Psalm 130    "I believe in … the forgiveness of sins"

56. Q. What do you believe concerning the forgiveness of sins?
A. I believe that God, because of Christ's satisfaction, will no more remember my sins, nor my sinful nature, against which I have to struggle all my life, but will graciously grant me the righteousness of Christ, that I may never come into condemnation.
"But there is forgiveness with You."

Forgiveness Is The Best News Because

Those who know the depths know their need!

"Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord."

Praying people are awakened to their need.

"Lord, hear my voice! Let Your ears be attentive To the voice of my supplications."

You must feel that your iniquities condemn you.

"If You, LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?"

But there is forgiveness with You..

Forgiveness Is Possible Because

1.It is consistent with God's very nature.

"He delights in mercy."

2.God has pledged forgiveness by giving His Son.

"For God so loved the world that He gave.."

3.God has promised forgiveness.

"Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon."

4.The very essence of the gospel is the forgiveness of sins.

The first preaching  Acts 3:18 But the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled.19 Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away,

5. The declaration is in the present tense:

"There is forgiveness. "When?" Now,  2 Cor 6:2 "behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation."

John 5:24 "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.

6. You can go to God now to get it.

"But there is forgiveness with You."  God is everywhere present: you don't need a priest, nor a saint..or anyone else.. God alone gives it.

7. It is unlimited forgiveness. 

There is no expiration date. It is forever.

There is no sin so dark it can't be forgiven except the sin of rejection forgiveness.

This Forgiveness Changes Us

It Produces Reverence: No Pardon No Fear!

But there is forgiveness with You, That You may be feared. 

It Produces Longing For Communion with God

I wait for the LORD, my soul does wait, And in His word do I hope. My soul waits for the Lord More than the watchmen for the morning; Indeed, more than the watchmen for the morning.

It Produces Trustful Hope

O Israel, hope in the LORD; For with the LORD there is lovingkindness, And with Him is abundant redemption.

It Produces Assurance

And He will redeem Israel From all his iniquities.

Growth Group Questions  Read Romans 5:8–11.

a) Who initiated restoring your relationship with God?

b) How did God reconcile you to Himself?

Assimilating forgiveness is demonstrated in our attitude to ourselves and others.

Answer the following questions as honestly as possible to see how well you have assimilated the sense of forgiveness of your sins.

I am afraid of what God may do to punish me. _____

After I fail, I worry about God becoming angry with me. _____

When I see someone in a difficult situation I wonder what they did to deserve their problem. _____

When something goes wrong, I have a tendency to think God must be punishing me. _____

I am very hard on myself when I fail. _____

I find myself wanting to blame other people when I fail. _____

I get angry at God when someone immoral or dishonest seems to get everything he wants and never gets punished. _____

I can't keep myself from criticizing others when I see them doing something wrong. _____

Instead of complimenting others on their strengths and accomplishments, I tend to focus on their mistakes and failures. _____

Psalm 130    "I believe in … the forgiveness of sins"

56. Q. What do you believe concerning the forgiveness of sins?
A. I believe that God, because of Christ's satisfaction, will no more remember my sins, nor my sinful nature, against which I have to struggle all my life, but will graciously grant me the righteousness of Christ, that I may never come into condemnation.
"But there is forgiveness with You."

T Tennet 'This We Believe' "Jewish believers who were the first followers of Christ saw that the law was only "a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves" (Heb. 10:1). The writer of Hebrews goes on to demonstrate why forgiveness in the Old Testament is dependent upon Christ's later work on the cross and cannot stand on its own feet apart from Christ.

First, the sacrifices had to be endlessly repeated, whereas Christ offered up Himself once for all. The Scripture says, "But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God (the Father)" (Heb. 10:12), because "by one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy" (10:14).

Second, the sacrifices merely covered sin up, they did not actually take it away. In the Old Testament the word "atonement" means "to cover," whereas in the New Testament the word "forgiveness" means "to take away or to remove."

