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Pastor Mark Mikels – May 3, 2009

“COMPLETELY CLEANSED”

(More To Me Series – Part Three)

Intro … This little “More To Me Series” is built upon some key confessions – in fact, if I were to title this series at the three week point, I would probably
call it …
“Confessions Of A Vibrant Christian”.

Here are the Key Confessions that underlie the series and that lead directly to other “confessions” that have the power to literally transform our daily lives …

“There’s more to me than meets the eye.”
“My real life is hidden with Christ in God.”
“You can’t really know me without knowing something of Him.”

Here’s the point … You can’t really know me and I can’t really know me without knowing something of the Person and Work of Jesus Christ.

But the more I know of Him … the more I know who I am and what I am in Him for my real life is “hidden with Him” and defined by Him.

Two weeks ago we began assembling some Key Facts together – facts that define Him and thus explain us who follow Him.

Fact #1 …
“He Is The Bread Of Life Come Down From Heaven,
I Am Nourished By Him.”

Fact #2 …
“He Is The Light Of The World,
I No Longer Walk In Darkness.”

These are powerful truths … they are powerful confessions – they could become “daily affirmations” … Reminders of who we are and what we are as Born-Again Followers of Jesus.
Today in this brief Communion Meditation consider with me …

“More To Me Series Key Fact #3 …

“He is the LAMB of God who TAKES away SIN,
I have been completely CLEANSED by Him.”

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said,
“Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”
(John 1:29)

Two Critical Questions arise from that great key fact …

1. HOW DOES HE TAKE AWAY SIN?

* By BECOMING Sin…

2 Corinthians 2:21a
“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us …”

* By Being PUNISHED For Sin…

Isaiah 53:6 & 5
“We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to his own way; and
the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

“He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed
for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace
was upon him and by his wounds we have been healed.”

* By Offering His BLOOD In PAYMENT For Sin…

Hebrews 9:12;
“He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but
He entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood,
having obtained eternal redemption.

(Hebrews 10:12-14)
“But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.”

What a moment that must have been … When the Son of God, the designated “Lamb of God” – acting as the ultimate “High Priest of God” – offered His Own Shed Blood before the Throne of God.

And having done that – he sat down at the right hand of God to await the culmination of the Plan of God.

He has done all that he can do – all that needs to be done – to take away the sins of the world. Sin – Those who place their faith in Him will be completely and eternally cleansed.

2. WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE COMPLETELY CLEANSED?

* My PAST Has Been ERASED …

Jeremiah 31:34
“No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying,
`Know the LORD,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the LORD. “For I will forgive their wickedness and
will remember their sins no more.”

* My RECORD Has Been REVERSED …

2 Corinthians 5:21b
“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him
we might become the righteousness of God.”