Blessed Are Those Who Are Forgiven By Grace Series

1. What’s it like for a person to live without forgiveness?

a. For the person that’s not spiritually connected to God through His Son Jesus Christ?

b. For some of us, it’s been so long that we don’t even remember… the issues on the hearts of those who don’t know Jesus personally, intimately.

Maybe you don’t remember the horrible GUILT you carried.

• No one & nothing could remove the knowledge of your own guilt before others and before God.

• It was painfully obvious even as your life was filled with stuff, there was still the twinges of your conscience: Guilty.

You don’t remember the sorrowful EMPTINESS of your life.

• Life filled with stuff? Sure, but it didn’t seem to satisfy.

• Relationships after relationship just didn’t fill you.

• All the money in the world didn’t satisfy you.

• Drugs, Alcohol, all of it just masked it, but it came back!

You don’t remember the lasting LONELINESS that surrounded you.

• Oh, the isolation of it all. Why am I hear? What is my purpose?

• I learned in school we were all animals. If I’m just an animal, then will I ever feel loved for who I am?

• Why on the planet with billions of people do I feel so alone?

You don’t remember the tremendous FEAR you lived with.

• What fear? Fear of death. Is there life after death?

• Are those Christians right? What if I have it all wrong?

• Where will I go after I die?

NOTE: Those my friend, are the conditions of the unsaved heart.

• You can remember them by remembering this is the person trusting in SELF and not in Jesus. S-E-L-F

• Sense of Guilt -- Emptiness of Life

• Loneliness -- Fear of Death

APP: Keep these in mind as you face the difficulties of sharing the gospel with that co-worker, that boss, that sibling.

• These things, and others, are on their hearts.

• They know, but have a hard time admitting it.

• And when u add the crushing blow of consequences from their ongoing sin, it’s amazing that they’re even standing today!

Living a life without Jesus Christ is NOT a BLESSED LIFE.

• Sometimes you’ll hear people speak of how blessed their life is because of business success, or some sports success, or something else that is great in their lives.

• But the reality is that without Jesus & the forgiveness of their sins, they aren’t living a blessed life at all, but 1 that is doomed.

YOU KNOW Something else, I’ve learned over the years as a believer and as a pastor is that these same things can rush back into a Christians life through the open doors of sin!

• That’s where David is when he writes Psalm 32.

• David’s sin with Bathsheba was more than sin, it was a willful transgression against the Lord. It crushed him!

• His life of blessings sadly interrupted because of his sin!

• But Psalm 32 isn’t a psalm of sadness but Joy!

• David repented, turned to the Lord regained that blessedness!

BLESSED… “OH HOW HAPPY” is the man who’s sin is covered.

• That’s what David received, a covering, ‘KAPHAR’

Romans 3:25 (NKJV) whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed,

But in Jesus, Paul picks up in v6 of Romans 4 and says, not just covered but taken away…

• And in it’s place, the God’s righteousness IMPUTED to our acct!

• Remember, Paul is using a practical example dear to the hearts of those Jews listening in. What about Abraham?

• Did He perfectly obey the Law? NO.

• Was He saved any differently than we are? NO.

• Did he have anything to boast about? NO.

• Was He a blessed man apart from works? YES!

I. (4:6-8) David Agrees.

1. (6-8) David speaks of this blessedness.

a. Blessed are those who’s sins are forgiven!

b. OH HOW HAPPY I am in God’s forgiveness.

c. I know what I’ve done. I know the pain I’ve caused.

d. But I’m truly sorry, with a deep godly sorrow.

e. And God has forgiven me! The guilt is gone!

f. Listen to this in the NLT:

Romans 4:6-8 (NLT) King David spoke of this, describing the happiness of an undeserving sinner who is declared to be righteous: "Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sins are put out of sight. Yes, what joy for those whose sin is no longer counted against them by the Lord."

• Do you have that blessedness? That Joy?

NOTE: I know that there are many Christians today that are continually living under the shadow of shame for what they have done in the past… sometimes before Christ others after.