If They Can Tag You, They Can Bag You: Justified by Faith

Sermon outline

You are justified freely by faith in the blood of Jesus and not by your works, so renew your mind, refuse the labels of religion and of people who know your past, and come to God as a son who is always received.

1. Faith in His blood: your blood-bought rights

   People say 'apply the blood' without knowing what the blood has done for them. By the blood of Jesus you have been made righteous, cleansed from sin and freed from every generational curse, and you enter the presence of God. You have a blood-bought right to answered prayer, to be sanctified, to God's protection and to long life.

   Illustration: When you come into the presence of God, the angels look at you and say, 'I've got to do something for him. I've got to do something for her.'

   “By the blood of Jesus, you have been made righteous.”

   • Romans 3:23-25

2. You are in training: do not go back to Egypt thinking

   People come from churches where condemnation was preached and are now being taught the word of faith. Then they go home, feel sick or get bad news, and revert to religious thinking: God must be afflicting me because I am getting holy. He says you are in training. It is the doers of the Word who are justified, so when affliction hits your body, stand up and speak to it. You are designed to succeed, not to fail.

   Illustration: When the doctor gives you his report as a fact, put on your boxing gloves and tell the devil to leave your child and your body alone.

   “I'm not designed to fail. I'm designed to become a success.”

   • Hebrews 1:14
   • Romans 2:13

3. Faith is a law: connect

   God is just and the justifier of the one who believes in Jesus. Boasting is excluded, not by the law of works but by the law of faith, and a law works when you employ it. Come to God without faith and without understanding your righteousness and there is no result. When you have had an awkward day and do not feel that God is listening, go by the fact, and more than the fact, the truth: God hears your prayer.

   Illustration: A drilling machine will not make a hole in the wall if the extension plug is not connected and switched on: no power, no result, no hole.

   “So, faith is a law. If we employ it, it will work.”

   • Romans 3:25-31

4. Abraham believed God: say 'I am a saint of God'

   Abraham did not work to get God's attention; he believed God and it was counted to him. You will make it, not because of your family, surname, genealogy or church, but because of the righteousness of God. Those who struggle to call themselves saints have not renewed their minds. One of the biggest struggles in the church is unlearning what you were wrongly taught, which is why a new believer simply believes while the older one compares every message with one he heard years ago.

   Illustration: The man who rewinds to a service in 1999 at 6 p.m., remembers what that preacher said and compares it with today's message: analyse, analyse, analyse, paralysed.

   “One of the biggest struggles people have in the church is trying to unlearn what they have been wrongly taught.”

   • Romans 4:1-3
   • Romans 12:2
   • 2 Corinthians 10:5

5. Preach the Word, not sermons

   No message you have heard is greater than the Word. Some sermons put people to sleep like an anaesthetic, but the Word gives life and carries the anointing. The Lord told him to stop trying to preach sermons and to preach the Word, and he is loving the Word more and more as food for his soul.

   Illustration: In his own Bible he puts his name into the scriptures: 'For God has justified Roshan, made him the righteousness of God. He stands before God justified just as if he's never sinned.'

   “No message you heard is greater than the Word.”

   • John 15:7
   • Matthew 4:4

6. Religion will kill you: people label you, God tells you your destiny

   It was the religious people, the Pharisees and Sadducees, who came against Jesus and wanted to stone Him for calling God His Father, and it is religious Christians who attack a Spirit-filled church. When you make up your mind to serve God you stir up supporters and opposition, sometimes inside the church, as Judas was. People hold you to your past, but it is Christ who justifies and changes you. God meets you when you are nothing and tells you where you are going.

   Illustration: People say, 'I know you. I know your father, your grandfather, your granny. You drank, you smoked, you cheated.' They like to label you, because once you are tagged you can be bagged and sealed.

   “People like to label you because if they can tag you, they can bag you.”

   • John 8:53-59
   • John 5:18
   • Jeremiah 1:5
   • Jeremiah 29:11

7. His presence prospers you, and a son can always come

   The house of Obed-Edom prospered for the three months the ark was there, and the ark stands for the presence of God. If you have His presence you have to prosper and be healed, and you deserve it because you are the righteousness of God and a son of God. Knowing who you are means answered prayer and changed situations are no longer a problem, because as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.

   Illustration: If a visitor wants to see him he does not have to see them, but whatever he is busy with, and whatever mood he is in, his son can come and say, 'Hey, Dad, I need something.' God does not say He is busy or duck behind the curtains.

   “We can go to God, hey, Dad, I need something quick.”

   • 2 Samuel 6:11
   • Proverbs 23:7

8. Killing another religious demon: open your eyes when you pray

   He says he searched from Matthew to Revelation and the Bible never records Jesus closing His eyes to pray, but several times says He looked up to heaven and blessed or gave thanks. He challenges the church to check it for themselves, and tells them to pray with their eyes open, because the Bible says watch and pray.

   “It does say Jesus looked up into heaven, blessed the bread.”

   • Matthew 14:19
   • Matthew 26:41