Cleansed by the Blood — Robert B. Thompson

Michael, the Two Armies, and the Blood of the Lamb

Revelation 12, verses 7 -11, if you want to read along with me. And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven.

The great dragon was hurled down. That ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth and his angels with him. Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say, now have come the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ.

For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony, they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.

Now, there is hardly a more significant passage in the Bible for this reason. We are accustomed to wrestling against evil. Isn't that so? That's in Ephesians 6, verse 12. Ephesians 6, verse 12. And you all know it.

You all know the verse. How does it go? We don't wrestle against flesh and blood, but against wicked spirits. In the Greek word there is archon, which means dignitaries or lords in the heavenlies. So we are in this wrestling match.

We try to do good, and these lords, former great rulers in heaven, resist us. And every time we try to do right, they resist us. And they take advantage of our sinful nature, and play on it, and play with our mind, and deceive us, and cause immense problems.

So we're not wrestling with the Democrats, or the liberals, or the homosexuals. That's not where the wrestling match is. All they are is people that God wants to save. But it's so easy, because they're visible, to think that they're the enemy.

They're not the enemy. Communists are not the enemy. They're just more people that need to be saved. The enemy is invisible. The enemy is these great lords, these great rulers, the archons, the great rulers that rule in the heavens.

And that's where the problem comes from. So they can only be affected by holiness and prayer. They cannot be affected by voting, or education, or political moves, or the criminal justice system, or anything else.

They can't touch them. And people are saying, oh, the shooting in the high school. How do we fix it? Oh, we'll confiscate all the guns. Oh, we'll have a psychologist for every four children. We'll do it.

And they're never going to do it, because the problem is not physical. The problem is not physical. The problem is spiritual. And if you were able to destroy every gun in the world, it wouldn't change what's going on, or have a psychologist for every three children, or build another 150 ,000 jails, or get rid of all the jails, or educate everybody till they had a PhD, or whatever you're going to do.

It isn't going to do it. It's these archons in the heavens. Do they use that word today, Tony? Do you use that word today? What does it refer to? People of authority. And that's the Greek word used in Ephesians 6 .12.

These, at one time, had very prominent positions in the heavenly realm. And now, they've been cast down to a lower level somewhat, I guess. Scripture doesn't seem to be exactly clear on at what point they are.

But they exert influence on us. And that's the problem. Try sending that into the paper and explain it to them. And waste your breath. And I want to hear that. So what I want to say this morning can be summed up in a few words.

Revival, Judgment, and the Two Armies

We want revival. We're praying for revival. We're entering revival. And we love revival. Well, what we want is that power in the heavens to be destroyed. See, that's more than a revival. That's the end of sin.

And according to the scripture, that will happen. It's here in the passage we read. That will happen. Well, what's holding it up? What is holding it up is us. God, see, there's two armies. The Hebrew for that is Machanaim.

And it appears in Genesis. Jacob met them when he was returning from Laban. He met the two armies. It appears also in the sixth chapter of the Song of Solomon. What will you see in my beloved? As it were, the dance of Machanaim, the dance of a double camp.

And nothing gets done in the kingdom without those two armies. In fact, Joshua met the captain of the angelic army when they were about to enter Jericho, man with the sword in his hand. Now, there's two armies.

And to get anything done, you have to have two armies. The armies of angels do the actual fighting. We wave our arms around and talk in tongues and make emotions. We're dramatizing what we feel, but we can't punch demons.

We cannot do that. So no matter how we raise our voice or roll our hands around, it's only symbolic. We're only acting out what we're feeling. The actual power is in the spirit realm. This says there was war in heaven.

When we think of angels, we think of either babies with wings on Valentines or ladies with wings on Valentines. We don't think of armies fighting. So we have an incomplete understanding of angels, don't we?

Now, that's one army. Well, we see here that Michael and his warriors cast Satan out from where he can accuse the saints. Cast him down to the earth. What a day that will be. Whoa. Satan mad because he knows that pretty soon he's going to be out of the earth and into the bottomless pit.

So he's as mad as a mess of hornets when somebody put fire to their nest. And you can imagine what it's going to be down. Because Satan eats dust. See, that was the thing in the beginning. The curse on the serpent was eat dust.

