You're not able to have this
kind of fellowship with anybody else in the world, are you? What a blessing. What a blessing.
Tom's going to come and lead us in number 42 in our hymns
of grace. Let us praise the name of Jesus,
Prophet, Priest, and Sovereign King. In the Old Testament, the Lord
never allowed one man to hold those three offices. Usually
there were three men, sometimes two, but the prophet, the priest,
and the king were all separate. The Lord Jesus Christ came as
our prophet, bringing Himself as the Word of God. He came as
our priest to intercede to God on our behalf, and He reigns
as our King, worthy of our worship. Let's stand together, we're going
to sing number 42. Tom? you ? Let us praise the name of Jesus
? ? Prophet, priest and sovereign king ? ? To him render adoration
? ? Laud and homage to him bring ? ? Let us praise the name of
Jesus ? God incarnate from above, Came to save His chosen people,
Sent by God in covenant love. ? Let us praise the name of Jesus
? ? Who upon Mount Calvary ? ? Shed his blood and sealed our pardon
? ? Died from sin to set us free ? ? Let us praise the name of
Jesus ? Risen, conquering, gracious friend, Advocate and mediator,
All our hopes on Him depend. Let us praise the name of Jesus,
for he brought us to his fold. Come, exalt his name and worship,
may the Saviour be extolled. Let us praise the name of Jesus,
Till we see Him face to face, Then throughout the endless ages,
Praise Him for His love and grace. Please be seated. Would you turn your Bibles to
the Book of John, Chapter 1, Book of John, Chapter 1, for
our scripture reading. We're going to begin in verse
35. Again, the next day after John
stood and two of his disciples And looking upon Jesus as he
walked, he saith, Behold, the Lamb of God. And the two disciples
heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. Then Jesus turned and
saw them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye? They said unto him, Rabbi, which
is to say, being interpreted, Master, where dwellest thou?
He saith unto them, Come, and see. They came and saw where
he dwelt, and abode with him that day, for it was about the
tenth hour. One of the two which heard John speak and followed
him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first findeth his
own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messiah,
which is being interpreted, the Christ, the anointed. And he
brought him to Jesus. And when Jesus beheld him, he
said, Oh, thou art Simon, the son of Jonah. Thou shalt be called
Cephas, which is by interpretation, a stone. The day following Jesus
would go forth into Galilee and find a Philip and saith unto
him, follow me. Now, Philip was of Bethsaida,
the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip findeth Nathanael, and
saith unto him, We have found him of whom Moses in the law
and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. And Nathanael said unto him,
Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip said unto him, Come and
see. Jesus saw Nathanael coming to
him, and saith of him, Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom
is no guile. Nathanael saith unto him, Whence
knowest thou me? Jesus answered and said unto
him, Before that Philip called thee, when thou was under the
fig tree, I saw thee. Nathaniel answered and said unto
him, Rabbi, thou art the son of God. Thou art the king of
Israel. Jesus answered and said unto
him, because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree,
believest thou? Oh, thou shalt see greater things
than these. And he saith unto him, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Hereafter you shall see heaven open and
the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. God commands all men to come
unto him. But we can't, unless he enables
us to. This morning, we're here for
that reason. But boy, I want to see, don't you? That's my
prayer. I pray we'll be able to see him.
We have heard him with the hearing of our ears, that we would see
him. Would you all bow with me to
pray? Lord, we do come to you in the
name that is above all names, your dear son, Jesus Christ,
the Lord. Lord, you have drawn us here
again. So thankful that you did. For Lord, apart from the power
of your spirit, we would not come here this morning. We would
be attending all other religious clubhouses, but you've drawn
us here. So now, Lord, we asked that you
would be pleased as you said in your word that you would meet
with us. Lord, we want to see you lifted
high. Like Isaiah did. In revealing
yourself, we would see ourselves for who we are, vile and full
of sin. We want to see our sinner substitute.
