Forgiveness is a Matter of Life and Death

 

Forgiveness Is a Matter of Life and Death!

ROM. 3:19-23; 6:23

SUBJECT: FORGIVENESS/ SALVATION

THEME: God Can Forgive Anyone and Everyone Who Receives His Forgiveness…even those with False Guilt. Forgiveness, a Matter of Eternal Life and Death, helps us Understand Why we Need the Savior.

RELEVANCY: Forgiveness is a matter of life and death, eternal life and death. There isn't anything more important that you can do than to receive God's forgiveness and be reconciled to Him.

INTRODUCTION:

I think that all of us are familiar with several concepts about sin and forgiveness. I want to build on this in this message and take you into a fuller understanding of what the Bible teaches about sin, guilt, and our need for a Savior.

You may be a Christian and therefore believe that you don't need to know anything more about sin and guilt. Well, as a Christian, you should be talking to people who are sinners about their need for forgiveness. This message can give you some insights into what to say about sin and forgiveness, and how to encourage a person to accept Christ as Savior.

MESSAGE:

I.  True Or False Guilt Should be Distinguished.

Many people are walking under a dark cloud, feeling God's displeasure or sensing that they should be feeling God's displeasure. Some have a false sense of guilt. Let's recognize several facts about guilt.

A. GENUINE GUILT.

Romans 3:19, Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.

First, genuine guilt is the way we feel when we have sinned. It is the normal response to sinful behavior. Sin causes guilt.

B. FALSE GUILT.

But not all guilt comes from sin. The guilt we feel is sometimes false guilt. It did not originate is something God said or required.

ILLUSTRATION:  Consider for a moment the young woman who is a victim of incest or rape. She may struggle for years with a sense of guilt because she has been a party to a sin. But she was neither the initiator of nor a willing participant in that sin. She is a victim of someone else’s sin. The guilt she feels is false guilt.

C.  DIVINE ACCOUNTABILITY.

    1.  Why is this guilt false when sin has been involved and a person has been associated with sin?

    2.  It is false because from God’s perspective, there is no accountability placed upon that person for what happened.

    3.  True guilt is associated with willful sin, not sin that is against one’s will.

II. Accountability Involving the Will Increases our Understanding of Guilt.

Genuine guilt arises when we willfully act in a way that we know is contrary to God's law.

A.  A SENSE OF ACCOUNTABILITY. 

    1.  An accountability ladder involving the will looks something like this:

forgiveness

sin and guilt

knowledge

moral conscience

   2.  Forgiveness presupposes sin and its attendant guilt. In other words, if you feel no guilt of sin, you feel no need for forgiveness.

   3.  Guilt presupposes knowledge. If you don't know that you have sinned, you don't feel guilty.

   4.  Knowledge presupposes a moral conscience—that you have within you the capacity for determining right from wrong.

          — If you don't have a moral conscience, you don't know whether you are doing wrong.

          — If you are unable to determine right from wrong—perhaps because you are mentally disabled—then you cannot be held accountable for your actions.

Romans 2:14-15, For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: [15] Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)

B.  THE ROLE OF THE WILL.

In this entire chain of presuppositions is the concept of the will.

     1.  Put the process in reverse.

          A.  If you have the capacity to know right from wrong, and you know something is wrong but you do it anyway, you will feel guilty and have a need for forgiveness.

          B.  You have acted out of your will to do something that you know not to do. You have willfully acted in a way that is wrong, and you are, therefore, accountable for your actions.

     2.  You may say, “Are you telling me that if I don't know something is wrong, I'm not accountable for that sin?” That's exactly what I'm saying, but hear me carefully when I say that very few people fall into that category. Very young children or someone who is mentally disabled for instance.

     3.  Most of us know what to do.

           A.  Most of us know what not to do.

           B.  And most of us choose, at some points in our lives, to do what we know not to do.

           C.  This is true for all people. Human beings around the world have an intuitive sense of what is right and wrong, and they know when they are choosing wrong (Rom. 1:18-23).

ILLUSTRATION: Consider for a moment a three-year-old child who is told specifically, “Don't touch Mommy's special vase.” The child is brought into the living room and told, “In this room, I want you to look at things but not touch them.” The child may even be shown the vase and be allowed to touch it under the careful supervision of her mother as Mommy says, “This is the vase I don't want you to touch, except when I am with you and we are touching it just as we are touching it right now.”

