Title: The Bloodline of a Champion – 5
“Access Granted”
Text: Hebrews 10:19-22
According to our text, we have a right to access the very throne of God. We have a right to enter into the Holy of Holies through the blood of Jesus. The blood gives us access to everything that we ever need from Jesus Himself.
The word access is defined by William Barclay in his book New Testament words:
Bringing chosen men into the presence of God that they may be ordained as priests for His worship and his service
The bringing of someone into the presence of something specially sacred and holy
Introducing a person into the presence of some higher authority
Introducing a person into the presence of royalty
Every definition of access implies the introduction of someone. If I were to go and meet the Prime Minster of Canada I would have to have an invitation to do so. Someone along side of the Prime Minister would have to escort me in to see him. I could not show up at the Parliament Building unannounced and expect to see him. It doesn’t work that way.
The same is true when we enter into the presence of King of Kings and Lord of Lords. The priests of the Old Testament would never be allowed to enter into His presence unannounced. There had to be something or someone to give him access and that something was the blood of a spotless lamb. He had to access without blood. Now, under the New Covenant, it is the blood of Jesus that grants us access into the very presence of God Himself.
Webster Dictionary (1828 edition) defines access as:
A coming to; near approach; admittance; admission; to gain access to royalty
Approach or the way by which a thing may be approached; as, the access is by a neck of land
Means of approach; liberty to approach; implying previous obstacles
HINDRANCES REMOVED
One of the definitions of access implies that previous hindrances have been removed in order to have liberty to approach. The veil in the temple was torn when Jesus died.
Hebrews 10:20, “Through the veil, that is to say, his flesh.”
According to this verse, the veil that blocked the entrance into the Holy of Holies was the body of Jesus. When His flesh was torn we were granted access into Christ, into the Holy of Holies, into His very presence. The blood is what grants us access! God sees us in Christ! Access through the veil (His flesh) gives us access into Christ, which is the same thing as seeing yourself through the blood.
Ephesians 2:18, “For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.”
Ephesians 3:12, “In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of Him.”
Through faith in the blood we are granted access into the closest fellowship possible with Jesus Himself. We have been granted access and admission into the very presence of royalty, into the very presence of God Himself. That’s awesome!!!
“When we exercise our right of access to God, it gives God access to our lives and to our needs.”
Romans 5:2, “By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherin we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”
The Amplified says, “Through Him also we have (our) access (entrance, introduction) by faith into this grace (state of God’s favour).”
By faith in the blood we access His grace, His empowerment!
FREE FROM SIN
I John 1:7, “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin.”
Smith Wigglesworth: “You will enter into a realm of illumination, a realm of revelation by the power of the Holy Spirit. He reveals the preciousness and the power of the blood of Christ. I have found by the revelation of the Spirit that there is not one thing in me that the blood does not cleanse. I have found that God sanctifies me by the blood and reveals the effectiveness of His works by the Spirit.”
Although sin may try to damage you, reaching all the way into the very fabric of your personality, the blood of Jesus has a far greater reach. It cleanses us completely and removes every trace of the stain that sin leaves. Not only does the blood remove sin, but it removes all the stench of sin with it.
II Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.”
The word “new” in this Scripture means, “New in kind or new in quality.” It literally means “Unheard of before.”
The moment you became born again, you became a new creation in Christ. You became new in kind or new in quality. Some translations say, “A new species of being that never existed before.” In other words, becoming a Christian is more then just having your sins forgiven, you actually become a new person in Christ. Notice is says, “If any person is in Christ.” It doesn’t say if any person is in the church, it says “In Christ.” Paul uses the terminology, “In Christ, New Creation, Unheard of before, new in kind, a new kind of person,” so that there would be no doubt that we understand that we are a new person IN Christ! You are such a different person IN Christ, that you need someone to introduce you to your new self.
God has freed you from sin and has given you His life.
John 10:10, “I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly.”
Sometimes we hear that we have eternal life and we think that we will live forever, but eternal life refers to the quality of life, not the duration of life. This life Jesus is speaking of is the life of God. The moment you become born again, the life of Jesus comes inside you. When you made Jesus your Lord, the same life that overcame at the resurrection came into your spirit. And God never loses! God is a champion and because His life is inside you, that makes you a champion.
God overflows with life. He has so much of this life in Him that He radiates with energy and with power. Blessing, love, joy, peace, favour, goodness and glory all reside on the inside of you because you have the life of Jesus Christ inside you. His royal blood now flows through my veins.
God has an unlimited source of this life and one of the reasons for Jesus’ coming was not to take you to Heaven, but to get Heaven in you. He wanted to make you more than a match for the devil right here in this world. He took the life of God and put that life into your spirit.
I John 5:4, “For whatsoever is born of God overcomes the world: and this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith.”
RADICAL IDENTITY CHANGE
After thirty years of ministry, the Apostle Paul said to the Philippian believers:
Philippians 3:10, “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death.”
In other words, Paul was saying, “I may know Jesus, but I want to really know Him. What I would like to do is just get lost in Him. I just want to know who I am in Him.” Have you ever gotten lost in the presence of the Lord? Paul’s desire was to just be lost in His presence. He wanted to know Jesus and not just know Jesus but know who He is IN Christ. Paul had a real radical identity change and still wanted to know Him more.
Your destiny is connected to your identity. You cannot reach your destiny without a change of identity.
Jacob could never have reached his destiny if he had not become Israel. God changed his identity, then had to change his name, because he wasn’t the same man he was before.
Abram did not reach his destiny until he became Abraham.
Sarai did not receive the promise until her name was changed to Sarah.
Gideon had to see himself as “a mighty man of valour” before he could reach his destiny.
God had to change Saul’s name into Paul before he was able to write nearly 2/3 of the New Testament.
There has to be a radical identity change or you will revert back to what others may have labelled you. We must accept God’s Word in our lives. We are who God says we are! It is time to get in the Word and start realizing who you are in Christ.
Psalm 8:3-5; ¶ “When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; 4 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? 5 For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.”
Ephesians 2:10; “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”
Psalm 139:13-18; “You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous – how well I know it. 15 You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. 16 You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in Your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. 17 How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! 18 I can’t even count them; they outnumbered the grains of sand! And when I wake up, you are still with me!” (NLT)
Romans 8:31-32; ¶ “What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? 32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?”
Romans 8:37, “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.”
Through all these Scriptures, do you get any idea of who you really are to God? We need to have a radical identity change and understand that we are who God says we are! We have been born again! It no longer matters who you were born to in the natural. It no longer matters what your last name is, what matters is who God says you are!
I Peter 2:9, “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.”
Revelation 1:5-6, “Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”
You are a priest with a royal lineage. Royalty runs in your family. As a king, you reign in life through one man, Jesus Christ. In the Old Testament, only the priest had access into the Holy of Holies and the presence of God. In the New Testament, everybody in the body of Christ has been made a priest through the blood of Jesus. We have been granted access into the Holy of Holies.
Smith Wigglesworth once said, “You need to see how wonderful you are in God and how helpless you are in yourself.”
