Confess with me and say, “Righteousness is a gift received from God not by our works, not by our merits, not by our achievement, not by our own sanctification, not by our own holiness, not by our own dedication, but it is a gift of God received freely through Jesus Christ.”

              Rom. 5:17 For if by one’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. Here the word life refers to our spiritual life, our physical life, our social life, our business life and our ministry life. When we understand the gift of righteousness, which is tied up to the abundance of grace, we would have a different walk, a different way of thinking, a different life-style, a different manner of speaking and a different manner of conduct. It will affect us if we understand what the gift of righteousness is all about.

              In this message, I want to talk about the transforming work of righteousness. Lets look at Rom. 7 and understand that it is bringing us into the key of righteousness that we have talked about. We spoke about the fact that the Old Testament saints accomplished the will and purposes of God not because of who they were, not because of the gifting, not because of their own talent, but it is because they have gotten a hold of the gift of righteousness. I showed you that was true in the life of David; it’s the same in the life of Daniel, in the life of Joseph. When Daniel was given credit for interpreting Nebuchadnezzar’s dreams, Daniel quickly acknowledged that it was God who is able to interpret dreams. So what they have tapped into was the gift of God.

              Under the New Testament, God has given us the fullness of the gift of righteousness through Jesus Christ. Therefore, we should have a deeper understanding and revelation of that gift of righteousness and should be able to partake of the gift of righteousness in a stronger, greater, more powerful manner that the Old Testament saints. The book of Romans develops that subject. It establishes the fact in Rom. 3 that no one can please God and no one can really do what God wants us to do. The wonderful thing about God is when He calls us, He doesn’t look for our ability but He looks for our availability. And that’s only half the story. He wants us to avail ourselves to Him. The other half of the story, and is the good news …He gives us His the ability to do the work that we avail ourselves to. And so, the ultimate result is… everything is through God, by God, in God, for God.  That’s the story of the Christian life and we need to understand how that flows in us. It is very easy to constantly be drawn back to the old way of doing things, the old way of thinking, through our own human efforts and struggles, instead of depending on Christ in us doing it.

              In Rom. 7, Paul talks a bit of the struggle that he experienced. We know Christ is in us and there is a struggle of the goodness that God has placed in the inner man trying to come up against the outward man and the passion of sin that lives in the outward man.

              Rom. 7:15-17 For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do that I do not practice, but what I hate, that I do. If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. But now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 

              Now I like to compare Rom 7: 17 it is no longer I who do it but sin who dwells in me with Gal. 2:20 where Paul says I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. He says I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me.

              Now that is a direct contrast with Rom. 7:17 where Paul says, “It is no longer I who do it but sin who dwells in me.” In Gal 2: 20 Paul says, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” Well, something has taken place in Paul’s life. He has grown in the understanding of how to allow Jesus to flow through his life. The secret of a Christian life is learning how to yield - how to allow Jesus in to be built; how to allow Jesus in us to be strong; how to allow Jesus in us to be wise; how to allow Jesus in us to be mighty. That’s all there is to the Christian life.

              Whenever we forget that Jesus is in us, we are no better than the disciples of Jesus in the little boat that was about to sink. Jesus was lying on a pillow and sleeping in the boat. All the disciples were panicking because the waves were tossing and turning the boat. Some of the water was spilling in. Remember they were all fishermen. They were used to the sea. They had seen this kind of thing before. When they used their own human effort to save themselves from that storm, it was practically useless. They tried, they cried and they woke Jesus saying, “Master save us.” That’s quite O.K. but the second sentence they said was not O.K. “Don’t you care that we perish?” That is an unfair insinuation on Jesus’ personality and kindness and love. Of course, He cares. Does Jesus care for you? Of course, He always does, twenty-four hours a day.  In fact it is His job to make sure that what you say, (lined up with God’s will) comes to pass.

              But that second phrase is a revelation of what they have forgotten. They said, “Master don’t you care that we perish?” If Jesus was sleeping in the boat and the boat sinks, they would all drown. That is what they said… You realize that if Jesus was in the boat He would have drowned too. Don’t they care that Jesus would have drowned too? Of course, they did, it was just a time of weakness … they lost their right frame of mind and uttered their fears of drowning and dying. Don’t get discouraged when in times of weakness, you say things that you don’t really mean to say. When you do things that you don’t really mean to do. Jesus will never forsake you just as He never forsook His disciples. When He got up the disciples gave Him the first accusation, “Don’t you care that we perish.” Jesus didn’t even bother to answer that question because there was no time to answer questions like that. They were sinking and it was time to still the storm.

