Transformative Power of the Gospel: Washed, Sanctified, Justified

Such were some of you but ye are washed I haven't realized I need to be washed but you are sanctified but we are Justified theology Doctrine terms here they are in front of us who would ever have imagined it that's the gospel way and it must be the gospel way because the gospel is more interested in us than in the things we do it's more interested in our relationship to God than it is in our particular delinquencies it's because it's concerned about our Everlasting destiny that it puts it like this. [00:29:59]

My friend let me be quite Frank and brutal, almost if you tell me that you're not interested in theological terms like sanctification and justification well all I can say to you is this you'll never know the power of the Gospel into salvation there's nothing more pathetic or more fatuous than the way the Modern Men and our last the modern Church far too often has said we need to get rid of these terms all we need is the strength and the power that the living Christ will give us and they don't get it and they never will get it the gospel Works in its own way and this is the way this is Paul's way of describing to us the benefits that we derive from the Lord Jesus Christ the son of God who came into this world in order to taste death forever men him who came from Heaven to Earth in order that he might bear our sins in his own body on the tree and be made sin for us though he knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. [00:31:36]

Washed and isn't that the thing we need first let me take you back again to David in the 51st Psalm what does he cry out for did you notice how he repeated it twice wash me he say I'm dirty I'm vile I'm foul I'm be spattered and be smed by the foulness and the vness of it all oh God he says I can't stand before you until I'm washed I'm defiled he's like that Wandering Jew who goes down the centuries crying out unclean the leprosy of sin he's seen it at last he's foul and God is Holy he needs to be washed. [00:32:24]

Washed and I shall be whiter than slow and what had happened to the Corinthians says Paul is but you're washed you've been washed you were washed it has happened to you don't bother whether it's baptism or not it isn't in essence baptism is only a figure in any case what he means is this they've been forgiven the guilt has been washed away the stain is gone the defilement has been removed they're cleansed they're washed and now you see why I read that great passage to you from The Book of Revelation listen the messages from Jesus Christ who is the faithful witness and the first begotten of the dead and the prince of the kings of the earth unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood. [00:33:14]

That's why he died that's why he had to die there's nothing that can wash away sins and the stain of sins but blood water isn't enough it must be blood and he's washed Us in his own blood and has made us whiter than the snow The Cry of David comes out of the heart of humanity was me and the Christian replies and says I am washed in the blood of the Lamb he are washed he died for your sins he's born the punishment God forgives you the stone is removed it's gone it's banished. [00:34:04]

Sanctified what's it mean oh I hope to go on with this God willing next Sunday night let me tell you in summary what it means it means set apart and that's why it comes before Justified Sanctified here means separated separated separated in what way in this way these people at Corinth have been separated from their old life you see that was the company they kept that was a sort of circle in which they turned that was their life that was their pleasure that was their everything they lived in yet the life of the world they've been taken out of it separated from that from the drunkenness and the adultery and the fornication and the idolatry and the covetousness and all the rest of it taken out of it moved away from it out of the world into the kingdom of God taken out of this Dominion of sin and of Satan and positively separated unto God put into God's kingdom the they belong to God they are citizens of his kingdom indeed they've become his people they're his children they are Saints Paul addresses them as Saints separated people set apart now that is Christianity it takes you out of that worldly life and puts you into a new one you're quite different you're in a new realm you're Sanctified set apart for God no longer living in that old life and the victim of the next Temptation that meets you around a corner never knowing how you're going to go home what's going to happen to you separated out of all that made a new man in a new world a new creature Sanctified from to and lastly Justified. [00:35:12]

What does this mean well this is the most marvelous thing of all here are these people in Corinth guilty of these foul and repellent and bestial sins oh what filth yes but you see as the is result of the Gospel which Paul preached to them and its power in the Holy Spirit Christ has washed them in his own blood he separated them the stain of the past is gone it's been washed out by Christ's blood it's not there the defilement has been removed they're now God's children separated unto God but you know it even goes further justification means this that Christ's own perfection and righteousness and keeping of the law is attributed or imputed to them God according to this teaching puts the righteousness the Holiness of Christ's life upon these people whom he justifies so that God looks at them as if they' never sinned in their lives now do see this it isn't merely that the filth and the stain have been washed away God looks at the Justified person as if he'd never at all he sees him in Christ as a holy person he is not nearly washed he is clothed and covered by the righteousness and the Holiness and the Perfection of Christ what a change that's the gospel that's what it does that it had done to these people such were some of you but you've been washed you've been Sanctified you've even been Justified the Lord God Almighty who knows everything now looks at you as if You' never been guilty of those things he sees you in Christ as a child of his own and as one who is positively righteous and holy that's how the the gospel deals with a modern problem that is how it deals with your problem my friend whatever it may happen to be tonight I'm preaching to everybody in this congregation whatever it is that gets you down that's how the gospel deals with it he doesn't concentrate on this thing itself and say now what can I do you better develop a friendship with this kind of person you better not go to certain places then I'll give you a c and I'll gradually train your mind and wean it from that and will sublimate your nothing of the sort it does it here and now the miracle of God's Redeeming Grace is this that he deals with you washes you changes you puts you over there sanctifies you separates you to God makes you a child of God and puts this Holiness and righteousness of Christ upon you. [00:37:23]

Have you been washed do you know you've been washed you can't be washed in the blood of Christ without knowing it it's the only thing you it's the thing of which you boast of which you're proud you give him the credit for it all have you been washed have you been Sanctified have you been taken out of that world and its hell and its subtlety and its innuendo and its entic enticement and lust and passion have you been moved out of it and put into the kingdom of God and separated have you become one of God's people that's what Christ does as it happened to you and do you know tonight that you even as you are are covered by the righteousness of Christ so that if you had to die tonight you won't be afraid you know that God will see you in Christ and will receive you unto himself it is offered to you freely my friend it asks you to do nothing but just to recognize that you have sinned against God not against yourself not against Society not against the laws of Great Britain but against God and that that's the terrible thing and you're now anxious to be right with him and you go to him and confess it all and admit that you Haven a plead and then believe his own message about his own son and ask him by your spirit to make it plain and clear to you and he has promised to do so. [00:39:11]