ACCEPTING THE FORGIVENESS OF CHRIST
INTRODUCTION
EPH 1:3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will-- 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace 8 that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.
1. Beloved, as we continue in our sermon series on The Disciplines of the Christian Walk, we come to a topic that we need to seriously pay attention to. It is this topic more than any other that impacts our very souls, and has the devil rubbing his hands in glee, as many are misguided.
2. There are more mistruths concerning repentance and forgiveness, than there are about any other issue of faith. You see, if the devil can get you to believe only a partial truth, then you are led astray, and off course, and ultimately his.
3. The topic that we are going to deal with today, is the topic of FORGIVENESS, and many of you may say, “oh no, I got no problem in that area, and so I ask you today to evaluate yourself and be sure that what you believe is the truth.
4. As we begin, let me share with you that there are many types of responses to the forgiveness of Christ, but today, we are only going to look at three. Let me continue to say, that unless you have the forgiveness of Christ, you cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, or be united with God the Father.
5. You see “all have sinned and fallen short“, and “the wages of sin is death”, but the gift of life resides in our acceptance of Jesus Christ and His sacrifice for sins. So if you want forgiveness, it is only to be found in Jesus Christ, The Son of God.
6. If you are fully complete in Jesus Christ, that is buried with Him in His sacrifice, as per Romans Chapter 6, and raised to new life, then God has a promise for you. HEB 8:12 For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."
7. Now the Seeker, that is Jesus Christ, is wanting you to be forgiven, but the choice is yours, He will not force you to love Him, love must be of free will. REV 3:20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.
8. The sad thing is, that many cannot, and will not, hear that knock, and think that they can secure forgiveness another way, as a gift of forgiveness, is perhaps just too unbelievable or too easy. Let us now look at three ways that people can respond to the Forgiveness of Christ.
I. I HAVE LIVED A GOOD LIFE
ISA 42:6 "I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles,7 to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.
A. I Am Not A Captive, Nor Sitting In Darkness!
1. Friends, we have already seen that all have sinned, and all therefore must die for their sins. I am not going to spend the time this morning discussing the truth about who decides what sin is, let me just say that God the Creator of everything has the right to make those decisions, not the creation.
2. Let me share with you Scriptures.
i. JN 3:18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19
This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men
loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.
ii. RO 6:16 Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to
someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one
whom you obey--whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to
death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?
3. Beloved of Jesus, if we are not one with Jesus Christ, then we are still captive slaves, living in darkness. You see, only Jesus can set us free, as the price for slaves to sin has been set, and that price is blood. It can either be yours for eternity, or Christ’s blood in your place, and your freedom. JN 8:34 Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35 Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
B. I Have Not Hurt Anyone, Or Really Sinned!
1. Friends, the worst thing that could ever happen to Satan, is for you to begin thinking seriously about your life, and the truth of things. The devil wants you to just coast along under the wrong assumption, as then you are done. 1JN 1:8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
2. I have never killed anyone, I have never stolen, have never committed adultery, I have kept the Ten Commandments. These are the most common answers, and have been for years. MK 10:18 "Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good-- except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: `Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.’ " 20 "Teacher," he declared, "all these I have kept since I was a boy." 21 Jesus looked at him and loved him. "One thing you lack," he said. "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."
3. Being Forgiven, is not based on what you do, it is based on who you know, and who you follow, and more importantly, will you give up everything to follow Him. Is He your all in all.
C. I Have Done More Good Than Bad!
1. It is interesting to me, that people think that forgiveness and eternal life is based upon the teeter totter principle, and I guess this is another one of Satan’s lies that have come full circle. Our court system, for a symbol has a blindfolded woman holding a balance scale, and this represents unbiased pure justice. She will weigh the good against the bad.
2. God is not a blind woman with a balance scale. The wages of one sin, whether it be swearing, white lies, or whatever, is the sinner’s death. The price has been set, and we are not the ones to set the price, even God Himself is bound by the Truth. In The Chronicles of Narnia, the witch reminds Aslan that all are bound by the Great magic, and so there is no changing the price of sin, someone has to pay with blood and death.
3. We can live a life of goodness, and have sinned only once, and be considered righteous, but still have to die for sin, if we are not united with Christ. RO 6:5 If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.