The mother asks the child, “Do you understand what I am telling you?” The child nods yes and may even say, “I won't touch your vase, Mommy.”

The next hour, what does Mommy hear from the living room? The crash of her favorite vase.

Now, nobody had to teach that little girl to disobey. We teach our children to obey, but they are born with the ability to disobey.

C.  WE ARE BORN WITH A REBELLIOUS HEART.

And even when we know that we aren't to do certain things because God has commanded us not to do them, we sometimes choose to do those things. Paul wrote, “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” (Rom. 8:7).

We are born with a rebellious nature. And we are accountable for our deeds performed in rebellion against God's commandments.

Again, guilt is true guilt when it is the by-product of our willful sin. Guilt is false guilt when it is the by-product of another person's willful sin.

D.  WHAT TO DO WITH FALSE GUILT.

    1.  What should a person do if he discovers he has been carrying a load of false guilt?

   2.  He should come before his heavenly Father and say, “I confess that I have been carrying a burden that isn't mine. I give this burden of guilt to You today, Lord Jesus. I turn it over to You completely and ask You to carry it. I receive Your forgiveness, and by my faith, I accept the fact that I am free of this guilt and any aspect of sin associated with it. I put my trust in Your Holy Spirit to help me walk in freedom and confidence that I bear no penalty for that incident in my past. In Jesus' name, amen!”

III.  A Definition of Sin Helps Us Appreciate the Savior.

A.  SIN IS MISSING THE MARK.

James 2:10, For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.

Some people define sin as “missing the mark”—just as an arrow misses a bull's-eye on a target. God's commandments are the target, and we miss God's ideal when we sin.

    1.  We Miss the Mark of God’s Standards.  In the O.T. the Ten Commandments are God’s Perfect Standards and in the New Testament, Jesus Christ is.  If we are as perfect and flawless as Jesus Christ then we are good enough to go to Heaven.  But none of us are, we actually miss the mark of Christ! 

    2.  We Miss the Mark of God’s Character. Secondly, God’s Holy Character is the target, He is absolutely perfect and His demands are exacting.  He cannot tolerate even the smallest deviation from the standard of morale perfection and rectitude.

    3.  One Sin Makes a Man a Sinner!   A man may live and ‘extremely good life,’ but he will still miss the mark that God’s own Holiness demands.

B.  SIN IS FALLING SHORT. 

Romans 3:23, For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

Others define sin as “falling short” of God's perfect will. God's desire is that we live in wholeness and follow Him explicitly in all His commandments and directives. We fail to do so in our imperfection, and that is sin.

C.  SIN IS TRESPASSING.

2 Cor. 5:19, To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

Col. 2:13, And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;

Still others define sin as “trespassing.” God has areas of behavior that He designates off-limits to us, and we trespass into those territories and are subject to penalty. Or we trespass against another person. We have sinned against God and others.

 D.  SIN IS REJECTING.

My personal favorite definition of sin comes from Jeremiah 2:13, which says, For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.

    1.  Rejecting a Free and Abundant Supply.

       — Cisterns are wells that are dug into the earth, usually into solid rock, with the intention of holding water.

       — God is painting a fascinating word picture in these words of the prophet. He is saying, “You have rejected Me as a fountain of living water for your life.”

       — A fountain is an artesian spring—one that bubbles up from the earth with an unending supply of fresh, pure water. A fountain gives water that is free for the asking.

    2.  Rejecting an Opportunity to Ask Christ for Living Water.

ILLUSTRATION: Jesus encountered a Samaritan woman by the well of Sychar, and in the course of His conversation with her, He said of Himself, “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is who saith to thee, ‘Give Me to drink,’ thou would have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water” (John 4:10). Jesus is painting this same word picture about Himself—He has life to give that is eternal and is freely offered. His forgiveness—and the eternal life associated with it—is a fountain from which we can draw in an unending fashion. His forgiveness is free for the asking.

    3. Choosing One’s Own Actions for Satisfaction.   

“But” God says through Jeremiah, “instead of choosing My living water, you have chosen to build cisterns.” 

        — To build is an act of the will. The cistern builders rejected the artesian spring for a well of their own making.

