Friday, September 30, 2016

Behold The Lamb of God,"

"Behold the Lamb of God, Which Taketh Away The Sin of The World"

Dear one, if you have never accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour, it is our hope that this message will help you find salvation in and through Jesus Christ. And if you do know Jesus Christ as your Saviour and Lord, we trust that this message will help you live an overcoming life.

The Bible tells us that John the Baptist, as he was fulfilling his Divine commission to prepare the way of the Lord, saw Jesus coming to him, and he said, "Behold, the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). In these words the Holy Spirit, the Inspirer of the Bible, is directing our heart, our soul and spirit, our whole spiritual being to "Behold," the Lamb of God, to "Behold," Jesus Christ Who is the Lamb which God hath provided, the Lamb which God "verily... foreordained before the foundation of the world" (1 Peter 1:20).

Jesus Christ, the Perfect Lamb of God, was without blemish, without fault, without blame, without spot - the sin of the world had no place in Him. And of this Perfect Lamb the Holy Spirit declares three times: "I find in Him no fault at all" (John 18:38); 19:4, 6). I find in Him no ground for accusation at all. And who did the Holy Spirit declare these eternal words through? A disciple? An Israelite? A temple priest? No, in order to bring about the full counsel of God, of which "The Cross" is the most important part, the Holy Spirit, again, took the enemy in his own craftiness. The Holy Spirit declared the perfection of the Lamb of God through Pilate, who represented the evil forces which ruled this sinful world; and behind the rulers of this sinful world was, and is, the prince of this world, satan himself. Yes, even the one who is the cause and the inherent power behind all evil was made to admit through those he ruled, "I find in Him, in Christ, no fault at all." Consequently, this perpetrator of all evil, that old serpent, called the devil and satan, furiously inspired the Jews to cry out, saying, "Crucify Him, Crucify Him." Thus God, Who works all things after the counsel of His Own Will, provided Himself a Lamb Who takes away the sin of the world.

In John 14 Jesus said, "...the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in ME" - nothing which falls under his power. There was in Christ nothing which satan could claim as his ground. In all others he could that which is his own, and so in all others he could enforce the power of death. But in Christ he had nothing and the power of death had no hold on Him. Jesus, The Lamb of God, then said, "But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave Me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence."

satan had nothing in Christ, he could not enforce the power of death upon Christ; but Jesus, the Lamb of God, offered Himself voluntarily because He loved the Father. Death had no power over Christ, and so He said, "Arise, let us go hence" - in essence Jesus was saying, "death has no power over Me, but I am the Lamb which My Father hath provided; therefore, I go to meet death." Christ voluntarily gave Himself to be crucified: He willingly said, "Father, into Thy hands I commit My Spirit" - He Himself gave up His Spirit and died, for nothing could kill Him. The Lamb of God offered Himself freely,His Blood was shed, He died, and He was buried, and, glory of glories, even then death had no power to hold Him in the grave, and UP FROM THE GRAVE HE AROSE - and "behold" He is alive for evermore!

"Behold the Lamb of God, Which taketh away the sin of the world."

In this all-powerful declaration, the Holy Spirit is summing up the Atoning Work of our Lord and Saviour, the Holy Spirit is saying that the Lamb Whom God hath provided "taketh away" the sin of the world - all "the sin" - past, present, and future. And the Lamb accomplished this by taking, by bearing, "the sin of the world" upon Himself, for upon Him was laid the iniquity of us all: - "For He (God) hath made Him (Christ) to be sin for us, Who knew no sin' that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him (in Christ)" (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Beloved, when the Holy Spirit inspired these words, He used the word "taketh" in the present tense; and this means that the Blood of the Lamb not only cleanses past sin, but the Blood of the Lamb is, at this instant, taking away the sin of the world. Yes, it is the Blood - the consummate and complete atoning work of the Lamb, the Shed Blood of the Lamb, the limitless power of the Blood of the Lamb, which is taking away the sin of the world.

