Freedom, Peace, Faith - in Jesus
We are Not under a CURSE. (Transcript from talk at Church in The Park).
Today I want to bring a fairly elementary understanding of something that is troubling many Christians because they have a wrong understanding through their upbringing. Many Christians feel they are under a curse or bondage placed upon them by God because of their sin. The curse is not the law – it is the penalty levied for not keeping the law (the Covenant Laws that God made for His people during the time of Moses.) In Deuteronomy 27:26 it says: “Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of the law to do them.” And then in chapter 28 it goes on to list the blessings for obedience and the consequences for disobedience. Christ has redeemed us from these curses – if we do the wrong thing, there may be consequences of our own actions, but these consequences are not brought on by God as punishment. If one wants to live under the law, the law demanded perfection& that’s impossible for sinful man.
So, when God presented Jesus as the sacrifice of atonement through faith in His blood, he did it to demonstrate His justice for the present time so that He might be the justifier of those who have faith in Jesus. So you can see here that while salvation is available to everyone, and at the cross, Jesus took on the sin of the whole world, not everyone is going to avail themselves of what was presented at the cross, because the atonement is for those who through faith in His blood, have faith in Jesus. So, out there in the world everyone has had their sin covered by the blood of God but many haven’t taken the other part – faith in Jesus. 2 Corinthians 5:21 For he made him who knew no sin to be made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
So, we’ve been made righteous with God through the faith in the sacrifice.1 John 2:2 2 And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world. Jesus died for the sins of the whole world. He was an atoning sacrifice for the lot, so it doesn’t matter if it is Hitler, Pol Pot, anyone...Jesus died for all their sins, but that doesn’t mean to say that they are going to make it into the kingdom of heaven, unless, before they died, they came to Christ. So it doesn’t matter what’s happened in the past – sin is not the problem anymore. The only sin that’s a problem is not accepting Jesus Christ and not having faith in him. Something that’s misunderstood is John 16:8 & 9
We’ve got to get back to the truth that’s going to set you free. 7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. 8 And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: 9 of sin, because they do not believe in Me; 10 of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; 11 of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. So, the Spirit reproves the world of sin because they do not believe in Him If we are going to free ourselves from this curse of sin, we need to receive the Holy Spirit, and then if we live in the Spirit, we are going to have life and peace; but if we live in the flesh, that’s going to be enmity with God. The point is that the whole thing has been made for us if we live in the spirit, we shouldn’t have any problem. Romans 5:1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, So if we’ve got that faith, we’ve got peace. 6 For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Romans 8:6 But Jesus – Ephesians 2:15 – abolished in His flesh, the enmity, or the barrier, or the curse, so making peace for us. We can put aside the fact that anything out there that we think is a curse or that we’re putting on ourselves – that’s what we are doing – we are putting it on ourselves. It’s not for us to take because we are walking in peace with God. 2 Peter 1:2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. The knowledge of God.
James 3:18 The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace. Here we are – we’ve been born in righteousness, sown in peace, God has sown it in peace, to those who make peace. So we are in right standing with God; what we have has been sown in is peace. We’ve not been sown in something else – as an angry God condemning us in any way, shape or form, we are sown in peace. James 2:16 though, says 5 If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Wrong knowledge gives wrong results. It’s about the knowledge of God. So, when we have someone who needs some help, we use the scripture, we use the knowledge of God, we don’t use our own knowledge & then as it says in John 8:32 the truth will set you free, but it’s the truth that you know that will set you free; it’s the knowledge. You’ve got to know, to set yourself free. If you’ve got yourself bound up with the wrong knowledge, you won’t set yourself free. If you put yourself under some condemnation or curse, disbelief or unbelief, you’re not going to set yourself free. It’s the truth that you know that will set you free.
Colossians 1 verse 9 ‘For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding’ Not our will; His will. It comes down to having effective knowledge. And then the effective knowledge will set us free. Verse 10 ‘that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;’ So, as we go on, we’ll be increasing in this knowledge. verse 11 & 12 ‘strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; 12 giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.’ Verse 20 ‘ having made peace through the blood of His cross. And by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.’
When Jesus Christ went to the cross, he satisfied all that we needed. 1 Corinthians 14:33 ‘For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.’ Romans 14:17 ‘For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.’ It’s not about judgment or condemnation or all these other things. Romans 14:19 ‘Therefore let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another.’ Romans 10:15 ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, Who bring glad tidings of good things!’ Ephesians 2:8 & 9 ‘For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.’
We see paradox here. Grace is something that’s given by God; it’s got nothing to do with us. A lot of people say ‘what shall I do to get a healing? What should I do?’ That is given by God. The faith is what we do. And some people say ‘you don’t have to do anything’ but you do have to do something. We have to believe in God, we have to believe what he has left for us, and this might be controversial but in the last 1986 years, Jesus Christ hasn’t healed anybody. But, the power of Jesus Christ working through disciples, or ambassadors for Christ, has healed lots of people. Christ did all of his healing at the cross. You were healed 1986 or so years ago, at the cross. Humans have a great deal to learn about time. You were healed then. You may not have appropriated the healing – but one of the things we have to learn to do, is when we pray for people, we have to speak to the situation & appropriate the power of God into their lives for them. While Jesus was on earth, he did the healing. He didn’t ask his heavenly Father to heal the people while he was walking around, did he? He’s given us the power.
We heard today in several of the messages, we have the Holy Spirit in us; we have the power inside of us. What we need to do is to speak the word. Faith is released by speaking. Romans 10:4-18 Faith is released by speaking. Words have power. That’s why we are told not to use idle words. You shouldn’t say something about yourself that is negative, because you can bring that negativity into your life. You shouldn’t say something negative about anyone else, because you can impose that upon them. Words have power. We can release faith by words that we speak. So when it comes to problems in our life and we can see that the devil is coming against us or something like that, what does it say? Resist the devil and he will flee from you. James 4:7
The point is, when we get to that point, we speak as Jesus did. When he was tempted by the devil, he quoted scripture – 3 times. We speak the words of faith and we speak into our situation, & we have happen in our lives, something which happened 2000 years ago is manifest now, through the power of Jesus Christ. We don’t have enough power ourselves to cure an ant. But the power of Jesus Christ, the power that we have in us through the Holy Spirit, can cure the world, if we acknowledge it, and if we release it into the situation by speaking. In a sense, we have been washed once in the blood, and we are washed over and over again with the word of God, and then we release faith in the knowledge that we have built up through reading the word and through listening to the Holy Spirit in our lives; we release faith. So when we go out there where we see the sick or whatever it might be, we can release them through speaking words of faith.