        — And the Lord noted with sadness but with certainty, “It is a broken cisterns.” There is a crack in the cistern, which means that it won't hold the water.

APPLICATION: “Everything you try to do to achieve your own forgiveness is futile,” God is saying. “You can dig and dig, you can make cistern after cistern, you can strive and struggle all you want, and it will never bring you forgiveness.”

The only forgiveness we can ever experience is God's forgiveness, granted God's way. Anytime we attempt to meet any of our needs or accomplish anything by means other than God's means, we are setting ourselves up for eventual failure. We are building a broken cistern. If we want to be our own savior, rather than accept the Savior whom God has provided, we will fail in our attempt.

IV.  Sin is A Willful Choice Against God’s Forgiveness.

A.  IT WILL RESULT IN DEATH.

Ultimately, people's willful choices against God can form a pattern that leads to eternal death. God doesn't want to send people to hell. People choose to go there. They choose to trample upon the blood of Jesus; they choose to walk nonchalantly by the cross; they choose to avoid the empty tomb. They choose to ignore the songs of redemption they have heard a thousand times. They choose to harden their hearts to the prayers of others on their behalf. They choose to turn a deaf ear to sermons that speak of salvation and to the witness of Christ's love from friends and strangers. They choose to ignore and repress the countless promptings of the Holy Spirit tugging at their hearts. They choose to rebel.

B.  IT IS A REFUSAL OF FORGIVENESS.

My friend, you really have to work to refuse God's gift of forgiveness. But some do. They refuse to give up their pride and to submit to doing things God's way. They refuse to drink from the fountain of His living water freely made available to them, and they strive instead to build cisterns—cisterns that inevitably will break and fail to satisfy the deep thirst of the soul.

V.  Forgiveness Is an Eternal Gift from God.

Throughout the New Testament, forgiveness is pictured as a gift of God. Romans 6:23 tells us, “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.”

A.   A GIFT IS FREE TO YOU.

You don't have to do something significant or ordinary to earn it. You just simply receive it. God is presenting eternal life to you…take it, receive it…it is paid for by God for you. That's the way God offers forgiveness to you. He extends it to you as a gift. You cannot earn your salvation.

B.  DEATH IS WHAT WE’VE EARNED.

Note that “the wages of sin is death.” Forgiveness does not belong in the same category as earning what you deserve, taking a payment, or obtaining the gross or profit of our labors. The lake of fire is earned! Death is earned through repeated disobedience and rejection of God’s forgiveness. You can earn the consequences for disobedience, but you can never earn forgiveness. It is God’s free gift—His living water.

C.  RECEIVE GOD’S FORGIVENESS TODAY.

The only thing you have to do to receive forgiveness is to receive forgiveness. And when you do, you truly have made a choice for life. Again, we cannot simply believe anything about Jesus or be forgiven for any reason. We must believe the Son of God, Jesus Christ, died for our sins, was buried, and God raise Him up again the third day for our justification before The Father (see 1 Cor. 15:1-4 and Rom 3:21-31). I beg you to 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). Again, receive God’s forgiveness even now. This is how we experience God’s spiritual birth.

Remember, you are not beyond God’s forgiveness. No matter what you have done…no sin is too extreme, too undeserving, too awful, or too pervasive for God to forgive. It does not matter who you are…no person is so deep in sin, so firmly implanted in maliciousness, so ingrained in a lifestyle, so deeply rooted in wickedness, so steeped in evil, that he or she cannot be saved. Any sin and sinner, including you and yours, can be forgiven by God.

CONCLUSION: I invite you to read carefully the words of an Old Testament prophet who knew about the nature of sin, guilt, and the obstinacy of the human will when it is turned against God. Daniel wrote profoundly about sin, yet with the hope and belief that God not only does forgive, but will forgive. Let his words speak to your heart today. Make them your prayer.

Daniel 9:3-10,  And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes: [4] And I prayed unto the Lord my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments; [5] We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments: [6] Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. [7] O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near, and that are far off, through all the countries whither thou hast driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee. [8] O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee. [9] To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him; [10] Neither have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets.

Daniel 9:16, O Lord, according to all thy righteousness, I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain: because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us.

Daniel 9:19, O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God: for thy city and thy people are called by thy name.