Well, guess who is dust? We're made from the dust. That's a symbolic way of saying that Satan has an insatiable craving for human flesh. And God's way is when you have an insatiable craving for something and you don't pray about it and get victory over it, he gorges you on it until you're nauseated.

You eat quail until you wish you didn't eat quail. And that's the way he does with us. If we don't respond willingly to his gentle promptings, he says, OK, this is what you want. This is what you get.

But then we find out we can't get away from it. And so Satan's had this tremendous urge to eat flesh, which was put in him as a curse. The serpent, on your belly you'll go. And here he is on his belly in the earth.

And the seed of the woman has cast him down. And he's forced to eat flesh. He's just forced to live here. So this will be a rough day for those who don't know the Lord, who are not abiding in Christ. I mean, religious people will be swept around like straws in a hurricane.

The only ones that will stand are those who are walking in Jesus, abiding in Christ. Never mind their religion, Catholic, Protestant, or what have you. You've got to be abiding in Christ. Your religion won't save you.

Your statement of faith won't save you. What saves you is Christ. Christ is the fortress, the mighty fortress. Christ is the fortress. And when you're living in Him, even though Satan and his angels will be forced to live in the earth, you're protected just as surely as if you were in heaven.

Because the protection on earth and in heaven is the Lord Jesus Christ. A mighty fortress is our God. A bulwark never failing. Can you live with that? Remember, it is Jesus who is the wall. It is Jesus who is the fortress Himself.

Not our faith in Him, but Himself is it. So we don't have to worry about that. But the two armies, one is the army of warriors. And God the Father could have empowered them hundreds of years ago to cast Satan.

See, once the Father speaks into Michael, Michael raises his sword, the commanders raise their sword, the members of the legions, they raise their sword. And when that charge comes, Satan cannot resist it.

It's too overwhelming. It's too powerful. He'll fight. But he'll be overcome by Michael and his legions because the Father has breathed into them the word. Now, up comes Michael's sword. Up come the commanders.

Up come all the members of the legions. And then they hurl against Satan with the speed of light. An invincible army of power from the Father. And Satan fights back, but he's just overwhelmed and driven from the heaven.

He wants to have his cake and eat it too. He wants to stay up in the spirit realm and mess with us down here who are bound in animal bodies. But you see, now he'll be driven down here. Wonderful. And he doesn't like that.

He wants to do this from the spirit realm and just accuse us before the throne. So this is, as I said, one of the most significant passages of the Bible. So what we're talking about this morning is why the delay?

Why didn't God say now to Michael hundreds of years ago and save the agony and the insanity of the earth? The reason is the other army wasn't ready. The other army is people. And they are judges. We are judges.

We don't fight the angels. We are judges. And I think people don't understand that sometimes. They think, well, how come I'm not delivered from smoking or drinking or adultery or whatever it is? And they're saying, well, I've fought against it and I've prayed and I've wrestled.

And it doesn't go. The reason it doesn't go is you haven't judged it. There's no question of power. I mean, the Lord Jesus Christ has all power. There's nothing Satan can do against Jesus Christ. He said, I have all power in heaven and earth.

And he does. What he does is he waits for you to make a judgment, to say, this thing that I do is sinful. And I mean to say it so the heavens can hear it. You pass judgment. I renounce this thing. I denounce this thing.

I confess it as sin and I resist it. And when you do that, you'll weaken it to where you can overcome it. Because you see, you have passed judgment on it. We're ambivalent. We say, I want to be delivered from my lust.

We do and we don't. We do and we don't. We hate to lose it, but our religious sense tells us, yeah, we should be delivered. But we're ambivalent about it. When you make up your mind that you want it out of you and that it's condemned and it's only worthy of the lake of fire, then the spiritual power will begin to act.

You don't have to drum up spiritual power. You're a judge. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. You're a judge. Judges are the ones that bind over to the execution of sentence. You're a judge.

Now the reason that God, in fact, we'll be judging angels according to 1 Corinthians 6. That's our role. Because we're in the image of God and because God dwells in us, then we pass judgment. So in fact, Jesus said in John 22, whoever sins, you forgive or forgive him.