              What did the disciples forget? They forgot that Jesus (the supernatural Jesus) was there in the boat. They also forgot to have faith in Jesus. He said, “Lets us go across.” He did not say,  “Let’s stop in the middle and capsize and drown.” His expected end was the other side of the lake. They forgot many things. The most important is that they forgot that Jesus was in the boat with them. If they sank, Jesus would sink along with them. If they died, Jesus would have died in the boat too. Anything that happens to them would happen to Jesus. They forgot that Jesus was there. Say this… “Jehovah Shammah, the Lord is there.” The moment they forgot… all their reactions: thinking, feeling, hands and legs began to operate as if He was not there. See every time we forget that He is there our mind, our feelings and our body begin to operate as if He is not there. How important it is to have a conscious knowledge that He and you have become one. And anything that happens to you will happen to Him in a sense. Anything that happens to Him happens to you. You are one with Jesus. Jesus is in your boat - the boat of your life.

              And the reason why I compare Gal. 2:20 with Rom. 7: 17 is because they directly oppose each other. Gal. 2:20 says, “It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me.” Rom 7: 17 is the very opposite; he says, “It is no longer I but sin that dwells in me.” If you read Rom. 7:17 by itself without Gal. 2:20 coming in, this is the understanding that you probably will have. When Paul says, “But now it is no longer I who do it, but sin who dwells in me,” you would have the mental picture that the forces and the energy of sin were so powerful in that life that he is describing that it overcomes him and binds him up. So much so, that you imagine that the real Paul was a helpless person tied up by chains and bondages and energized by the sin that dwells in him. Wouldn’t that be your picture? You wouldn’t imagine sin as a small puppy crawling around iin him and causing him to sin. From the way he described sin in Rom. 7:17, you would think that sin was a mighty force stirring up lawlessness, wrongdoing and evil in his life until it controled him. How is it that when we read Gal. 2:20 where Paul says, “It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me,” we never see that there is an energy force coming out of Paul’s life. The Christ living in him is a powerful energy of life, of joy, of peace, that directed him everywhere he went, everything he did and everything he says. It controls him, it consumes him, until he says in Acts 20, “I go bound in the spirit.” Until he says it is not I but Christ who does it. In I Cor. 15 he says that what he is he is by the grace of God. Yet not I but the grace of God he tells us. He is a man possessed by a good force the Spirit of God.

              You know how many people read Gal. 2:20 where Paul says its no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me, they see Paul standing on one side and Jesus on one side: they were just holding hands. But when they read it with the negative side, they see the power of sin. When they read it with the positive side, they do not see the power of the energizing force of Jesus coming out to their life. But that’s the correct picture because light is greater than darkness. God is more powerful than Satan. The kingdom of light is more powerful than the kingdom of darkness. Far too many people’s mind and thinking are so established that they keep thinking the devil is a powerful person. He has power through deception but the smallest and newest member of the body of Christ can crush him. It is God who says in Lk. 10 that you shall tread on scorpions and serpents and that they shall by no mean hurt you at all. The reason why many people don’t have this concept is because of a lack of understanding of the righteousness that they have received in Jesus. Yet that is the correct picture that Paul is trying to give.

              As we look at Rom. 7, we will see that, that is the direction that he is leading us into in this passage. Verse 18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, again he repeats it…, this is the second, repetition of verse 17, it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells in me. I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am. Who will deliver me from this body of death?  

              Now the second repetition in verse 20, “It is no longer I who do it but sin that who dwells in me,” gives a power picture of the force of sin in his life. Let me point to this fact if that powerful force that he calls sin is removed he will certainly feel a big vacuum on his inside. If it is that powerful to influence him, to affect him, to motivate him, to cause him to feel certain feelings, to cause him to think certain thoughts, it must be a powerful tiger on his inside. If that tiger is shot dead or removed obviously he is going to feel a big vacuum almost like the vacuum that Isaiah felt when in Isa. 6:1 it tells us the year that king Uzziah died he saw a vision. You know why he did. Uzziah at that time was a big spiritual leader and when he died, it left a big vacuum in the nation. He was such a mighty and influential leader that when something happened to him, the whole nation felt a keen loss. It is like a nation without a President, a nation without a Prime Minister, a nation without a King because that was the ruling force. He was king and you don’t just remove the king. You replace the king. You can’t just try not to think bad thoughts. You have to think good thoughts to remove the bad thoughts. We can’t exist in a state where we have a blank ruling our minds. Man was created to always have God ruling in his life. If it were not Almighty God ruling in his life, it would have been other gods. We were created with a vacuum for God. And when God doesn’t fill that vacuum, the devil fills it. Looking at that force so powerful..l obviously, God doesn’t just remove the sin and then you have a skinny little “I” there. No, God replaces it with a powerful force that directs us. And Christians have yet to discover the fullness of that powerful force. It’s a living life giving, power generating, healing life of Jesus that He comes to bring into us. Notice it was not just a revelation that freed Paul but the sum of all revelations found in one person called Jesus Christ.

