasant stones.
I could go into the typology, but we
don't have time tonight.
But God's saying, I'm going to give you,
you're going to be a brand new person
in appearance.
You're going to have the glory of almighty
God come upon you.
You're going to have my glory.
You're going to have my salvation.
You're going to have my new life, but
you're going to have my glory being manifested
in you and through you.
You're going to have a new song.
You're going to have a new testimony.
I'm going to plant you upon a rock,
and the gates of hell are not going
to prevail against you.
No plans, no tongue rising against you is
going to prosper against you.
And all your children shall be taught of
the Lord, verse 13.
And great shall be the peace of thy
children.
When we acknowledge and recognize these truths, we
have now the ability to pass this on
to those that come under our influence, beginning
in our own homes.
In righteousness shalt thou be established, and thou
shalt be far from oppression, for thou shalt
not fear, and from terror it shall not
come near thee.
God says, I'm going to establish you in
my righteousness, not your own, and that's going
to protect you from all your fears and
from all that would terrify you.
It will not be able to come near
you.
Behold, he says, verse 13, now he says,
listen, they shall surely gather together.
In other words, there are going to be
enemies come against you, and they're going to
come all around you, but not by me.
In other words, they will gather, but I
have, it's not, I'm not the one who's
doing this.
The devil will try to convince you that
it's my voice, but God says, it's not
my voice.
I'm not your enemy, I'm your defender, I'm
the one who justifies you.
Hallelujah.
Whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall
for thy sake.
God says, I have determined in my heart
that I'm going to triumph.
I'm going to destroy these voices.
All these weapons of hell that come against
you, I'm going to come against them with
my word, and I'm going to destroy them
in your life.
Behold, he said, verse 16, I have created
the smith that blows the coals in the
fire, and that brings forth an instrument for
his work, and I have created the waster
to destroy.
In other words, God's saying, everything is in
my control.
Even the powers of darkness are subject to
me.
Jesus Christ is on the throne of absolute
power and absolute glory.
And in verse 17, he gives a promise.
No weapon that is formed against thee shall
prosper.
And every tongue that shall rise against thee
in judgment, thou shalt condemn.
This is the heritage of the servants of
the Lord.
Why?
And their righteousness is of me, saith the
Lord.
Hallelujah!
Do you understand that tonight?
Every tongue that rises against you, that rises
against who you are in Jesus, what he
has done in your life, God says, I
have given you the right to condemn it
right to the face, because your righteousness is
of me.
It's not of yourself.
It's of me.
And the devil has nothing in me.
He has no power over me.
He cannot point the finger at me.
Therefore, he is powerless.
Hallelujah!
Now go to Zephaniah, our last scripture tonight.
Zephaniah is about four books back from Matthew.
You'll find Zephaniah.
Zephaniah, chapter 3.
Now, you still love his word?
Remember Zechariah and Zephaniah?
It's just like there's a couple of Z's
before everybody fell asleep for 400 years.
That's the easy way to remember it in
the Old Testament.
Hallelujah!
Zephaniah, chapter 3, verse 9.
For I will then turn to the people
a pure language.
What are you hearing tonight?
A pure language.
In other words, a language easy to be
understood.
That they may all call upon the name
of the Lord to serve Him with one
consent.
For from beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, my
suppliants, even the daughter of my dispersed, shall
bring mine offering.
God says, I'm going to call a people
that formerly were unclean, and I'm going to
cleanse them, and they're going to bring an
offering to me and be my people.
In that day, verse 11, shalt thou not
be what?
Ashamed.
For all thy doings wherein thou hast transgressed
against me.
For then I will take away out of
the midst of thee them that rejoice in
thy pride, and thou shalt have no more
be haughty because of my holy mountain.
God's saying, I'm going to take away the
voices, the proud voices that exalt themselves above
the knowledge of God and try to come
against you to point out the former things
that you have done.
I will also leave in the midst of
thee an afflicted and poor people, and they
shall trust in the name of the Lord.
The remnant of Israel, verse 13, shall not
do iniquity nor speak lies.
Neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in
their mouth, for they shall feed and lie
down, and none shall make them afraid.
None.
Sing, O daughter of Zion.
Shout, O Israel, verse 14.
Be glad and rejoice with all thy heart,
O daughter of Jerusalem.
The Lord has taken away thy judgments.
He has cast out thine enemy.
The king of Israel, even the Lord, is
in the midst of thee, and thou shalt
not see evil any more.
In that day it shall be said to
Jerusalem, Fear thou not, and to Zion let
not thy hands be slack.
The Lord, thy God, in the midst of
thee is mighty.
He will save.
He will rejoice over thee with joy.
He will rest in his love, and he
will joy over thee with singing.
That's an incredible thing when you hear that.
God says, I love you so much.
I will save you.
I will rejoice over you.
You will rest in the power of my
love, and I will rejoice over you with
singing.
God says, I'm going to do a marvelous
work in you.
You're going to become aware of the depths
of my love for you.