He's given all this judgment to the church. Well, the reason that God has not empowered Michael is that the army of judges has not been ready. See, we're ambivalent. See, the Lord says, take up your cross and follow me.

We don't do it. The Lord says, present your body a living sacrifice. We don't do it. He says, you're not part of the world. Don't act like it. We don't do it. We don't do what God has said. And that's why Satan still has access to the throne of God.

We're not waiting for the world to shape up. They're waiting for us to decide to serve God. Isn't that neat? Does that do something for you? All right. Now, according to Revelation 12, God is waiting for the appropriate number of people who will meet his standard.

And the moment that happens, see, it says, they overcame him. They overcame him. Who's the they referring to? What's the preceding expression? The accused. The brethren. The brethren who are being accused.

They overcame him. So they overcome him, and then Michael is empowered by the Father. You see how the two armies work together? The army of angels has been ready for 2 ,000 years. But the judges are not ready.

Now, is that plain? Is that plain? OK, I just finished a booklet on this. I don't see Mark. I have a ready for him called something about waiting for maturity. The title of it is Waiting for Maturity.

Christ Coming to Maturity in the Church

God is waiting for maturity on our part. Well, here's where it goes. Until we come to the level that God wants, nothing is going to happen. Until we come to the level that God wants, nothing is going to happen.

But the scriptures in Micah 5 and in Isaiah 66 and in Revelation chapter 10, those three places, Isaiah 66, Micah 5, and Revelation 10. I've gone into this before, so we won't do any more than allude to this.

Tell us that in the last days, and don't miss what I'm saying. You miss the crux of what I'm telling you about. In the last days, Christ will suddenly come to maturity in his church. This is in Isaiah 66, it's in Micah 5, and it's in Revelation 10.

Christ will suddenly come to maturity in his church. It's also in Zechariah 4, where he says you'll bring forth the headstone, crying grace, grace unto it. The headstone is Jesus. And the temple on which the headstone will be deposited is the church.

Well, we see the same thing in Revelation 12, right here where we are. We see that the woman who is the church is in travail until the male son comes forth who is to rule, which is Christ in us. My little children of whom I travail, until Christ is formed in you, Galatians 4 .19.

We are in a travail today if we're touching God and living in God, and not just in religion, but in God. We are in a travail and demands are being made on us, and we are being stretched. Anybody notice that?

You've either got to back off and live in the world and be a nominal Christian, or else you're in for stretching. It's a choice you make. This is too rich for my blood. I'll settle back and I'll be religious and I'll confess Christ, but I'm not going into anything that's going to turn me inside out.

But that's what it takes to bring forth Christ. Because if you'll notice in Revelation 12, Christ is the ruler. See, what is that, verse 5? She gave birth to a son, a male child who will rule. So this thing that is born in us, whether we are male or female, is male.

There's a redundancy in the Greek, a male son. There's a redundancy there. Man, child, call it whatever you want to, but the idea is that this that is coming forth in us is not something to be ruled. It is a ruler.

And the church travails in birth, just as Paul said, I travail in birth, until this ruler is brought forth. Instantly, he is caught up to God and to his throne. Now, how this will work out in your personal life is this.

You will make a decision. The Spirit of God will have to deal with you. If He wasn't dealing with you, you wouldn't be here this morning, most likely. And He will challenge you to give it all to Jesus.

He's just going to challenge you to give it all to Jesus. See, we've talked about that. I have Christ in my heart, blah, blah, blah, blah. I've given my heart to Jesus, but we've done anything but that.

What we've done is we've made a profession of belief in a theological position. That's what we've done. I believe so-and-so and so-and-so and so. But as far as allowing Christ to be Lord of our life, that's as scarce as hen's teeth in evangelical churches.

We talk about it. And I'll say this. I'll say this. The reason God is emphasizing worship as He is is it's a forerunner of what God wishes to do in the realm of judgment. You remember in Psalms chapter 149, it speaks of the two-edged sword.

It speaks of the high praises and then the two-edged sword that executes judgment on the nations. But you have to have the high praises first. We see when Israel was on the march, in the middle of the line of march was the Ark of the Covenant.

But at the head of the line of march was Moses the priest and the tribe of Judah. Now, the word Judah in the Hebrew means praise. And what God is telling us symbolically is He is going to have praise at the head of His army.

