The Essentials Part 6: Salvation by Blood and by Power

The Essentials Part 6: Salvation by Blood and by Power 

We are continuing our series on "The Essentials." These are important doctrines that will help you resist the cultural attacks on our Christian faith. This week we will continue our study looking at "Salvation by Blood and by Power." When we complete this study, you will be able to spot the counterfeit "holy spirit" "salvation" which is not really salvation. People are headed to hell because they made a decision for Jesus or a profession of faith or joined the church and no one has told them the truth. The doctrine of Salvation by Blood and by Power will teach you what salvation is and how it comes about. Don't be deceived with some of the heresies that are being promoted as salvation. Read the Word for the truth.

Part 1: Personal Testimony

I will never forget when God awakened me to my lost condition. He showed me how lost I was. I saw all the pain and suffering I had caused my loved ones, family and friends, and more importantly, He showed me how much I had grieved Him, mocked the sacrifice and the shedding of blood from the Lord Jesus Christ, and how I had rejected, grieved, and pushed away the Holy Spirit. God showed me my sin nature and how ugly I was on the inside. I faced a crisis in my life. How could a Holy God want me for His child? I was bound by Satan, a prisoner of Satan, demon possessed. Sin held me a prisoner and I was under the curse of the Law and condemned to die. I was rebellious against God, hated Him, and knew not the Lord Jesus Christ. I knew about Him, but I did not know Him experientially.

When the LORD awakened me to my lost condition, He dealt with me by His Holy Spirit and I was brought to see I was a sinner, a lost sinner, an ungodly sinner, a rebellious sinner, a wicked sinner, a guilty sinner, a hell deserving sinner, a sinner held captive by Satan, sin and the world. It was then that the Holy Spirit began to teach me that salvation is not only by BLOOD but by POWER. I had to be delivered from Satan's power, and I could NOT be delivered by my own decision to accept Jesus as my Savior.

Part 2: Salvation by Power

Let us review some Scriptures on this topic:

1. 1 Corinthians 2: 4-5: "And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of POWER: that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the POWER OF GOD."

2. 1 Thessalonians 1: 5: "For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in POWER, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance...."

3. 1 Thessalonians 2: 13: "For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but it is truth, THE WORD OF GOD, which EFFECTIVELY WORKETH also in you that believe."

4. Hebrews 4: 12-13: "For the word of God is quick (alive), and POWERFUL, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do."

5. It is the Word of God preached under the POWER of the Holy Spirit that God uses to DELIVER a sinner. II Corinthian 13: 10 reads: "Therefore I write these things being absent, lest being present I should use sharpness, ACCORDING TO THE POWER which the Lord hath given me to edification, and not to destruction."

6. Hebrews 13: 7: "Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation."

7. 1 Corinthians 4: 18-21: "Now some are puffed up, as though I would not come to you. But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord will, and will know, not the speech of them which are puffed up, but the POWER. For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in POWER. What will ye? shall I come unto you with a rod, or in love, and in the spirit of meekness?"

There are two things that you will never forget in salvation, if you are ever saved, and that is that you were a captive under Satan's authority and that you were delivered by power in the Lord Jesus Christ. No sinner will ever forget how he cried unto the Lord for cleansing by His blood, because he sees himself so filthy and unclean, and he knows that he can only be cleansed by the blood of Christ. He knows that the basis of his salvation is the blood of Christ, or the gospel of Christ., which is "Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures" (1 Corinthians 15: 3, 4). Then second, no sinner will ever forget how he cried unto the Lord for deliverance from the oppression and bondage of Satan and sin until God delivered him from the power of Satan. He will always rejoice in the fact that Christ died for him, that his sins are forgiven, and that he is pardoned from the guilt of sin, and the penalty of sin, which is death. And he will always rejoice in the fact that he has been delivered from the practice of sin. He knows he is saved by the grace of God and not his works. Christ is real and experimental to him, and he can cry, "I am what I am by the grace of God!" SALVATION IS A DELIVERANCE BY POWER!

Isaiah 61: 1 reads: "The Spirit of the LORD GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted, TO PROCLAIM LIBERTY TO THE CAPTIVES, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound."