Dear ones, if there is anyone reading this who has never received the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour and Lord; and if you are wondering how your sin may be taken away, and how you can become a child of God, one who is saved by His grace and who has eternal Life, John 3:16 says: "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." If you are wondering, "What must I do to be saved?" the Bible says, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved" (Acts 16:31). Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, for He is the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world; and the Bible says: "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to even to those who believe in His name." And to those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of God also says of His fullness you shall receive "grace upon grace" (John 1:12, 16). So, dear one, believe and receive in your heart our Precious Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, and you will be included in the Eternal Purpose of God in Christ. And, along with all those who are redeemed by the Blood of the Lamb, you will have the priceless privilege of becoming an overcomer - of becoming one who overcomes because of the Blood of the Lamb.

Because of the Blood of the Lamb

Revelation 12:11

Beloved, the Atonement, the Redemptive work of the Lamb, is eternal: - the power of the Blood of the lamb to take away all sin is from everlasting to everlasting. But the power of the Blood of the Lamb to take away the sin of the world does not exhaust the Work and Triumph of the Lamb of God. In the Book of Revelation, the manifold glories of the Lamb of God are revealed over and over again, over twenty-five times the Holy Spirit inspires John to write of the Lamb (Rev. 5:6; 12:11; 17:14, etc) The Lamb of God is the preeminent One in the Book of Revelation. In this book of Revelation God reveals the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, in all His Resurrected Glory and Power; however, we also know that this book reveals the warfare of the ages, a warfare which takes place in the visible and invisible realm; and this warfare, which has continued throughout all the ages, will continue until it reaches its final conclusion. Although Christ has totally and completely defeated the enemy of God on and through and in His Cross, God has ordained that Christ's Victory become a reality, become a living expression, in the lives of those who are redeemed by the Blood of Christ Jesus our Lord and Saviour.

In Revelation chapters 2 and 3, the Resurrected Lord Jesus Christ instructs all of His Church that they must become overcomers - He was writing to the Church then, and to the Church up to and including the present time, and to the Church in future time. Seven times the Lord tells His Church that we must overcome (Rev. 2 and 3). In Revelation 1:11, the symbolism of the number "seven" tells us that the Lord is speaking of the whole Church (the true Church includes all the redeemed); yet even though He is writing to the Church as a whole, the Lord still brings it right down to the fact that each believer must overcome, when He says: "To him (to each one) that overcometh." And how do we overcome? Revelation 12:11 gives us the answer: we overcome Because of the Blood of the Lamb.

And what, or who, is the Church (each one of us) to overcome? The Word of God says, "And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb." Who is this "him"? Revelation 12:9 tells  tells us that we are to overcome "that old serpent, called the devil and satan, which deceiveth the whole world."

In John 14:30 we saw that Jesus said, "... the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me"; this means, there was IN CHRIST nothing which satan could claim as his, there was no ground of accusation in Christ. Now to get the full impact of what Christ is saying we must proceed on to His next words, for the Lord Jesus immediately speaks of the Vine (Himself) and the branches (the redeemed) and He says, "Abide in Me, and I in you ... for apart from Me you can do nothing": "Abide in Me - maintain a living reality and communion with me." Jesus our Saviour is saying to us, " - satan hath nothing in Me, therefore abide in Me." When Jesus says, "Abide in Me," He is saying: "If you are to serve Me, if you are to produce fruit, fruit which has lasting results, if you are to be victorious over the enemy, then you must by faith stand and live and walk in the good of what I AM, not what you are; for My Shed Blood eternally satisfies God's own Righteousness; and My Shed Blood is made unto you righteousness - that is, It gives you eternal righteousness before God." If we are saved, then we are washed in the Blood; we are in Christ, we are the redeemed, we are accepted in the Beloved, we have eternal right standing before God! This is the eternal position of all who are saved, and it cannot be made otherwise (Ephesians 1:3-14).