And we read the verse in Isaiah, I can't call it now, where it says He's going to beat down the enemy with the tambourines. Now, you say, well, that's a fine way to beat down the enemy is with tambourines.

Well, I cannot explain all this to you. I cannot explain why God works as He does. But if you'll keep your eyes open, you'll see that young people are coming by the hundreds of thousands wherever there's praise and vital worship.

We were talking to the pastor of the Four Square Church in Escondido. And I guess concurrently with the, I don't know if he knew about the Matt Redmond doing. This was entirely separate. And they had hired a couple of bands.

They had spent thousands of dollars, and they brought these bands in. And he said, well, we only had 300 people sign up. And he said, I was worried because we spent so much money. He said, when they put on the performance, they had to turn the kids away.

They had hundreds and hundreds of kids that came there to that worship, Christian worship. And do you remember how many kids, he said, came forward for salvation? There was a big number of kids. Whatever it was, came forward.

Because God is moving on the young people. That's where God is moving. And where He's moving is in music and worship. Now, we who have knowledge of the history of church, the church can see that God has moved in different ways.

Missions, Sacrifice, and Following God's Present Direction

When the Haystack prayer meeting took place, and they sent out the missionaries to India, and then later it went on, and missions became popular, and they had Hudson Taylor in the inland mission, and the Christian Missionary Alliance, and so on.

We're accustomed. We know how missions operate. They operate as people go out, sacrifice their lives. In one place, Brother Keiselhorst was telling that nuns were going to Africa to evangelize from the age of 15, and they packed all their belongings in a casket.

And they shipped the caskets over because they knew they were going to die. And they did. But they planted the gospel in Africa before the Protestants came in. And there's many a Baptist, many a Baptist, in the turn of this century, many a Baptist, young family, went over to Africa and was dead in six months.

And immediately, there was a whole bunch of other Baptist young people ready to take their place. Now, that's the history of missions. Like they say, the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.

Well, we look at that, and we say, that's the way to go. So we catechize our kids and say, get ready to die. Because you're going over, that's the way it works. But you see, you can't do that with God.

I tried many years ago. I tried to find out what it said in the book of Acts and the plurality of elders and the whole bit and imitate it. And it had all the levitating power of a lead balloon. So finally, I said, I guess this is what God wants is for me to study the Bible and use it as a pattern.

So I asked the Lord, well, what do you want to do? How do you want to do it? That was altogether different. And so in this church, for the last 25 years, we've been trying to find out, Lord, what do you want done?

And how do you want to do it? So all of a sudden, he opens up all these doors to go out and minister, whether it's Ireland, Medford, Oregon, or wherever it is. All of a sudden, God says, go. Well, we've been sitting here and accused of getting fat in the pews.

How many have gotten fat in the pews? That's what we're accused of. Well, now all these fat people are going out and ministering. You say, well, what has fat got to do with it? How many have read the verse that says the anointing breaks the yoke?

You know what that means? That the oxen get so fat that they break the yoke on their neck. In NIV, it doesn't even talk about anointing. It just talks about the fatness. Well, you get these people all fat, and they're out there.

They're going to use every calorie of fat that they've got in Ireland to keep warm, for one thing, and to have the energy to push through the privation to keep a good spirit and keep on going without cabin fever.

How many know what cabin fever is? That's during the winter, the people in the cabin begin to fight with each other because they're so isolated. That's cabin fever. Well, we just hope they don't get cabin fever.

And I don't believe they will because through the years, they've heard, if you don't have love, you've lost the whole thing, and you're not called to show off, and you're called to pray, and finally, et cetera, et cetera.

They've been listening to that year after year after year. Now they're in Ireland. God knows what He's doing if we pray and listen to Him and do what He says. It's a piece of cake. And the people respond because God says, well, you don't have to drive them.

I want 12 people to go to Ireland. We've got problems with people that wish they went. We don't have any problem with people going. So anyway, that's God. I will make you fishers of men. He didn't say, go out and fish.

He said, I will make you a fisher of men. And so the way God is catching fish today, we've got Generation X. We had the hippies and the baby boomers, and now we've got Generation X, and they like music.

