Harold Vaughan: Let’s think for a moment tonight about the second protocol, the cleansing protocol, the cleansing protocol. Now, Psalm chapter twenty four asks this question, who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Who’s going to stand before God?

Who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath. Say it out loud.

clean hands. And he that hath a pure heart. It’s the cleansing protocol.

How are we to approach God? How can a human being, a brother have clean hands and a pure heart? Well, uh, this word clean means innocent, spotless or guiltless.

And when the Bible says he that has clean hands, it’s talking about deeds or actions or works. When it talks about a pure heart, it’s talking about motives and attitudes. So how how can a man ascend the hill of the Lord?

How can a man approach, approach the throne of God with clean hands and a pure heart? You know, it says in Peter, be diligent that you may be found of him in peace, without spot and blameless, without spot, and blameless. Tozer said, When God declares a man righteous, he instantly sets about to make him righteous.

It’s the cleansing protocol. What can wash away my sins? Y’all can do better than that.

What can wash away my sins? Oh, I’ll tell you what. It’s the cleansing protocol.

The Bible talks about clean hands. It doesn’t say cleaner, it says clean, it doesn’t say better. It says clean.

It doesn’t say improved. It says clean. I grew up on a tobacco farm.

I know you have no knowledge of that. At least I hope you don’t. But it was a messy business.

And when you would harvest tobacco, it’d be about one hundred degrees. We’d start out early in the morning, we’d work all day. We’d go down the rows of tobacco in bright or flue cured tobacco.

You have to pick the leaves starting from the ground up. And as we would go through those rows and the dew would burn off and it would get hot and sweltering. Tobacco leaves have tars.

It has tar in them, just like pavement, just like asphalt. It’s just as black. It’s just as thick.

And of course, we were never very smart. You know, I tell you that the smart guys are in Florida and here I am. So I wasn’t smart then either.

And we wore short sleeved shirts. Well, the tar would kick up and would, would just would just, just gang up on our arm and the hair on our arm would be filled with tar. At the end of the day, it’d be so thick.

Well, whenever we got to go to the house and it was a mad dash for the shower, we’d pull out the lava soap. How many of you remember the lava soap with pumice? Remember that?

That gritty stuff. Everybody. We’d go to work and then we had a scrub net and we’d scrub and scrub and scrub.

I’m telling you, it would take thirty to forty minutes just to dislodge the tar from our arms. It was it felt so incredibly good to be clean. But, brother, it feels better to be clean when you get washed by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Listen, he bore our sin that we might have his righteousness. He took our guilt that we might have his grace. He took our shame that we might have his smile.

He took our punishment that we might have his peace. He took our death, that we might have his life. And he took our penalty.

That we might know his pardon. My Bible tells me the blood of Jesus cleanses from all unrighteousness. Boy, I like that.

Not part of it. Not some of it. Not the worst of it, thank God.

All of it. The blood of Jesus cleanses from all unrighteousness. All.

Friend Samuel Bringle said, righteousness is conformity to the divine law, but holiness is conformity to the divine nature. Ha! The cleansing blood of Jesus.

You say, well, Harold, how do you get clean? Well, you get clean, clean hands and a pure heart. You get clean by coming clean.

You get clean by coming clean, by telling God the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth. We all know that verse. First John one nine.

If we confess, admit, agree with God about our sins, say the same thing about it. He does. He’s faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

That’s total cleansing, man. That’s perfection. Pretty good.

This is really good preaching. I, I’m, I’m, I at least I’m going to enjoy it if you’re not, I’m just telling you that this is good news right here. The gospel is good news for bad people.

Now listen to this. Never confess the same identical sin twice. Confess your sin, individual sins one time.

Because if you confess them the second time, that means you didn’t believe God forgave you the first time. Even though God said if you’d confess it, you’d forgive you. You don’t have to.

You don’t have to appease God by by incremental penance. You don’t you don’t have to confess a hundred times. And it’s not the will of God for you to go around under a cloud of guilt and condemnation and shame and all of this kind of stuff.

I’m just here to tell you that he who the son makes free, he is free indeed. And brother, after you confess your sin one time, then you ought to enter the gratitude protocol immediately. Amen.

Thank you, Lord, for forgiving me. Now listen to me. If you don’t feel thankful, that’s got nothing to do with it.

You don’t have to wait till you feel like doing something to do it. You don’t have to wait till you feel thankful to give thanks. And you’re going to come a whole lot closer into into acting your way into feeling than feeling your way into acting.

Alright, so don’t sit around trying to work up some gratitude. No. Just enter into his gates with thanksgiving.

If your heart condemns you. He’s greater than your heart. It’s a faith thing.

You gotta believe God. You say, well, how do you. How do you get clean?

Well, Proverbs twenty eight thirteen, The Bible says, he who covers his sins, conceals, hides his sin. He’s not going to prosper. But whoever confesses and forsakes is going to have mercy.

You know how you come clean. I’ll tell you how. I’ll tell you how to get clean.

Admit it. Quit it and forget it. Say that out loud.

Admit it. Quit it and forget it. Say it one more time.

Admit it. Quit it and forget it. Whoever confesses, admits it, uh.

And forsakes it quits it shall have mercy. Forget it. And you don’t need to wallow in guilt and self remorse and all this kind of stuff, brother.

I’m. It’s the cleansing. It’s the cleansing protocol.

Now, the Bible says that we can have clean hands and a pure heart by telling God the truth, the whole truth. Admit it. Quit it and forget it.

I’m just telling you, it’s wonderful to be clean in the presence of the Lamb. So I want you. I want us to practice the cleansing protocol.

And if there’s anything condemning upon your conscience and upon your heart that you’ve not put under the blood by admitting it and quitting it and forgiving. Now’s the time to just confess your sin. Agree with God about it, put it under the blood, and then go right off into the gratitude protocol and thank God for cleansing.

Could we do that? Maybe. Let’s bow our heads.

Maybe if you want to kneel, I’d be alright too. But just bow your head before the Lord and let’s practice the cleansing, the cleansing protocol.