Can God Forgive This Sin?

 

Can God Forgive This Sin? 

 1 COR. 6:9-11; 1 JOHN 1:9

SUBJECT: FORGIVENESS/ SALVATION

THEME: God can forgive anyone and everyone who will receive His forgiveness. No individual and certainly no sin is beyond His realm of divine pardon. God is no longer angered over your sin or merely offended by your actions, flaws, mistakes, and sin. He offers forgiveness! 

RELEVANCY:  I can say without any reservations that God wants you to experience complete forgiveness! That is forgiveness of your sins and a full establishment of your relationship to the Lord God, forgiveness of others who have wronged you, and even the forgiveness of yourself.

INTRODUCTION:

A “Limited Forgiveness” Will Never Do. Complete (comprehensive, thorough, all-encompassing) forgiveness is required if you are to know personally and fully that God is your loving heavenly Father, and if you are ever to reach your personal destiny in this life.

I have good news for you today! God will forgive you of your sin. You can be released today from all your sin, no matter what they are, if you will do what God says to do. (Dr. C. Stanley) 

MESSAGE:

I. It is Vital to Understand the Very Nature of Sin.

Psalm 51:5, Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

Earlier in the message, I defined forgiveness as “the act of setting someone free.” Sin, by contrast, is “the state of being in bondage—in need of being set free.” This state is described in Psalm 51 as the result of transgressions, iniquity, sin, and evil.

A.  WE DO WHAT WE DO BECAUSE WE ARE SINNERS.

Our sinful actions further seal the fact that we are sinners. Our being and doing are cyclical. We may not always admit to being sinners, but deep down inside, we recognize that we are sinners, and we have an awareness that we have sinned or are sinning.

The sinner knows—at some level, intuitive or conscious—that he or she is sinning. Sin involves the will, and because it involves the will, it also affects the memory. We remember our sins. They don't just float by unnoticed or ignored. The psalmist is very open about this: “For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me” (Ps. 51:3).

B.  HOW DO WE KNOW THAT WE ARE SINNERS OR THAT WE HAVE SINNED? (Rom. 2:14-16)

    1.  God Built into Each One of Us an Alarm System Called the Conscience.

It sounds each time we do something, or are about to do something, that we know is wrong. If we ignore the alarm system, our sensitivity to evil becomes dull, and eventually, we never hear the alarm. Be very concerned if you never hear that still small voice inside you saying, “This is wrong and you know it.” A healthy conscience is something to cherish and to nurture. (Dr. C. Stanley)

    2.  The Flaw in the Conscience, However, Is That it Is Based on Human Understanding of What Is Right and Wrong. Right and wrong are something we learn. Unfortunately, some people are taught that right is wrong and wrong is right. They make decisions and behave in ways that are sinful without having a great deal of regret or remorse. Until, that is, they are confronted with the truth.

The conscience always is pricked to some degree in the presence of the pure expression of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. He stands in sharp contrast to all that leads to destruction, is a lie, or contributes to death. In the presence of the gospel, even the most warped conscience is confronted with God's absolutes.

    3.  The Best Thing You Can Instill in Yourself and Your Children Is the Knowledge of the Gospel of God's Word. The best thing you can do to keep your conscience alive is to steep it in the Word of God. If you were taught a faulty perspective of right and wrong, read God's Word without ceasing in order to bring about a transformation in your mind.

C.  BELIEVERS ALSO HAVE A SIN ALERT SYSTEM.

What about believers? Believers in Christ Jesus have a dual alarm system. We have the natural conscience that has been given to every person, and we also have the Holy Spirit indwelling us.

   1.  The Holy Spirit Provides Strong Counsel That We Are Acting, or Are about to Act, in a Way That Is Contrary to God's Desire.

The Holy Spirit always points us toward Jesus and to the fullness of the Word of God. Jesus called the Holy Spirit the “Spirit of truth,” our divine counselor (John 14:15–17; 15:26).

John 14:15-17, If ye love me, keep my commandments. [16] And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; [17] Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

John 15:26, But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:

    2.  The Holy Spirit Will Never Quit Speaking to You Once You Have Received Him into Your Life. Your spiritual ears may become dull, but you can never completely silence the Holy Spirit. If you don't feel the Holy Spirit pricking your heart from time to time, you may need to ask, Am I really saved? Have I really received forgiveness from God for my sinful state?

Listen to your conscience and to the Holy Spirit today. He will tell you whether you are in need of forgiveness.

1 John 4:4-6, Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. [5] They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. [6] We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.

D. THE SINNER CAN FINALLY REJECT GOD’S FORGIVENESS.

The sin that grieves the Holy Spirit today (Eph. 4:30), and that can quench the work of the Spirit in your life (1 Thess. 5:19), is: a refusal to receive the forgiveness that God freely offers to you. You can refuse God's offer of forgiveness to the point that you have a hardened heart. You can become calcified, hardened as bone tissue, to the gospel over time. Hardening causes a disruption in the normal process of the gospel. And that creates an unpardonable state.

God will not reach beyond the boundaries of your own stiff-necked, hard-of-heart will and save you against your will! You can die in an unpardonable state, but it won't be because you have committed an unpardonable sin.

As I stated above, no sin is unforgivable on this side of death. It is equally true that no sin can be forgiven on the other side of the grave.

The only thing that can keep people from being forgiven is the refusal to accept and receive what Jesus Christ has done for them on the cross. Refusing to believe in the forgiveness made available to humankind by the death of Christ brings about everlasting death. Accepting what Jesus did on the cross—believing in Him as Savior—brings about everlasting life.