              Look at Rom. 7:25 finally he gives us the solution. After talking about the struggle of the power of sin trying to control him versus the power of goodness that is in him, he says I thank God – through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. It is not just a revelation of a truth or principle, it was the revelation of Jesus. It was a revelation of Jesus inside us that freed us. And that revelation that Jesus is now on his inside directing him, moving him and motivating him. The force is so powerful that Paul reveals it as, “Its no longer I who live but Christ who now lives in me.” The good “I” becomes stronger whereas the other bad “I” become weaker and weaker. In God’s eyes, your new nature is being built up. So, the secret of living the victorious Christian life is that flow of righteousness and revelation of Jesus in us.

              But there are many degrees of the revelation of Jesus. If there is any problem in your life, a weakness, a flaw in your life, what you don’t need is another book that teaches you ten steps to overcome it. Sometimes it does help though, because that book will lead you to a revelation of Jesus. All truth and all theology must lead us to Jesus. It is not that alone. You don’t keep telling a struggling person to pray more and make new resolutions to be good. Yet as much as you read self help books and pray and re-pray, you will find nothing changes. Unfortunately, this is the advice constantly dished out by well meaning Christians in whose life that system isn’t working either, but it’s all they have ever heard, so that is what they think has to happen…and it must be working for others, just not them. They have either forgotten the principle of the indwelling… “It is no longer I who lives but Christ who lives in me” …or they have never known it at all. The secret is learning to yield to God … not trying to become a better person. You don’t become a better person on your own – you become a better person by coming to Jesus. In the process of yielding to Him, we are changed. We don’t change and then become like Him and do like Him. In the process of yielding to Him, we become transformed. That’s a revelation of Jesus. When you were born again and saved, it was the first time you met Jesus… as your personal Savior. More often than not,  for some Christians, it was only time they ever had a revelation of Jesus. There are continual revelations of Jesus in our lives. There are many rooms in our lives that need the light and revelation of Jesus to come in. “How long does it take?” It takes only one instant, that instant that He reveals Himself. It doesn’t take an eternity. But why does it take longer in some people? Because sometimes it takes us longer to position ourselves for His revelations. I will describe that later but before I do let me tell you about instant transformation. I can choose more than two lives to illustrate this point, but let’s start with the Old Testament with one, and then one from the New Testament… one who could be and the other who became.

              Turn with me to the book of I Samuel 10. Samuel the prophet had just anointed Saul with a flask of oil. And he told Saul certain things that will take place in his life. He said, “When you go to a certain place you will meet a group of prophets and the Spirit of God will come upon your life and these signs will occur to you to assure you of what God has pre-destined for you to accomplish.” 1 Sam. 10:6 among his instructions he made a very powerful statement. Then the Spirit of the Lord will come upon you, and you will prophesy with them and be turned into another man. The Spirit of God will come upon you and you will prophesy and be turned into another man. Something happened to Saul when the Spirit came upon him. He was no longer the same person as long as the Spirit of God is upon him. Now we all know the sad story of his life’s ending. But let me emphasize his potential. What would have happened if he learned to yield to that constantly? He would forever be a different man. Since the promise of the Spirit in his life was that, “When the Spirit of God is upon you, you will be turned into another man,” if he learned to yield to that twenty-four hours  a day then he would continually be another man. His old man would have died and he would be a new man that his friends wouldn’t recognize. He may look the same and still have some of the same old personality. But he would definitely be a different man. He could have but of course we know that he didn’t. The fact remains that there is a realm in God, a power in God where it can and will turn us into another man. Paul calls that a new creation.

