Sin Be Gone! Series

1. A few weeks ago, our secretaries were cleaning out some old records and found some response cards from Cornwell Drive days. Tender hearts requesting forgiveness from God and the church; [Read confessions/requests

2. Fits into Ephesians 1.7-8

7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight

a. Redemption

b. Forgiveness

c. Lavish Grace

3. Consider the power of forgiveness regarding the removal of our sins

I. God’s Offer of Forgiveness

Until I encountered God, I did not realize I even needed forgiveness of sins

A. God Offers to Change Our Crimson to White – Isaiah 1:18

“Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD:

though your sins are like scarlet,

they shall be as white as snow;

though they are red like crimson,

they shall become like wool

Psalm 22:6 But I am a worm and not a man,

scorned by mankind and despised by the people.

Crimson Worm

When the female crimson worm is ready to lay her eggs (which happens only once in her life), she climbs up a tree or fence and attaches herself to it. A hard crimson shell forms.

The female worm lays her eggs under her body, under the protective shell. The larvae hatch and remain under the mother’s protective shell. The baby worms feed on the living body of the mother worm for three days. The mother worm then dies and her body excretes a crimson or scarlet dye that stains the wood to which she is attached and her baby worms. The baby worms remain crimson colored for their entire life.

On day four, the tail of the mother worm pulls up into her head, forming a heart-shaped body that is no longer crimson but has turned into a snow-white wax, looking like a patch of wool on the tree or fence. It then begins to flake off and drop to the ground looking like snow (sounds like manna).

B. God Offers to Remove as East from West – Psalm 103:12 as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.

C. God Offers to Never Remember Against Us – Psalm 32:1-2

Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven,

whose sin is covered.

2 Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity,

and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

D. What About Those Prayer Requests from 20+ Years Ago? Sins are gone! Isaiah 43:25 “I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.”

II. God’s Offer Fits Our Craving

Once I realized my need for forgiveness, I craved it!

A. We ALL Crave Forgiveness

Short story by Ernest Hemingway: A Spanish father who decided to reconcile with his son who had run away to Madrid. The father, in a moment of remorse, takes out this ad in El Libro , a newspaper. "Paco, meet me at Hotel Montana, Noon, Tuesday… All is forgiven… Papa." When the father arrived at the square in hopes of meeting his son, he found eight hundred Pacos waiting to be reunited with their father. Was Paco such a popular name? Or is a father's forgiveness the salve for every soul?

B. Yet, We Struggle to Accept It. –

1. Too Good to be true! There has to be a catch.

2. [Policeman pulls us over but lets us go – relief; but can we let ourselves off the hook?

C. Faith Says It Is Real and That God Is True

1. Marghanita Laski was one of England’s best-known novelists and secular humanists; she was an avowed atheist. Shortly before she died in 1988, she gave a television interview in which she spoke with surprising candor, saying, “What I envy most about you Christians is your forgiveness; I have nobody to forgive me.”

2. Sinful Woman of Luke 7.36-38 (Prostitutes wore vials of perfume b/c of infrequent bathing

3. Story and Punchline – 7.41-42; 44-47; 48!

III. God’s Offer is on His Terms

A. His Terms Involve a Sense of Urgency – Isaiah 55:6-7

“Seek the LORD while he may be found;

call upon him while he is near;

7 let the wicked forsake his way,

and the unrighteous man his thoughts;

let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him,

and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

B. His Terms Depend on Where We Are on the Salvation Road (not either/or; both AND)

1. Non-Believer – Acts 16:31 “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”

2. Initial Believer – Acts 2:38

a. Jailer washed their wounds – Acts 16:33