II.  Receive God’s Forgiveness for Sin Immediately.

A.  FORGIVENESS IS YOURS TO RECEIVE—YOU ONLY NEED TO BELIEVE!

John1:11, He came unto his own, and his own received him not. 12, But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: 13, Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

1. Believing on Christ is Receiving Him for Salvation.   

By believing in “his name;” is exercising faith in receiving Jesus Christ as the Word, and Son of God, as the Messiah, Savior, and Redeemer.

So now Jesus offers Himself to you, and if you receive Him, He gives to you the “power,” or the privileged or authority to become a child of God. Only by this means do we become children of God. Beloved, it is not by good works, not by church membership, not by doing your best—but by receiving Him, by believing in His Name.

Becoming a child in a physical sense, is a matter of birth. So, also, to become a child of God (in a spiritual sense), you must experience a second birth. This is known as the new birth, or conversion, or being saved. It is through belief in the name of Jesus that we are born again…birthed into God’s spiritual family as sons, born of God. (based on Holman KJV Study Bible)

2. Receiving Jesus is a Personal Decision for Forgiveness.

Ephes. 1:7, In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;

Have you made a decision to accept and receive Jesus as your personal Savior and Lord? To “accept and receive”—that's all that's required for you to be forgiven by God, regardless of the nature, magnitude, or deep entrenchment of your sins.

To “accept” is to believe with your mind that what the Bible says about Jesus and His death on the cross is true—that Jesus died for your sins and He rose to give you new life in Him. To “receive” is to say, “I don't merely accept what Jesus did on the cross as a fact of history or as a statement of sound theology, but I accept His sacrificial death on the cross as being for me personally and individually—the sacrifice that was made for my sins. I invite the Holy Spirit to indwell me, to cleanse me of all my past transgressions, iniquities, evil, and sin, and to make me a new person in God's eyes. I receive the work of the Holy Spirit in me that gives me a completely restored relationship with my heavenly Father.” (Dr. C. Stanley)

3. Remember Salvation is based on God’s Mercy and Grace and not ours!

Titus 3:5-7, Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; [6] Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; [7] That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

It is the Spirit who regenerates us and gives us new life when we trust Christ. We cannot save ourselves no matter how good, sincere, or diligent we are.

B.  GOD WANTS TO FORGIVE YOU RIGHT NOW.

Have you taken Him up on His offer? If not, will you accept and receive Jesus Christ today? Will you receive God's forgiveness?

1 John 1:9, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

C.  YOU CAN EXPERIENCE GOD’S SPIRITUAL BIRTH IMMEDIATELY.

You must consciously opt to place your faith/trust in Jesus Christ—His death, burial, and resurrection as the full payment for your sin. We acknowledge that God accepted Christ’s redemptive work by raising Him from the dead. Therefore, you must accept what God accepts as the fair and complete payment for our sins.

Consider what the Lord Jesus said to Nicodemus in John 3:14-18, And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: 15, That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. 16, For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17, For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18, He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

Each person must utterly depend upon Christ as the One who fully paid our sin debt. Thus, we believe the gospel of Christ—to believe means to trust Christ. We entrust our eternal salvation and forgiveness to Jesus Christ the Son of God without any reservations. You must believe on Christ Jesus who died in our place and for our sins!

Paul outlines in Romans 10:9-10, writing, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10, For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” 

We cannot simply believe anything about Jesus or be forgiven for any reason, we must believe that the Son of God, died for our sins, was buried, and God raise Him up again the third day for our justification before The Father (1 Cor. 15:1-4 and Rom 3:21-31). It is vital that we understand that it is faith in Jesus Christ and His Gospel that is the power of God that saves us that grant us forgiveness (Rom. 1:14-17). This is how we all experience God’s spiritual birth.

CONCLUSION: 

So then, what must we do to experience God's forgiveness? Accordingly confess your sin and accept God’s forgiveness by faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Beloved, God can forgive anyone and everyone who will receive His forgiveness. No one and certainly no sin is beyond His realm of divine pardon. God is no longer angered over your sin or finally offended by your actions, flaws, mistakes, and sin. He offers forgiveness!  

Remember, Christ’s suffering at Calvary was God the Father providing payment for our sins. That’s what Calvary was about—justice was served, and sin was paid for entirely. Since then, sinners can be saved—born again to enter a spiritual relationship with God. Being born again means we become a part of a new family; God is our Father who shares with us His very own divine nature. Beloved, we must exercise faith in the Person and Work of Christ to experience the spiritual birth.

In closing, God wants you to experience thorough and full to the brim forgiveness today! Stop grieving about some sin you committed recently or even years ago, let God forgive you and release you today. Your situation is not unique and you are not beyond the scope of God’s forgiving power and grace. Today you can be set free from the bondage of living in guilt because God really can forgive that sin also! 

Refuse to continue life in unforgiveness which stifles a person’s ability to love and to receive love. No more stunting the growth of your marriage and friendships. Today you choose to enter into all that the Lord might have for you in the way of ministry or outreach. Start now to enjoy the full abundant life that Christ promised.  

Since He completely forgives you, He wants forgiveness of your sins and a comprehensive initiation of your relationship to Himself. God desires forgiveness of others who have wronged you, and, yes, forgiveness of yourself also. (Based on Dr. C. Stanley) What about you?