Forgiveness of Sins
To experience continual forgiveness of sin,
and intimate fellowship with God, we must acknowledge
our sins and then walk in God's will.
Here's Gene:
Psalm 79 describes the destruction of Jerusalem
by the Babylonians in 586 BC.
And of course, that was prophesied by the
prophets that it was going to happen.
This was the final destruction of Jerusalem.
And it's a dismal scene.
Which is described in the psalm.
But Asaph, who was a psalmist as well,
as David and others, prayed for God's
forgiveness and compassion.
That's what we see in psalm--let me just--in Psalm 79.
And let me just give you a sampling of that. Psalm 79:1:
God, the nations have invaded Your inheritance...
That is Jerusalem.
...God, the nations have invaded Your inheritance,
desecrated Your holy temple...
The Babylonians leveled the temple in Jerusalem.
And in addition, we read:
...and turned Jerusalem into ruins.
Sad story.
It was God's judgment as a result of sin.
In the life of the children of Israel.
In verses 8 and 9, we read this:
Do not hold past sins against us...
This is a prayer for forgiveness.
...let Your compassion come to us quickly,
for we have become weak.
God of our salvation, help us--
for the glory of Your name.
Deliver us and atone for our sins,
because of Your name.
Verse 13 says:
Then we, Your people, the sheep of Your pasture,
will thank You forever; we will declare
Your praise to generation after generation.
It's interesting as we move into the New Testament.
As we look at God's people
who actually compose the church.
We've often seen disobedience.
Disobedience of the Lord.
And we also see (experienced) spiritual discipline.
We see this in the New Testament.
We see this all the way through church history.
And this concept was illustrated in the first century,
in the churches of Asia.
Remember the seven churches of Asia that are
recorded in the book of Revelation.
For example we have a reference to Laodicea.
There was a church in this particular setting.
And by the way, my wife and I have had the privilege of
walking through the ruins of that great city.
It's being excavated today. And actually will be a
rival archaeological site to the city of Ephesus.
And that site in Ephesus is unbelievable.
The excavations continue there.
A city of probably 300,000 people at the time
Paul was there.
And Laodicea has these huge stadiums
that are being uncovered.
And they're redoing the streets of that city.
It's an unbelievable sight.
It was a very wealthy city.
And in the book of Revelation, in these letters,
which were composed by Jesus
but recorded by John the apostle.
These people were described by the Lord Jesus
as neither being cold or hot.
It's difficult to know whether they're
believers or unbelievers.
They might be a church like the church of Corinth.
A very carnal church that had walked away
from the Lord.
But this is what Jesus said in Revelation 3:19 and 20:
As many as I love, I rebuke and discipline.
So be committed and repent.
Listen! I stand at the door and knock.
If anyone hears My voice and opens the door,
I will come in to him and have dinner with him,
and he with Me.
Now many times that verse is used as a
salvation verse, inviting Christ into our life.
And it's a good verse
and it certainly can be applied that way.
But basically what we have here is Jesus Christ
standing outside the door of the church.
He's been excluded from this group of people.
Whether they're believers, or unbelievers,
or a mixed group--you've been excluded
and He's simply saying:
I'm standing out here.
And it's a metaphor of course.
But I will come in with you, will fellowship with you.
You've closed Me out.
You no longer are having fellowship with Me
and with the Father.
And so Jesus makes reference to this
in relationship to this church.
The fascinating thing about this city
is He is using a metaphor.
Jesus is because He knew water had to be
piped into that city.
And the time the water came into that city
from a neighboring city that was away,
where they had hot springs.
By the time it got there, it was warm.
It was putrid almost.
And that's what He is referring to: neither cold nor hot.
Now He used some other metaphors,
which are fascinating because--
here I'll give you a couple of points. Jesus said:
I advise you to buy from Me:
gold refined in the fire so that you may be rich...
The thing we know about this city,
it was destroyed by an earthquake.
But they were so proud that they wouldn't take money
from the Roman government to rebuild the city.
And so Jesus said:
You need to buy gold
refined in the fire, so you may be rich.
You may have a lot of gold
but it doesn't mean anything. He also said:
I advise you to buy from Me:
white clothes so that you may be dressed and
your shameful nakedness not be exposed.
The metaphor of white clothes.
This was a city where they specialized
in wonderful fabrics.
He says: You've got all kinds of fabrics.
But you need to buy white clothes. Righteousness.
So Jesus used that metaphor.
Take it right out of the story,
right out of history of that city. He also said:
I advise you to buy from Me:
ointment to spread on your eyes so that you may see.
This city, these people specialized in eye salve.
It was well known all over the Roman world.
And Jesus was saying:
You have eye salve to see physically
but you can't see spiritually.
And you need ointment to spread on your eyes
so you may see. The ointment of God.
The ointment of righteousness in Christ.
And living for God and in the will of God.
So here we have a reference.
The Old Testament I think that
illustrates this Principle. The Principle is:
To experience continual forgiveness of sin
and intimate fellowship with God, we must
acknowledge our sins and then walk in God's will.
Which leads us to this question
for Reflection and Response:
Why some Christians have difficulty accepting
forgiveness after they have walked out of God's will,
and even after they have acknowledged their sins?
You know anyone like that?
Some of us have experienced that.
Well first of all, we don't understand
God's forgiveness and His grace--
if we feel that way.
That God sees us as perfect in Jesus Christ.
And if you've accepted Christ as your Savior,
God sees you as perfect and always will.
And if He didn't, none of us could inherit eternal life.
He sees us perfect through Christ.
The prefect Lamb of God.
Another reason is that we often try to atone
for our own sins. That's our natural tendency--
to try to make up for. Now it's not wrong,
obviously, to do restoration.
We're not restoring though to get forgiveness.
We're restoring because it's the right thing to do.
Restoration. If we've done wrong, even as a believer.
So that we can have fellowship with God
and fellowship with one another.
Not be out of harmony with our brothers
and sisters in Christ.
Another thing that happens is we allow guilt
to keep us in bondage.
And that's exactly what Satan wants to happen.
Even though we've asked for forgiveness,
guilt continues to linger.
And when guilt continues to linger in our lives,
it inhibits us in doing the will of God.
Now, all of that to say this--
and Paul addressed it in Romans:
We shouldn't continue in sin that grace may bound.
Rather, the grace of God should teach us
to deny ungodliness as we read in Titus.
And worldly lusts.
And to live righteously, sober lives while we wait
for the blessed Son of God to return.
So this is a powerful Principle. And that is,
in essence, to really be in fellowship with God
as believers. Through receiving forgiveness.
Experiencing that forgiveness from day to day.