We want to see him, Lord, his righteousness. We want to see
his shed blood, his precious blood shed for us. And again,
we want to see, Lord, truly your love for us in the preaching
of your word. Lord, would you do that for us
now? Just in a few few minutes, Lord, would you. Enable us to
leave this world just for a sec through faith. And look into
the glories where you're seated. Speak to our hearts. You've sent
your speaker this morning once again, pray that you would do
it in power. Clarity. Love Lord, remind us
again. who it is we are here to worship. Forgive us our sins, Lord. Cleanse
us from all unrighteousness. Bless your word now, for Christ's
sake, amen. Let's all stand together again,
number 268 in my heart, baptism. 268. I love you. How firm a foundation, ye saints
of the Lord, is laid for your faith in his excellent word. What more can he say than to
you he hath said, to you who for rest to Jesus have fled. Fear not, I am with thee, O be
not dismayed, for I am thy God. I will still give thee aid. I'll strengthen thee, help thee,
and cause thee to stand, upheld by my gracious, omnipotent hand. When through the deep waters
I call thee to go, The rivers of woe shall not thee overflow,
For I will be with thee. Thy troubles to bless and sanctify
to Thee Thy deepest distress. When through fiery trials thy
pathway shall lie, My grace all-sufficient shall be thy supply. The flame shall not hurt thee,
thy only design, Thy draws to consume and thy gold to refine. The soul that on Jesus hath leaned
for repose, I will not, I will not desert. to his foes. That soul, though all hell should
endeavor to shake, I'll never, no, never, no, never forsake. Please be seated. We're going to begin this morning
in the first chapter of Ephesians. I'll prepare you ahead of time
that we have several passages that I hope to look at. But I've
titled this message, Forgiven and Forgiving. forgiven and forgiving. Nothing could be more central
to the gospel than to be forgiven. And I hope and pray that we will
leave here this morning knowing that we are forgiven. There's no liberty, there's no
peace, there's no hope of salvation, there's no comfort, there's no
joy, apart from knowing that my sins have all been forgiven. And in knowing that, in knowing
that, I can't help but to be forgiving. There's nothing more
self-righteous mark it down there's nothing more self-righteous than
an unforgiving spirit Ephesians chapter 1 you have
your Bibles open Ephesians chapter 1 now in free will man-made works
religion the message is God speaking to us saying I will forgive you
if and you fill in the blank and every religion has a different
if If you'll pray this prayer, if you'll make this decision,
if you'll perform this work, if you'll abide by our constitution,
if you'll join this church, if you'll wear your clothes this
way, yeah, there's just, you know, there's a, can't number
them, is there? Yeah, I'll forgive you if the
gospel of God's free grace begins with forgiveness. It begins with
forgiveness. It is the goodness of God. It
is the knowledge of the mystery of the gospel that draws us to
Christ. Knowing that we were forgiven
2,000 years ago when the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ
was shed on Calvary's cross. It's sort of like owning a piece
of property. And unbeknownst to you, having
a hidden treasure on that property, a priceless treasure that you
didn't know was there. You own the property. The law
says the property and everything on it is yours. But until that
treasure was uncovered, it benefited you not. You couldn't... And that's what the gospel, that's
what the Holy Spirit does. He uncovers the mystery of the
treasure that's always been there. The gospel of God's free grace
begins with forgiveness. It's not contingent upon something
you do. It's already accomplished. By
the sacrifice of Himself, once and for all, He has put away
our sins. When did He put them away? He
put them away 2,000 years ago. He's not waiting for you to do
something in order to make what He did work for you. You have your Bibles open to Ephesians
chapter 1, verse 5. Having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, why
would He predestinate some and not others? And that word predestinate
means exactly what it says. He decided and destined beforehand
according to the good pleasure of His will. That's the only
answer that God gives. And that's enough, isn't it? to the praise of the glory of
His grace. Lord, all I can do is praise
You for Your grace, Your goodness, Your mercy, wherein He has made
us accepted in the Beloved. Our acceptance before God is
to be found in Him. Who's in Christ from God's perspective? All that were predestinated.
Who did Christ die for? All that God chose. Whose sins
were paid for and put away once and for all? All God's elect. Now look at the next two verses. In whom we have, past tense,
redemption. We've been bought with a price.
That's what that word redemption means. We have it already. Now
the lawmonger, the free willer, the worksman will say, you can't
preach that way. It will lead to licentious living. You are giving people freedom
to just sin. The truth of this gospel is the
only thing that restrains my flesh. If my flesh is ever restrained
from not wanting to sin, It's believing that my salvation is
already accomplished. In whom we have redemption through
His blood, the forgiveness of sins. When was His blood shed? Well, it was shed 2,000 years
ago on Calvary's cross. But is the Lord Jesus Christ
not called the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world?
God in the covenant of grace before time ever began chose
a people and reckoned the sacrifice that Christ would make on Calvary's
cross sufficient for their salvation. That's why the Bible says that
God has loved His people with an everlasting love. You didn't
do something to win God's love. Christ did everything necessary
for God to be able to love us. Never been seen outside of Christ.