              Now in the New Testament there is another man whose name is also Saul who later became Paul. Look at his personality and his life in the book of Acts. Let us see some of the things that he did before he came to know the Lord. Acts 8:1 Now Saul was consenting to his death. At that time a great persecution arose against the church which was at Jerusalem and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. Verse 3 As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house, and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison.  I would say he was a very fierce gangster. When gangster Saul comes to town, everybody runs for their lives. He was a brilliant planner and plotter too. He knew how to get legal authority. He had such a bad reputation that when he was converted nobody believed it. Why didn’t anybody believe it? Nobody believed such a Christian-hating Jew could ever change. It was Saul the persecutor ingrained in the people’s minds, even if they were Christians who knew the life-changing power of Jesus Christ. They knew Jesus could save a person, they knew that Jesus could touch a person’s heart. But when it came to Saul, they weren’t  sure whether Jesus could touch Saul’s heart at all. In fact, they were more sure that Saul would never change. Forever he would be like that. A gangster.

              You know when people are addicted to something…drugs, alcohol…whatever, then society says he will forever be a drug addict, or alcoholic..and so on. Not true. All one has to do is know about becoming a new creation. Let me tell you Jesus didn’t come just to renovate you. If He did, He would have been out of the renovation business thousands of years ago. Renovation doesn’t last long and people are disillusioned after time because the renovation work falls apart and they find they are back to being their old selves again. Jesus came to make a new man out of each one of us. The story is not, “What will be, will be. The future is ours to see, Que Sera Sera.” If that is what life is about we don’t need a society. We don’t need education because no one can change. If no one is able to change, then why bother to change? You know that kind of philosophy will NOT make great nation. Change can come. But there is only one way a person can change. The key is to discover and yield to the life of God that in the Old Testament could turn Saul into another man and that in the New Testament had a greater power because He can now live permanently in us and turn us into another person.

              Paul declared in II Cor. 5 if any man is in Christ he is a new creation old things have passed away behold all things have become new. That was Saul a gangster, a religious bigot, an authoritarian,a legalist, sophisticated, educated, no one believe he could  or would change. Preaching didn’t change him. It may have had a subtle effect, where the Word was sown in him like a seed. I believe in the power of preaching to effect change too. But it wasn’t enough. He had heard Stephen preach. He was among those who heard the anointed preaching of Stephen and consented to his death. Theology didn’t change him. He was the most educated person. Education didn’t change him. Sophistication in society didn’t change him. He was among the most sophisticated people. Culture didn’t change him.

              Do you know what changed him? One day this gangster was riding on a donkey breathing threats. Acts 9:1 Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord. He must have killed some people. Its like if you kill one it becomes easier to kill more. The way the bible described it he is breathing threats. Murder was in his heart and in his mind. Nothing has changed him. On his way breathing threats, the light of Jesus shone on him. So bright was the light that Saul fell to the ground, blinded. The people all around him were shocked. And he became blind after seeing the great light above him. He had the revelation of Jesus. Jesus revealed Himself where no culture, no education, no persuasion, nothing could change him. One revelation changed him. Not a doctrine or a principle but a revelation of Jesus. He met Jesus. He met the One who went to the cross. He met the One whose side was pierced. He met the One who walked the shore of Galilee. He met the One whom the Word says, “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that who so ever should believe in Him should not perish.” And the man Jesus the Son of God did not even rebuke him for his past. He didn’t even condemn his life to hell. No, all the Son of God did was to say with a voice full of love and compassion what Saul had been doing to Him. He said, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?”

              That one revelation of Jesus turned Saul around. Years of education couldn’t change him. Years of culture, teaching, persuasion, friends, religiosity, didn’t change him. But the few seconds in the presence of the Master, a few words from the Master, and Saul said, “What do you want, Lord?” Do you see  what I am trying to show you? It’s the secret of a Christian life. What we need is not more renovation of life, a little resolution here, a little resolution there with a greater frustration here and frustration there for breaking the resolutions. What we need is not more trying and more human effort. What we need is the revelation of Jesus Christ. If there is an area in your life that you are struggling with, it is not because you missed the ten steps to overcome it. Why do we human being always think that we missed the ten steps? Why do we humans always think of the human effort, of climbing the ladder to reach God? It’s because after the fall of man, we have become creatures of works not creatures of grace.