You're going to become aware of what was
accomplished for you on Calvary.
I will gather them, he says, that are
sorrowful for the solemn assembly, who are of
thee, to whom the reproach of it was
a burden.
Behold, at that time I will undo all
that afflict thee.
I will save her that halts.
I will gather her that was driven out,
and I will get them praise and fame
in every land where they have been put
to shame.
God says, I'm going to gather you.
I'm going to undo all that has afflicted
you.
I'm going to save those that were weak
and falling and failing.
I'm going to gather those that were driven
out of my presence, and I'm going to
get a praise and a fame to my
name in every place where you have been
formerly put to shame.
God says, I'm going to give you new
life.
I'm going to give you power over your
old sins, and it's going to be a
praise and a fame to me, not only
on earth, but for all of eternity.
I'm going to do a work in your
life.
At that time, he says in verse 20,
I will bring you again, even in the
time that I gather you, for I will
make you a name and a praise among
all people of the earth.
God says, I'm going to do this, and
how's he going to do it?
When I turn back your captivity before your
eyes, saith the Lord.
God says, I'm going to turn back your
captivity, and I'm going to set you free,
and you are going to become a praise
to my name throughout all of the earth.
Hallelujah.
You talk about a bride that has a
song to sing.
You talk about a bride that has a
reason to rejoice.
I serve a God that cannot remember my
sins.
I want you to think about that.
I serve a God who cannot remember my
sins.
He says, I will cause myself to forget
your sins and iniquities.
I will remember no more.
No record in heaven tonight.
No record in heaven.
Hallelujah.
If there is no record in heaven, and
if Christ is the one who is presenting
you righteous, then where does the condemner come
in?
You have the right tonight to say to
Satan, you take your crooked, dirty old finger,
and you turn it around and point it
at yourself, and just go.
In Christ's name, go.
I am clean.
I am free.
I cannot be condemned.
It doesn't matter who knows what I did
in the past.
That's in the past.
That's gone.
That's under the blood of Jesus Christ.
Every voice that raises against me in judgment,
God has given me a heritage to condemn
those voices, because my righteousness is of Jesus
Christ and of Him alone.
Verse 14, Zephaniah.
He says, Sing, O daughter of Zion.
Shout, O Israel.
Be glad and rejoice with all your heart,
O daughter of Jerusalem.
For the Lord has taken away thy judgments.
He has cast out thine enemy.
The King of Israel, even in the Lord,
is in the midst of thee, and thou
shalt not see evil any more.
Hallelujah.
I want to sing something to you tonight.
There's a song that I heard one time.
It goes along these two verses.
It goes like this.
And as we do, I want to invite
everybody who's here tonight, and you've been shame
-bound.
You've been shame-bound.
You know it.
I know it.
God knows it.
It's no secret to the Lord.
It's no secret to you tonight.
But tonight, God's going to set you free.
You've heard the truth, and now you have
to receive the truth.
And in all recall, you're not coming to
disalter to cry over anything.
You're not coming to repent over anything tonight.
You're coming to disalter to say, God, I
agree with you.
I'm clean.
I agree with what you've done in my
life.
And therefore, I'm getting off the throne of
my life.
I'm not calling myself common or unclean any
more.
And God in heaven, you're showing me tonight
through your word that I have the power
to condemn every voice that rises against me
in judgment.
No more sheets of unclean things.
No more memories of the past.
No more dragging my face through my sin.
I'm free.
I'm clean.
I'm justified by the Spirit of Almighty God.
Hallelujah.
If that's you tonight, would you slip out?
Would you just slip out wherever you are?
Everybody's been bound by shame.
You come into this house, you worship, but
shame has bound you for your past sin.
And God's going to set you free tonight.
Just set you free.
I believe he already has.
This is just a declaration that you're agreeing
with the word of God tonight.
Set free by the power of God.
Set free by the love of God.
Set free by the goodness of God.
Pray with me now, those that are at
the altar, perhaps in the sanctuary as well.
Lord Jesus, I agree with your word tonight.
The truth has set me free.
By your blood, I am cleansed.
I am whole.
I am clean.
The condemner has nothing in me.
A new person.
A brand new creation in Christ Jesus.
I condemn.
That tries to remind me of my past.
My sins are forgiven.
I am clean.
It has
to be settled in the earth.
It has to be settled in your heart
tonight, in your spirit.
Clean.
Absolutely clean.
Hallelujah.
Do we have a song?
Do we have a song we can sing
to go tonight?
Whose report do you believe?
Folks that are at the altar, I ought
to ask you something tonight.
Please don't hang your head.
I don't want anybody hanging their head at
this altar tonight.
You have the right to come before the
throne of God.
You are absolutely clean in Jesus Christ.
No hanging your head anymore.
Get out of the old habit pattern.
Get out of that old condemning mode.
And lift your hands and thank God that
through Jesus Christ, you are a brand new
creation.
Let's sing it, then we can go.
This is the conclusion of the message.