"TO PROCLAIM LIBERTY TO THE CAPTIVES."  First, let's look at the word, "proclaim."  Proclaim means to preach, announce publicly, announce officially. Here we have a public proclamation of an official decree by someone in authority.  The Hebrew word means "call" or "call out loud," also cry out loud or shout. The prophet Isaiah foretold that the Lord Jesus Christ was anointed to PROCLAIM liberty to the captives. On the cross, after the Lord Jesus paid our sin debt and wrestled with principalities and powers, He gave one shout, and cried aloud, "IT IS FINISHED!" It was a public proclamation that has sounded throughout the earth, sea, and sky that Jesus Christ is Conqueror and Satan's captives have been declared free. This shout was heard in the courtroom of heaven and all heaven rejoiced. At the same time, hell trembled. That's the way every sinner is saved; he is dead in sin (Ephesians 2: 1), and the voice of the Son of God cries aloud in that dead sinner's heart, "Awake!" That sinner comes forth from the tomb of death (Ephesians 5: 14). My sinner friend, have you heard the cry, "Awake!"

I praise the Lord Jesus Christ for the POWER of God's Word sent home by the Holy Spirit under the preaching of the Gospel of Christ that won't let a sinner rest in the sleep of death and the snare of Satan. That is the POWER of the Gospel to save lost sinners. The sinner is in stocks and bonds of Satan, so to speak, but he does not realize this fact until he is thoroughly awakened by the POWER of God's Holy Spirit through the Word, the Gospel of His salvation.  "The gospel is the POWER of God unto salvation to every one that believeth " (Romans 1: 16). The Gospel, which is the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ is the POWER of God to SHOUT DELIVERANCE TO THE CAPTIVE. In the death of Christ His blood was spilled to cleanse the sinner from his sins; in the tomb the Lord Jesus Christ invaded the kingdom of death, and in the resurrection, He opened the prison doors. 

The Lord Jesus Christ has commissioned and empowered His servants to "PROCLAIM LIBERTY TO THE CAPTIVES," and as the Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 13: 10: "Therefore I write these things being absent, lest being present I should use sharpness, ACCORDING TO THE POIWER which the Lord hath given me to edification, and not to destruction." Please get this: when God uses His messenger to proclaim, or "SHOUT DELIVERANCE" to the captive, he often has to "USE SHARPNESS, according to the POWER (authority) which the Lord hath given" him, in order to AWAKEN YOU out of your sleep of death, and you don't like it. You don't like that message because it disturbs you, so you fight back at the message. It's the Lord SHOUTING to you, trying to CALL you to COME OUT OF SATAN'S PRISON HOUSE, because the prison doors are open!

My listening friend, if you are unsaved, why won't you come out of the prison house? I do know the answer; it's because you have never seen the awful condition you are in. How can the sinner know his awful condition unless he is awakened by the Holy Spirit to that awful fact? How will the sinner ever know that he is not free if he never knows he is bound? How will he know he has been set free until he knows he has been a prisoner of Satan? He will know when the Lord shows him his lost condition, grants him the gift of faith and repentance, and He breaks the power of sin and delivers him by His force and power. I came to know the freedom in Christ because "If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed" (John 8: 36). It is absolutely marvelous to be set free! Do you know this experientially?

Part 3: The Nature of Satan's Captivity

I want to show you how Satan has you captive, that you may flee to Christ for deliverance. In the first place, how did sinners become Satan's captives? 2 Peter 2: 19 says: "Of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage." God permitted for His glory, that Satan would be allowed to take man as a captive of war, and man became Satan's lawful captive. When Adam and Eve yielded to Satan's temptation, they came under his control as lawful captives, which put all mankind under the control and influence of Satan. By the sin of one-man death passed upon all mankind (Romans 5: 12). Therefore, as a result of Adam's captivity, every son of Adam was BORN a captive of Satan.

Let us look at the NATURE of this captivity. First, we see that it is UNIVERSAL. It extends to all mankind, every race, color, and creed. The natural man's mind is Satan's captive, according to 1 Corinthians 2: 14: "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God...foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." You are robbed of your light. Not only are you deprived of light, but Satan gives a false light, which leads the individual into pits and snares of false concepts of God.