              The key to change in your life is for Jesus to reveal Himself to you. He revealed Himself to you once when you were born again. My friends that revelation must continue to grow. Sometimes He may need to reveal Himself several times in a particular area in our life. Until we can’t take it any more and we become changed. Transformation is by the revelation of Jesus. And it’s a continual process. Remember when you first accepted Jesus although not everything changed but something changed instantly. Maybe in some lives ninety percent of the things have changed for the better. In some other lives fifty percent for various reasons. I want to tell you the secret of the continual change. If you were one of those who were born again, seventy percent of your life is changed, and thirty percent left still to be changed, why do you think that the thirty percent that has to be changed is different from the already changed seventy percent? If you were one of those whose life changed fifty percent and another fifty percent yet to change, why do we have to think that the fifty percent to be changed has to be changed differently from the first fifty percent? Are you getting my drift here? It doesn’t. The way of change is still the same. I believe in good preaching, good teaching, good fellowship, good walking in the counsel of good people, but all these things are the methods that God uses to reveal Jesus to your heart of hearts. He uses friends, He uses preaching, He uses teaching. But the whole purpose is that He may reveal Himself to you. And if your life has changed fifty percent, seventy percent or ninety percent, and there is another fifty percent, thirty percent or ten percent that still needs to be changed, I want to encourage you not to despair. You may fall from time to time, you may struggle from time to time, but my friends the change that works in salvation is the same process that changes the next fifty percent, the next thirty percent or the next ten percent until you are perfectly like Him. In other words, what we need is more of that presence, that light, and that person of Jesus to be revealed in us. The moment He succeeds in revealing Himself within us, we are changed.

              Paul says in the book of Gal. 1: 14-16 And I advance in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my own nation, being more exceeding zealous for the traditions of my fathers. But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, to reveal His Son in me. The real change took place in Paul’s life when God revealed the Son of God to the inner chamber of this area in his life. And that changed many areas of his life. First: his theology became different. He started thinking of Christ in a different way. And he started preaching differently. His character became different. He is gentler now. Everything about him changed all through the revelation of Jesus on his inside. Now Jesus continues to be revealed on our inside. Remember it is how you position yourself in God when He reveals Himself to you as in salvation. That’s all you need to do. Position yourself to receive Jesus, and if there are areas in your life that have not changed yet, you allow His life to change you.

              In the book of Eph. 3:16 That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. Now these Ephesian Christians were already born again. They probably were baptized in water and baptized in the Spirit too. And Paul said he prayed that their inner man will be strengthened that Christ would dwell in their hearts and be revealed in their hearts because there is more Jesus for every area to encounter. So, what have we established? We have established  the fact that change comes more by the revelation of Jesus than by reformation or renovation.

              Look at II Cor. 3:17-18 Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. Look at that! There it is, staring at you from the bible – there it is, the secret of your Christian life becoming victorious and transformed and every sinful habit in your life broken. The secret does not involve making resolutions, reformations, renovation, not in our human effort, the secret is to position yourself so that He can reveal Himself to you. I assure you no one can meet Jesus and go away the same person. It is not possible to meet Jesus and not be changed. Even when the apostles were doing all their works the Pharisees observed that these were all uneducated people, yet they worked miracles with such power. Peter said it’s not by our own works or by our holiness that it is done but by the name of Jesus. And they observed that they couldn’t find any answer from their learning to explain the apostles’ new way of life and power. In the miracles, signs and wonders, they couldn’t find an answer in any other force except God has been working there. But they didn’t acknowledge God. In the end, they found the one and only key. They had been with Jesus. That’s all. They had been with Jesus. They spent three years with Him. And when He was resurrected, they spend forty days with Him. When they spent time with Jesus, they were different. The revelation of Jesus had gotten a hold of their hearts and minds. The revelation of Jesus is a transforming force in our life.

              Now we will look on in II Cor. 4 that the glory of God is really indeed the revelation of Jesus. Because it describes here in verse 6 For it is God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. It’s the revelation of Jesus that transforms us from glory to glory and grace to grace until we are no longer the person that we had been.

              Now continuing, on that basis it tells us in II Cor. 5:7 For we walk by faith and not by sight. We don’t go by the natural now because there is an internal revelation that has transformed and revolutionized us. The revelation of Jesus transforms, reforms and revolutionizes our life but it begins with the revelation of Jesus. Then Paul tells the disciples of Corinthians in II Cor. 5:16 Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer.