I stand at the back of the church and watch the young people. Why don't we start on this climbing the mountain? They're in their malou. Now if we were playing praise Him, praise Him, Jesus our blessed Redeemer, they're going to sit there and endure.

So God knows what He is doing. Can you say amen? God's more interested in saving the world than we are. Can you say amen? You bet. God knows what He's doing. He's just trying to find an army of judges that will do what God said and nothing else and get their cotton-picking hands off the ark.

Thank you. He wants to do it. Did you ever hear a child say, do itself, mother, do itself? Well, God wants to do itself. He doesn't want your sticky fingers on it. He knows what He's doing. He's smart.

He's got power. He's got resources. So why not give God a chance? How about trying it? So that's what we've been doing in this church and have suffered considerable criticism because of it. But now, it looks like God is doing what He promised to do.

Giving Your Life Fully to Christ

So before we're going to get this climactic act of God, which will put an end to all the problems, God has to have some people who will give themselves to God without reservation. They've got to love not their lives to the death.

Now, there's not many Christians, I guess, who are willing to do that. But those who are willing to do it will do an awful lot of people an awful lot of good. But you see, you have to sacrifice your life for Jesus.

I could have stood up here all morning and not said that. You've got to sacrifice your life for Jesus. He laid down His life for you. You've got to lay down your life for Him. I'm not talking about religion or church or the four steps of salvation.

I'm talking about the army of judges. I'm talking about people who are dead living people, who have died and been raised up by Christ and crucified with Christ. Nonetheless, I live. That's a challenge to lay down your life.

You can talk religious talk until you fill an encyclopedia. But laying down your life for Jesus is putting your money where your mouth is. It's called walking the walk. Don't you love it? Probably not.

The Accuser, the Blood, and the Overcoming Saints

Now let's look at our verses here, starting with verse 7. There was war in heaven. So I want to go to heaven. What do you want to do? Get in a war? We don't usually think of war in heaven. Heaven, what is like meadows, a clear sky, flowers, little animals, peace.

Maybe it isn't that way. Maybe that's our mythology. Bible says there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. I mean, this tremendous army is coming at them, shining like 10 ,000 suns with their swords in front of them.

And still they fought back. They don't like the idea of being kicked out of heaven. They don't like that. They're not pleased with it. He was not strong enough. Why was he not strong enough? Because these people who had been accused and who had overcome the accuser left him nothing to accuse them of.

They had done what God said. They had loved not their lives to the death. They had put their faith in the blood of the Lamb. They had kept their testimony, their words, their actions, and their actions in the Spirit of God.

I look down, and God looks at them. God looks at Satan.

I said, well, out.

But you see, he looks at you and me, and what does he see? A little bit of rebellion, a little bit of worldliness, a little bit of indecision. And Satan says, see, see? And you're going to judge me? I look at your precious little darling down there.

See what he's doing? Sees what she's doing? And you're going to judge me? See, God wants to be vindicated. He wants to be vindicated. He wants to show Satan that when Christ comes to maturity in us, that we're not going to do the things that Satan did.

So when he looks at us, he can't accuse us. That he has to be overcome. Amen. They lost their place in heaven. Thank God. Whew. That's better than a revival. The great dragon was hurled down. What a name, a dragon.

Now he comes into Eden as a serpent, and he's grown into a dragon. That ancient serpent called the devil as the adversary, Satan, who leads the whole world astray. See, he doesn't have power. His power was destroyed on the cross.

The only way Satan can get at you is by causing you to disobey God in some way. Has no power over someone doing God's will. He's afraid of the righteous. And when the righteous resist him, he flees in panic.

He cannot work in power. The power belongs to Christ. All power in heaven and earth is given to me. He works by leading people astray. He plays with your mind and deceives you. The people in the world, we look at them and say, you bunch of klutzes, will you ever do anything right?

Well, they can't because Satan plays with their mind. They're not trying to harm themselves. They're not trying to go to the lake of fire. They're not trying to do that. The mind is deceived. And so is ours when we don't love the truth.

He was hurled to the earth. I love it. He didn't walk down gracefully. Right down the ladder he went. Probably Jacob's ladder. Missed all the rungs. Ended up on terra firma. Then I heard a loud voice in heaven.