In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of
sins, according to the riches of His grace. The freedom of
His gift. The glory of His grace. wherein,
now look at verse eight, wherein he hath abounded toward us in
all wisdom and prudence, making, having made known unto us the
mystery of his will, according to the good pleasure which he
hath purposed in himself. So when the Lord is pleased,
to open our eyes, to take out the heart of stone and put in
a heart of flesh, to regenerate us. And I'm not underestimating
the necessity of regeneration. To be born again is absolutely
necessary. But when that happens, all we're
doing is discovering something that's already been. The Lord is unearthing the mystery
of that treasure that was always there. Now that's forgiveness. The forgiveness
of God is the beginning of our salvation. Not the end of it. It's the beginning of it. Everything
in our salvation starts there. Blessed of God, David said in
Psalm 32 verse 1, blessed of God is he whose transgressions
are forgiven, whose sins are covered. When were the sins of
God's elect covered? Were they covered when you prayed?
Were they covered when you did something? Were they covered
when... whatever. God will forgive you if... No. No. When the precious blood
of Christ was shed on Calvary's cross, it's sufficiently. You see, the ground of our forgiveness
never changes. It doesn't change. It's always,
when I see the blood, I will pass by you. When did God see
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ? He saw it in the covenant of
grace before time began and oh, He saw it when it was shed on
Calvary's cross. He saw it. And He saw the travail
of His soul and was satisfied. God satisfied. He's satisfied
with the perfect work of Christ. And not a drop of his blood was
wasted. All the sins of all of God's
people of every generation were covered. Blessed of God is he
whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. You can't cover your sins. We
try, don't we? Don't we? We try to cover up
our sins. And what's God say? What you
cover, I will uncover. And what you uncover, I will
cover. Long as we're trying to cover
our own sins, God's gonna uncover them. When we say, Lord, here I am. Turn to me to Exodus chapter 34. Exodus chapter
34. This is the very nature of God. You remember in Exodus chapter
33, Moses had seen the miraculous plagues in Egypt. Well, he began
at the burning bush. He had heard audibly the voice
of God. He saw the bush burning and not
being consumed. He was sent into Egypt and saw
the plagues that God afflicted on the Egyptian gods. And then
he saw the dividing of the Red Sea and the mountain had already
quaked. The law of God had already been
given once. Remember, those were the tablets that Moses broke.
Manna had come from heaven. Water had come out of the rock.
I mean, you would think, this man has seen the glory of God.
And after all of that, he says in chapter 33, Lord, show me
Thy glory. Show me Thy glory. And the Lord
says, I have a place near unto me. It's a rock. I'm going to
place you in that rock. And I'm going to cover you. Because
no man can see my face and live, and you're going to see my backside.
You're going to know what I've done in the past. And the hope
of your salvation is going to be completely dependent upon
the accomplished work that I've done. And then God speaks to
Moses in chapter 34. And look what he says in verse
6. And the Lord passed by before him and proclaimed. God's going
to speak. The Lord The Lord God, merciful
and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and
truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgressions
and sin, and will by no means clear the guilty. There's two people in this world.