              We don’t look at the historical Christ although there is an aspect that we can learn from the historical Christ. We look at the living Jesus who is alive today. He says that he who loves Me keeps My commandments and I will reveal Myself to him. I will manifest Myself to him. When He does, you are changed. He says we don’t look at the religious Jesus we look at Jesus from our heart, from our inward man. And allow the revelation of Jesus to flood every area, every corner, every part of our spirit, soul and body, until we are changed. The truth sounds simple for Jesus to reveal Himself to us and we are changed. But to position ourselves for Him to reveal Himself to us is the important key.

              Look at II Cor 3 the pre-requisite to looking as in a mirror the glory of the Lord and being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. The pre-requisite is in verse 18 But we all with unveiled face. If our face is veiled, we will never have the revelation. In II Cor. 3 he talks about how in the synagogue the Word of God is constantly read. But he says even now in verse 14 But their minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ. But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their hearts.

              We must behold Him with unveiled face. That’s the important thing. The revelation of Jesus can only come when we behold Him with unveiled face. How do we behold Him with unveiled face? Heb. 4:1 Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest. Or entering that rest that he is talking about. That rest he introduced from Heb.2: 10 For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both He who sanctifies, and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren. Now Jesus wants to bring many sons to glory. So that’s the gist of his story. And the author of Hebrews talks about what Jesus has done to the devil in destroying the devil.

              Then in chapter 3:1 he says therefore, chapter 4:1 he says therefore, (remember what I told you about the word therefore? That when you see that word look above it to see what is is there for) this is where he brings us to the subject of entering into the righteousness of Jesus. In entering into the rest of Jesus there is a labor. But when you enter into the rest of Jesus, the labor ceases.

              Heb. 4: 9-10 There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. Lets us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fail according to the same example of disobedience. Then suddenly he talks about the Word of God. It looks like verse 12 is inappropriate to that theme. But it is not. There is a key involved. Verse 12 For the Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

              My friends it’s the Word of God that opens the veil. It’s the Word of God that cleanses us. It is the Word of God that washes us. You see the perfection of the church of Jesus Christ in the book of Eph. 5 in talking about the bride of Jesus it says in verse 25 – 26 Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the Word. When the Word of God constantly cleanses our lives, pierces our hearts and removes all those things we are positioned to receive Him.

              In a way when you accepted Christ, what happened was that the Word was spoken to you first. Someone told you about Jesus. Someone told you about what Jesus had done. How He died on the cross at Calvary for your sins and my sins. And all that He did was not for Himself because He is sinless - it was for us. And finally, they came to the finale. Would you accept Him right now? If all our works and preaching lead to the decision and in that decision if they cry out to Jesus and there was no Jesus to come in,  it would have been all in vain. However its not in vain because when you preach the gospel anywhere in this world to any people, and you announce the gospel to them and ask, “Would you like to receive Jesus?” No matter how sinful the hearers have been, no matter how condemned they were, if they accept the Lord Jesus Christ into their hearts, He will now come into their lives and start cleaning it up.   

              Mary Kathleen Baxter visited both hell and heaven and she has written two books on her experiences, one about her experiences in hell and the other about her visit to heaven. In her second book, she mentioned that when sinners received the Lord Jesus Christ into their lives, she saw angels going into a special room in heaven where their records are kept. After taking down these particular sinners’ records from the shelves, an angel would take a piece of cloth dipped in the Blood of Jesus and start wiping away the recorded information from their books. The pages of their records would start out as a clean slate.  All their past sins were indeed washed in the Blood of the Lamb.

              The hearers could be  like the Samaritan woman with five husbands and the one living with her was not her husband… or they could have committed murder like Saul did. They may have committed all kinds of atrocities and things. But we don’t tell them to clean themselves up before Jesus comes.  You know what we tell them? We tell them all they have to do is give Him all their sins, pains, heartaches, sufferings and He will come into your life. When He comes in ,you will know that He is real and you will change. Yet there are many areas in our lives that we are still struggling with. Perhaps fifty percent, or thirty percent, or the ten percent that still needs to change.  We need to learn the to apply the same key. It is not in the of accepting of Jesus but it is the welcoming of Him into your weak area. And you must believe in the Word. You must believe that He changes us and not we change ourselves. If you have a billion years to change yourself, you will never be able to do it on your own. You have to accept Him into your heart and mind. You cannot change the rest of your fifty percent or your thirty percent or your ten percent on your own. You must acknowledge that you cannot do so without the help of Jesus.