Don't you love it? They never whisper up there. When they got something to say, they say it. We don't want our preacher to talk loud. We like soft organ music. Everyone to sit with their hands folded.

For heaven's sake, no loud voices. Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say, now look at the result of casting down the dragon out of heaven. Now has come salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God.

You see, Jesus said, if I cast out devils, then the kingdom has come to you. The kingdom is the casting out of Satan because it's rule against rule. Government against government. Archon against archon.

The righteous archons against the wicked archons. You're being made an archon, by the way. And the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ. The authority rests in the judges. The power rests in the angels as Christ empowers them.

For the accuser of our brothers. Now you see, that's what Satan has called the accuser of our brothers. That's why it's so easy to gossip in church. It's so easy to criticize. It's so easy to slander.

Because you're getting help. If you have any self-will in you, you have something in you, you have a common bond with Satan. If you have self-will, Satan has that also. There's a common bond. And he can enter through that door and cause you to slander or criticize or gossip about your brothers in the church.

Once that self-will is gone, and the other thing, you get the victory, he doesn't have those doors, and you'll find that you're no longer gossiping and criticizing and slandering the saints. It's because he has an opening there.

And I know people try to kick slandering. They try to kick criticism. They try to kick gossip. They find they can't do it. It's because there's a door there. And you usually find yourself gossiping and criticizing about people that are trying to seek the Lord, because that's who he's after.

And they're still full of faults. How many are still full of faults? We're seeking the Lord, but we're still full of faults. And he knows them. So he enters into some self-seeking individual and says, look, see, see, they're not perfect, are they?

No. Call up your best friend and tell her. That's Satan. Hello? That is Satan. He's accusing the brothers. Don't do it. You say, well, I'm justified because they're wrong. You're not justified. You're trying to see their fault.

And you've got a four by four sticking out of your eye. And you're trying to examine this piece of sawdust. You saw in your brother's eye. And every time you turn your head, you flatten a whole bunch of people.

So the best thing to do is to save your breath for your own oatmeal. Cool your own oatmeal. Oh, everybody thought that was marvelous. The whole congregation is transfixed. He accuses them before our God day and night, constantly.

He calls out your name every once in a while. See? See what he's doing? And he's a Christian. And you're going to put me in the lake of fire. Come on. You're supposed to be righteous. And you've got all your little pets here.

That's what goes on. God hears that day and night. So try to give him the least ammunition possible. Make it easy on the Lord. He doesn't want to hear about your sins. If you have siblings in a family, did you ever notice that one likes to tattle on the other?

Have any of you possibly noticed? Well, you know that it does not please mother and dad when a sibling says, you know what my brother did? They think they're going to make their parents happy. You don't make their parents happy that way.

Isn't that so? It's a grief to you. Well, it's a grief to God to hear about his children when they're not doing right. You may have fun tattling on them, but God doesn't receive it very well. All right.

The Six Works of the Blood

Now it says, they overcame him by the blood of the lamb. So we may not get past that, but we'll tackle it anyway. Don't give up. There comes an end. There comes an end to those. My father used to say, all things come to him who waits.

Let's see what the blood does. The blood does... What have I got down here? Five things. So you're in for a long one here. First of all, the blood forgives your sins. Let's look at Ephesians 1 .7. This is the first thing the blood does.

It forgives your sins. Forgives your sins. Ephesians 1 .7. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins in accordance with the riches of God's grace. That's Ephesians 1 .7. We have forgiveness.

We're talking now about how you overcome the accuser. And the first way is by the blood of the lamb. OK? Forgiveness. Secondly, and this is important, is there's not only forgiveness through the blood, but there's an expunging of the record.

And we see that in 1 John 1 .9. Now this is important because sometimes people don't realize this. And they say, well, yes, God has forgiven me, but what I did was so terrible. And you can't forgive yourself.

Well, why are you doing that? If God says He's expunged it from the record, why are you going back and opening up the file cabinet? 1 John 1 .9. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, Ephesians 1 .7, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

I used to use that as a deliverance verse. That's an improper application, I suppose, because when we confess a sin, we're not immediately relieved of all unrighteousness, but we are concerning that sin.