“If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear (Psalm 66:18.)” What is the cause of ineffective prayer? Sin in the life: Unconfessed, uncorrected, rebellious sin in the life. “When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Wash yourselves. Make yourselves clean. Put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes (Isaiah 1:15-16.)” So God is saying, “Your prayers are worthless.” But there's a solution. When God talks about “washing,” there are three washings in the Bible; the first is salvation. “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy, He saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5.)” He saved us by the “washing of regeneration,” a one time, once for all, cleansing all sin forgiven, all penalty removed, and the righteousness of Christ imputed to the person who believes.
For those who have believed, they already have eternal life. But as we go along through life, we think, say, or do various sins. We realize the need to take those things to God on a moment by moment, day by day basis. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1Jo 1:9.)” And so we have the cleansing of confession. You know, I've had people tell me, “I haven't had to confess anything in months,” and I just think you're brain dead.
You know, so many times it's moment by moment. I don't know why it is, but one of the toughest areas for me to stay in fellowship is when I'm driving. I'm not as bad as I used to be. I'd be on the horn. And right then you've got to say, “Lord, I know that was out of line.” Because if we don't catch ourselves, we get sloppy. How easy it is to say, “Well, this is just the way I am.” No, God didn't make you into the knot-head that you are. First of all, you were affected by the fall of Adam. Secondly, you were born with inherent sin from your parents.
And third, you choose wrong decisions all the time. The third washing is what we call “sanctification.” In simple terms, spiritual growth. It's growing into the likeness and the conformity of Christ. It's growing into spiritual maturity. “... Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word (Ephesians 5:25-26.)”
The constant effect of the word as it's received, in faith as we allow it to go to work in our life, and as we allow the Spirit of God to make it real and meaningful in our life, is going to have a life changing effect, which is really a marvelous thing when you think about it. It's not after the fact. It's not after you fell in the mud hole. It's seeing the mud hole and avoiding it. And that's the best kind of cleansing. It's the cleansing that keeps you from it.
Check out the complete Isaiah series here:
https://basictraining.org/all-audio-messages/
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