              There are those too that you preach the gospel to who will not accept Jesus, because they feel they can change themselves. They feel they can run their own life. They feel that they don’t need Jesus. Jesus stays away from them until they are willing for Him to come in. If we don’t acknowledge that we can’t change ourselves He can’t help. When finally after the millionth time you tried to change yourself, you failed and you know you failed…what then? you are back to square one where you started. You realize only He can change you. That… is the first step to Him changing you. Finally, you realize there can’t be any change through any reformation or renovation, unless there is a revelation of Jesus. And finally you bow yourself before the Almighty God and like the publican you come to Him and say, “O God I am a terrible sinner, I tried and tried but now I know that all my self-efforts are useless. I need You, Lord to come into my heart and reveal Yourself to me.” 

              The Pharisee boasts of all his good works and Jesus said when they left the temple it was the publican that was changed and not the Pharisee.  Part of acknowledging Jesus and the righteousness of Jesus is recognizing that we are nothing. That we can do nothing, that we can achieve nothing. All our human efforts are nothing. All our human righteousness is nothing. All our human wisdom is nothing. Finally we come to that state where we say, “Lord it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me. Jesus You know my strength and my weakness. Jesus You know my bad temper. Jesus You know my pain. Jesus You know my heartache. Jesus You know my worries. Jesus You know my anxieties.  Jesus You know my bad habits. Jesus You know my smoking problem. Jesus You know my drinking problem. Jesus I cannot change myself but I want to welcome You to change me.” And finally you bow to Jesus and say, “Jesus I am not changed because I haven’t got the revelation of You in my life.”

              And all He asks is a willing heart. Are you willing to let Him reveal Himself?  If you are willing, all you have to do is to acknowledge Him. Say, “I need You, I thank You, reveal Yourself to me right now in my life.” If you have a drinking problem and right now you are about to fall, immediately pray to Him say, “Jesus I can’t do this by myself I need you to reveal Yourself to me in a major way…help me be strong,” and He will.  If you have a smoking problem, then right where the cigarette was in your hand when your hands were shaking you are about to fall call upon Him. When you are about to do anything wrong because of your weaknesses right where you are call upon Him. And this is what happens at first you sense a difference forming on your inside - a new kind of understanding of Jesus’ love and power.

              Let’s say you have a drinking problem, at first you will feel a bit uncomfortable calling on Jesus. Then as you continue calling on Him, you feel more and more uncomfortable with the drinking until finally it becomes distasteful to you. And you just don’t want it any more. This happens through the grace of God. Some of us are so ashamed of our failures and our weaknesses that we never bring them to Jesus. Some of us are so ashamed of our failures that we never dare to talk about it to Jesus. We only ask for His forgiveness we never ask for His revelation.

              You ask, “Why do I need the revelation?” I will give you a theological answer. Behind all your weaknesses are flaws that have developed in your life that even you do not know. For a person who has an alcohol problem, it is not the lust for alcohol that binds him. It is that vacuum that he felt before he got into the alcohol that has established itself in his life. Later the alcohol represents something else that was the cause of the avacuum in his life. It’s not just the taste of the alcohol, but its something deeper than that. A lot of homosexuals have that problem because they are crying out for a father. And they feel they could be satisfied with men’s love. A lot of lesbians are crying out for motherly favor. A lot of people who are alcoholics could be crying out for security. There is some need in your sub-conscious that even you don’t know. You were not born that way. And only the revelation of Jesus so gentle, so beautiful, can reveal itself to your inside and touch you.

At first, you are not conscious of Him touching you. Why? Because He is healing your inner most parts first. And as it rises out from your inside suddenly it touches the part where your desire for those wrong things has been abiding and voila!!!! it disappears. Jesus starts from your inside. Let me encourage you, do not be ashamed of what you think is your failure or your weaknesses. Give them all to Jesus. Then surrender yourself, position yourself for Him to reveal himself to your insides.

              You can do it in many ways, in worship, in prayer, in listening to the Word, in reading the Word. But remember those things themselves don’t change you. But those things position you. And what is happening is… the veil is dropping from you. The veil that has been built all those years slowly drops off and the light of Jesus shines into a new area in your life and you are turned into another man. And you find new things in you that you never found before. You find new strength in you that you never have found before. You find new understanding in yourself that you never have found before. You find new wisdom in your life that you have never found before. Because now it is Him who is living through that area since now, with unveiled face, you are beholding the glory of the Lord.