Third, the Old Testament focused on forgiving outward acts of disobedience, whereas the New Testament focuses on cleansing the heart of all guilt and shame.

The Old Testament focused on pardoning rebellious acts. The New Testament focuses on restoring a broken relationship. The Old Testament is symbolized by the tablets of stone and the heavy veil which separated the holy of holies from the worshipper. These are external things. The New Testament focuses on the transformation of the human heart and restoring the believer into intimate communion with God and His Church. The New Testament is the fulfillment of the promise of the Old  Testament and to which th Law and the prophets pointed (Jer. 31:33)."

"Behold, days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah,32 not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them," declares the LORD.33 "But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days," declares the LORD, "I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.34 They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them," declares the LORD, "for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."

Packer "Forgiveness is pardon in a personal setting. It is taking back into friendship those who went against you, hurt you, and put themselves in the wrong with you. It is compassionate (showing unmerited kindness to the wrongdoer), creative (renewing the spoiled relationship), and, inevitably, costly. God's forgiveness is the supreme instance of this, for it is God in love restoring fellowship at the cost of the cross."

1.Forgiveness Is The Best News

For those who know the depths know their need!

"Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord."

For praying people who are awakened to their need.

"Lord, hear my voice! Let Your ears be attentive To the voice of my supplications."

A man distressed about sin wrote to Luther. The Reformer, who himself had suffered long agonies over this problem, replied: "Learn to know Christ and him crucified. Learn to sing to him and say—Lord Jesus, you are my righteousness, I am your sin. You took on you what was mine; you set on me what was yours. You became what you were not that I might become what I was not." Compare Paul: "For our sake [God] made [Christ] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Corinthians 5:21). Link up with Jesus, the living Lord, by faith, and the great exchange is fulfilled. Through Jesus' atoning death God accepts you as righteous and cancels your sins. This is justification, forgiveness, and peace.

Surely You must feel that your iniquities condemn you.

"If You, LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?"

But there is forgiveness with You..

2. Forgiveness Is Possible Because

1.It is consistent with God's very nature.

"He delights in mercy."

2.God has pledged forgiveness by giving His Son.

"For God so loved the world that He gave.."

3.God has promised forgiveness.

"Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon."

4.The very essence of the gospel is the forgiveness of sins.

The first preaching  Acts 3:18 But the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled.19 Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away,

5. The declaration is in the present tense:

"There is forgiveness. "When?" Now,  2 Cor 6:2 "behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation."

John 5:24 "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.

6. You can go to God now to get it.

"But there is forgiveness with You."  God is everywhere present: you don't need a priest, nor a saint..or anyone else.. God alone gives it.

7. It is unlimited forgiveness. 

There is no expiration date. It is forever.

There is no sin so dark it can't be forgiven except the sin of rejection forgiveness.

3. This Forgiveness Changes Us

It Produces Reverence: No Pardon No Fear!

But there is forgiveness with You, That You may be feared. 

It Produces Longing For Communion with God

I wait for the LORD, my soul does wait, And in His word do I hope. My soul waits for the Lord More than the watchmen for the morning; Indeed, more than the watchmen for the morning.

It Produces Trustful Hope

O Israel, hope in the LORD; For with the LORD there is lovingkindness, And with Him is abundant redemption.

It Produces Assurance

And He will redeem Israel From all his iniquities.

Will you Conceal it or Confess it? 1 John 1:9 "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

Proverbs 28:13 "The one who conceals his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them will find mercy."

Will you Continue that forgiveness to others?

Our lives will be profoundly impacted by our ability to ask for or to grant forgiveness. Paul points out that giving the gift of forgiveness will require 3 difficult decisions:

RECEIVE THE ONE WHO WRONGED YOU

RESTORE THE ONE WHO WRONGED YOU

RECONCILE WITH THE ONE WHO WRONGED YOU

Paul challenges Philemon to be sure that the account is settled in full. Onesimus was a slave. He did not have the ability to repay Philemon. Real reconciliation assumes . . .