Then your will is shackled, and Satan holds you fast. Your heart is loaded down with chains that it cannot come to Christ. John 6: 44 reads: "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him." Do you see how helpless you are without Christ? It does little good for me to tell you that Christ has promised you freedom unless He gives you POWER to be delivered. Praise God!!! He has!

Further, see that man's AFFECTIONS are held captive by Satan. He loves darkness rather than light, because his deeds are evil (John 3: 19). "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do." (John 8: 44) The most tragical thing about the sinner is that he loves sin, he loves his captivity. The sinner loves his lusts. He hates holiness and righteousness.

Next, we see that this is a HARD AND SORE captivity. "The wages of sin is death" (Romans 6: 23). "The soul that sinneth, it shall die" (Ezekiel 18: 4). "The way of the transgressor is hard (Proverbs 13: 15). "He that covereth his sins shall not prosper" (Proverbs 28: 13). This is a PERPETUAL captivity. Death will find you captive unless God delivers you. Hell will be your prison house throughout eternity. Awake sinner, awake!

Lastly, it is a VOLUNTARY captivity. Do you realize that you are a captive by your own consent and choice? If you make the decision that you will not rest until you are set free, you cry until God delivers you, you refuse to let anyone stop you, and you refuse to rest until the POWER of the gospel sets you free, you will be set free through the blood sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Yours is a DESPERATE CASE, but there is hope in Christ.

Part 4: The Condition of the Lost

With these facts in mind, let us look at what CONDITIONS Satan's captives are in. First, Satan's kingdom is a kingdom of DARKNESS. Colossians 1: 13 says, "God hath delivered us from the power of darkness." Romans 1: 21 says that man's heart is darkened, which means that there is no light shining into that heart apart from the grace of God. 2 Corinthians 4: 3-4 states that the mind is blinded, that it can't see; Ephesians 4: 18, his understanding is darkened, he can't perceive, he can't discern right from wrong. The glory of God has departed from man. He is far from God, living in a far country, a land of waste and darkness. He is far away from God's covenant of grace and does not and cannot walk in fellowship with Christ. Sinners are not where God first set them in the Garden of Eden, in perfect innocence with the glory of God as their covering, walking in fellowship with the LORD God: they have been transferred into Satan's kingdom.

Then every sinner in Satan's kingdom is PLUNDERED AND ROBBED of all that is available. The sinner thinks he is rich, but the truth is, they "art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked," and don't know it (Revelation 3: 17).

Then again, you are not MASTER OF YOUR-SELF. You are under the power and authority of the conqueror unless you have been delivered. You may think you are free, but you are blind. Your liberty is gone; you are a slave to the worst of masters. You are just a poor sinner at Satan's beck and call. Satan is your conqueror. If there is a conviction of sin, Satan soon tries to tear it from you. THANK GOD FOR SALVATION BY BLOOD AND POWER, IT OVERCOMES ALL OF SATAN'S POWER.

Conclusion

As we conclude this message, it should be clear why we began this series entitled, “The Essentials.” There are mostly false heretical teachings in our land. The Word of God is not being preached. The series covered:

1. The Depravity of Man: Man is not able to come to Christ on his own without grace being given to him.

2. The Sovereignty of God: God is Sovereign over everything that happens in our world, including the salvation of souls.

3. Holy Spirit Conviction: There is no salvation apart from Holy Spirit conviction. That is a supernatural act.

4. The Doctrine of the Holy Spirit: This included rediscovering the role of the Holy Spirit in salvation, being filled with the Holy Spirit, and walking in the Spirit.

5. Salvation by Blood and by Power:

Satan’s hands, and cooperating with him in rebellion against God. You can’t win! You are a fool if you believe Satan’s lie, and his empty promises. Now be clear, Satan is no little tin soldier with whom we have to deal. We can’t cope with him in our own wisdom and strength. Only by redemption can a sinner be brought out of darkness and delivered from the power of Satan and translated into the kingdom of the Son of God (Colossians 1: 13). My friend if you hear God’s call you will know that Christ died for your sins, that He died in your place and that your redemption in Christ is complete. May the Holy Spirit bring you to see that all your sins were laid on Him, and that He is the Just for the unjust died that you might live. Cry out today, “God be merciful to me, a sinner.” Friend, who are you worshiping: Christ or Satan?