II. I AM UNFORGIVEABLE
A. I Have Been Too Bad, How Can I Be Forgiven?
1. There are some people in this world, that are unable to accept the forgiveness of Christ, as they would never forgive themselves. There have been some who have made the statement to me, “You don’t know what I have done. God would never forgive me.”
2. Firstly, the scriptures tell us 1JN 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
3. God cannot overlook our sins, as He is bound by His Holiness, or the “Great Magic” and so because of His love for us, He found a way to pay the blood price for all sins. A human that did not sin, would not have pay the blood price for His own sins and would never have to die. If that human were to pay the blood price, even though he had not sinned, then all sin would be atoned for, and that is exactly what happened. Jesus paid the price for all the sins in the world, and NOW the way to God is not found in sinless ness, but rather being found in Jesus Christ.
4. COL 2:13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
5. Your sin has already been paid for, it is gone, nailed to the cross, so worrying about your sin is ludicrous. The question is, are you in Christ?
B. I Cannot Stop Sinning, And So Why Bother?
1. This is a problem, as we cannot be in Christ and continue to live in sin. 1JN 3:9 No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.
2. Paul discusses this argument in RO 6:1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
3. But Paul also laments his sinful nature that is still struggling within him. RO 7:21 So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
4. The secret is the progress that is being made. Yes, we may slip, but we need to resolve, and allow the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ to work in us. It begins with the old self dying, and the New Christ filled life beginning. As a child develops and grows into maturity all throughout life even till death, so the Christian develops. The secret is to never give up, or stop growing. Examine yourself truthfully, and see if you are growing. If you are not, then do something about it.
C. I Am Insignificant, Why Would God Bother With Me?
1. One of the biggest lies that Satan spouts is that the promises found in the Bible are for other people not for you, as you are not worth it, or you are not good enough to get them.
2. Here is the truth. RO 5:6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
3. Here is the most special truth. JER 1:5 "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart;
and
LK 12:6 Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. 7 Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
4. Here is a major truth RO 8:38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. .
III. I THANK YOU JESUS.
A. There Is No Forgiveness Without Christ.
1. Jesus is the only way to forgiveness. Jesus tells us in JN 14:6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
2. It is whose mark that you wear. We are given His Holy Spirit by our Fiancé as a promise, in the same way bride to be is given an engagement ring, it is a promise. 2CO 1:21 Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, 22 set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
3. Beloved, it is not what you know, or what you do, but who you know that is important. I find this in MT 7:22 Many will say to me on that day, `Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, `I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
4. I see in this passage that it does not depend upon the earthly evidence of the miracles, or driving out demons, or even foretelling the future, or preaching the gospel, or any other great work in the Kingdom, but rather the key word here in this verse, is KNEW. The previous verse states that they did not do the will of The Father, which is to KNOW The Son.
B. You Are Worth Saving, So Get With The Program.
1. We have already seen that you are special to God, in fact you are so special, that He came and died for you, so that you could have eternal life. So now ask yourself the question “SO WHAT!”
2. If you can truthfully answer that question, without knowing that you need a Savior, then I will pray for you. However, if you recognize that you need Jesus Christ as your Savior, then please make sure that you are within the will of the Father, concerning being one with the Son.
3. You don’t get to decide how it goes, that has already been decided, and now all we need to do, is get with the program. The Jews in Jerusalem had to answer the question, and we see that they were cut to the heart, and Peter revealed to them the will of the Father. AC 2:38 Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off-- for all whom the Lord our God will call."
4. REPENT, DIE SPIRITUAL DEATH OF SELF, AND RECEIVE THE NEW SPIRIT, (Which will now be Christ living in you, and now God will see you through Christ’s eyes, beautiful)
CONCLUSION
1. There is no other way. You may have been led down a different path, and all your life have thought that it was the way, but beloved, the Bible is very clear.
2. Now is the time to get real about our salvation. How much longer do we have? The middle east is tearing itself apart, the world is beginning to destroy itself, with hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, Tsunamis, and the like.
3. MT 24:4 Jesus answered: "Watch out that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in my name, claiming, `I am the Christ, ’ and will deceive many. 6 You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 7 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of birth pains. MT 24:9 "Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. 10 At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, 11 and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. 12 Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, 13 but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