However, Revelation 12:11 reveals that we are to be overcomers. Therefore, if we are to become overcomers, if we are to become those who in and through and with Christ overcome the enemy, then we must become and live and walk in the good of Who Christ is and What He has accomplished. We must never stand on our own ground, for in ourselves there is always ground that satan can lay hold of, but by faith we must stand in Christ, for that old serpent, called the devil and satan, hath nothing in Christ. This is the Power of the Blood.

Consequently, brethren, if we are to become overcomers by living in the good of Christ's Victory, then it is an absolute necessity that we comprehend, in and by the Spirit, God's value of the Blood of the Lamb. We must realize that, even though we are saved and have a deep desire to serve the Lord, satan will habitually accuse us of our past and present sins; he will condemn us and bring up over and over again, for he is the accuser of the brethren. In accusing us of our past and present sins, satan is blaspheming the Power of the Blood. He is saying that Christ's sacrifice is not enough. All of this is the enemy's attempt to lessen the Power of the Blood. When we are saved, we were justified before God; and justified means, just as if we had never sinned. Thank God for the limitless, perpetual Power of the Blood. If satan accuses or torments us about past or present sins, let us take our stand in Christ, for satan hath no ground of accusation in Christ. Let us proclaim Christ's Righteousness because in Him we are made the righteousness of God.

Of course, Christians do sin because no one is perfect but Christ; and so the Word of God provides for this when in 1 John 1:9 Christians are told, "If we confess our sins (before God), He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Beloved, because we are Christians we must never take any sin we commit lightly. We must acknowledge our sin before God and ask His forgiveness. Sin in a Christian's life can interrupt our fellowship and our walk with God, but nothing can take away our right-standing before God because the Blood of the Lamb is eternal and perpetual in cleansing Power. "But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the Blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin" (1 John 1:7).

Anyone who desires to become an overcomer must stand in the good of Christ's Righteousness, for He is our Right-Standing before God. An overcomer can only overcome the enemy because of Who Christ is and because of all that He alone accomplished - this is the Power of the Blood and this is God's Value of the Blood; and it must, by faith, be ours.

Another tactic of the enemy is to bring up our ancestry and to try to make us believe that it is hopeless to live the overcoming life because of that which has been passed on to us through our ancestry, generation after generation. satan will even plant in some of our minds the excuse that "It is not my fault that I am like I am"; and he does this by accusing and blaming our sins and failures and problems upon someone or something else - such as, upon our mother or upon our father; or upon someone in our ancestry;or upon our background and environment; or the blame may be placed upon our home, family, husband, wife, children, other Christians, occupation, etc. Dear ones, we are not saying that we can ignore these things as if they do not exist, but we are saying that no matter what our lot in life, we can - because of the Blood of the Lamb - overcome in the midst of our circumstances.

When satan, the accuser of the brethren, brings up all the things we are in the natural man, and states that we will never make it - when the accuser says we will never become overcomers - then our stand must be: In Him (in Christ) "we have redemption through His Blood," for "if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature (a new creation): old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" (2 Corinthians 5:17). - Behold, the fresh and new have come. - And all this is from God. Beloved, in Christ we are a new creation - This is the Power of the Blood - "And they (the overcomers) overcame him (that old serpent, called the devil and satan), because of the Blood of the Lamb."

In Revelation chapter 5, we find that The Lamb that was slain has redeemed us to God out of every kindred, and tongue, and people; and The Lamb is standing in the midst of the Throne of God where all things are working after the counsel of God's Own Will. So, no matter what our circumstances may be, our stand is this: "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who care called according to His purpose" (Romans 8:28). - The Lamb is in the midst of the Throne - This is the Power of the Blood - "And they (the overcomers) overcame him (that old serpent, called the devil and satan), because of the Blood of the Lamb."

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(The End)

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