Those whose transgressions, iniquities, transgressions and sins. You
see that in that verse? Iniquity is our self-righteousness. And that needs to be forgiven. Man, what man puts his hope in
outside of Christ for his favor with God, his standing within
the presence of God. He doesn't believe that all of
his acceptance is in the beloved. He's trying to do something. That's called iniquity. Transgressions. That's where we have broken the
law of God. We have transgressed the law
of God. And sin is what we are by nature. Iniquity, transgression, and
sin. And that's what you and I need
to be forgiven of. And God says, I'm the Lord God,
full of compassion, long-suffering, delighting in showing mercy,
and forgiving. Iniquity, transgression, and
sin. and will in no way clear the
guilty. Who are the guilty? Those for
whom the blood of Christ was not shed. Salvation begins with forgiveness
because it begins with God. God, for Christ's sake, hath
forgiven you. In Christ, we have redemption
through His blood. And it is the forgiveness of
sin that draws us to Christ. Turn to me to, you're there in
Exodus, turn back just a few pages to Genesis Chapter 50. I'm going to show
you, you know, we've learned over the years that the law of
first mention. When a word is used the first
time in the Word of God, the definition or the context of
that passage is generally the theme that defines that word
throughout the Word of God. Well, the very first time forgiveness
or forgive is used is in Genesis chapter 50. You remember the
story. God sent Joseph down through
the evil of his brothers to Egypt and Joseph was elevated by the
providence of God to the prime minister of Egypt and all for
the purpose of preparing a way to save his father Jacob and
his brothers. And they came down not knowing
who he was. He veiled his identity to them until he brought
them to repentance. He brought them. All those experiences
that Joseph had with his brothers was a picture of Christ bringing
his people to forgiveness. And now years later, His brothers,
Jacob, his father, his whole family is in Goshen and years
later, years later, Jacob dies. And his brothers get together
and they say, Joseph's only been merciful to us because of our
father, Jacob. Now that he's dead, he's going
to get revenge. Verse 15. Exodus chapter 50,
and when Joseph's brethren saw that their father was dead, they
said, Joseph will peradventure hate us and will certainly requite
us all the evil which we did unto him. You ever get the idea that God
just tolerates you? that He's only forgiving you
for Christ's sake, and that He doesn't have any interest in
you, and that when you lose your sight of Christ, you become like
Joseph's brothers, don't you? The Lord is going to get me. And they sent a messenger unto
Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died. Now,
whether he did or not, we don't know. Were they just making this
up? They sent messengers to Joseph
saying, Jacob your father told us to tell you when he dies, so say ye unto Jacob, forgive,
forgive. Now when did Joseph forgive his
brothers? When did he forgive them? Years ago. He wept on their necks. When He revealed Himself to them,
He received them and gave them everything that Egypt had to
offer. "'Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren
and their sins, for they did unto thee evil. And now we pray
thee, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of thy
Father.' And Joseph wept when they spoke unto him." Why did
Joseph weep? Because he had already forgiven
them. Why are they holding out suspicion in their hearts that
maybe Joseph hadn't forgiven them yet? Maybe he was going
to get revenge. Maybe he was going to take it
out on them. Joseph wept. Oh, Philip, have I been with
you so long that you don't know that if you've seen me, you've
seen the Father? I and the Father are one." And his brethren also went and
fell down before his face. And they said, Behold, we be
thy servants. And Joseph said unto them, Don't
be afraid. Don't be afraid. Am I in the
place of God? But as for you, you did think
evil against me, but God meant it for good. I forgive you. It's all good. God worked it all out. This was
all in His sovereign purpose. to bring to pass as it is this
day, to save much people alive. Now therefore, fear ye not, I
will nourish you and your little ones." And He comforted them
and He spake kindly unto them. And that's what I'm hoping the
Lord will do for us right now. That He'll remove any doubts
and suspicions that we have of His grace, and His long-suffering,
and His kindness, and His goodness to us. And He'll say to us, look
back to the cross. Look back to what I did for you.
Is that not proof of my love? You're not going to do something
to add to what Christ did. You're not going to offer God
anything that's going to force His hand to forgive you. You're
already forgiven. It's done. Had the prodigal known
that he had already been forgiven, he would have come home sooner,
would he not? What kept him from coming home?
A guilty conscience. Fear that his father was going
to retaliate against him. Oh, when I get home, I'll make
this apology. I'll pray this prayer. I'll persuade
my father to withhold his wrath against me. And where did he
find the father? Standing out in the street. He'd
been waiting on him. The prodigal could have come
home months, years before that. He would have found his father
the same way. The Father forgave him the day
he left. Come home. You're already forgiven. It's the goodness of God that
leads us to repentance, that draws us to Him. Is it not? He's not threatening us. He's
saying to us, I've already shed my blood for you. I've already
put away all your sins. I've buried them in the depths
of the sea. I've sewn them up in a bag. I've thrown them behind
my back. I've separated them from you
as far as the east is from the west. And I remember them no
more. I'm looking at the blood of my
Son for you. Forgiven. That's where salvation begins. It doesn't end there. The accomplished work of Christ
as our intercessor. What did the Lord Jesus Christ
say from Calvary's cross? Has he, now you and I, James
says, we pray amiss that we might consume it upon our own lusts.
The Lord said you have not because you ask not. Our prayer life
is so fraught with failure, is it not? That's why we have to
conclude every prayer we pray, Father, for there to be thy will.
We're not always clear on the will of God. The Lord Jesus Christ
was. Every prayer he ever prayed was
an effectual prayer. The Father heard every one of
them. Father, I pray not for the world, I pray for them which
thou hast given me out of the world. Thine they were, and thou
gavest them unto me. What did he pray from the cross?
Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. We don't have a clue how evil
our sin is. We don't have a clue. Do you
think you're going to feel sorry enough for your sin and somehow
evoke the hand of God to forgive you because you have wallowed
in your shame and guilt sufficiently to persuade Him to forgive you?
The Lord said, Father, forgive them for they know not what they
do. You and I don't have a clue.
what our sin looks like to God. The closest we can come to it
is to see what it took God to put them away. You know, I'm fascinated with
the new discoveries of science and the further we can see into
the galaxies and it's amazing. The immensity of creation is
absolutely incredible. And it came with one word. God just spoke and it happened. What did it take him? To put
away your sin. What did it take him to forgive
you? You see, it's the forgiveness
of sin that makes me not want to send. Iniquity, self-righteousness,
transgression, and sin. Now that's sin in its verb form
and sin in its noun form. Sin in its noun form is what
we are. We've got to have an advocate. We've got to have a
substitute. We've got to have a righteous one to stand in our
stead before God because that's all we are, sinners. I'm talking
about sin in its verb form. The only thing that's going to
keep you from violating the law of God, overtly breaking God's
law, and presenting a righteousness, a self-righteous righteousness
before God is the forgiveness of your sin. And I know if you're a child
of God, I know you hate your sin. You hate it. Lord, why am I this way? What I'm saying to you, what
God's saying is that his forgiveness is the only restraining grace
you've got. It's not the law. The strength
of sin is the law. You think you're going to defeat
sin because God says thou shalt not? If you look to the thou
shalt nots of scripture, all that's going to do is inspire
more sin. It's the goodness of God that
leads to repentance. It's the knowledge of his forgiving
grace. When the Lord spoke to Moses
there in that rock, the Lord, the Lord God Almighty, delights
in showing mercy, long-suffering, patience and kindness, forgiving
iniquity and transgressions and sin. Micah put it like this, who is
a God like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgression
of the remnant? He doesn't pass by everybody's
sin. He passed by the sins of the remnant, the sins for whom
the blood of Christ was shed. Say, well, how do I know if his
blood was shed for me? Do you believe with all of your
heart that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God? Believe who he is, what he accomplished. That's faith. That's faith. That's the substance
of things hoped for. That's the evidence of things
not seen. He passeth by the transgressions
of the remnant of his heritage. He retaineth not his anger forever,
for he delighteth in mercy. We have a God who delights in
showing mercy to his children. Now quickly, I told you that
the title of this message was Forgiven? and forgiving. What the understanding and the
belief in you being forgiven will do is make you a forgiving
person. If you're not forgiving, Scriptures
are clear. Let's look at a few verses. Turn
with me to Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians chapter 4. And look at verse 30. And grieve
not, grieve not the Holy Spirit of God. Now, the Spirit of God
is just like the Son of God and just like the Father. He is immutable. He's immutable. You're not going
to change Him. Your sin doesn't cause Him to
go into some grievous depression or change His feelings toward
you in any way. So when the scripture says, grieve
not the Holy Spirit, you're grieving Him from your end. You're the
one, I'm the one that sin changes. I'm the one whose heart gets
cold towards God when I sin. He hasn't changed a bit. Grieve not the Holy Spirit of
God, whereby you are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all
bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking
be put away from you with all malice. And be kind one to another,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's
sake, hath forgiven you. So the Lord's pointing us to
look at how much God's forgiven us. I introduce this message
by saying that an unforgiving spirit is the most self-righteous
thing. I'm better than you. You owe me. You've offended me more than
I have offended God. Matthew chapter 18 is clear on
that, isn't it? Turn with me to that passage.
Matthew chapter 18. Verse 21, Matthew 18, verse 21. Then came Peter to him and said,
Lord, how off shall I, shall my brother sin against me? And
I forgive him till seven times. Peter thought he was being so
spiritual. He was being so magnanimous towards
his brothers. Lord, I've heard you, I've been
listening, and I know this matter of forgiveness is very important,
and I'm willing to forgive seven times. How about that? How many times do you need the
Lord to forgive you in a day? Seven times? Or 490 times? Jesus said to him I say unto
you I say not unto these seven times but Until 70 times 7 and
that's more than 490. That's an infinite number 7 is
a complete number the Lord's just 70 times 7 is a You can't wear out God's forgiveness
why cuz it's already been given And he doesn't change That sin's already covered. So
what do we do? We look back to Christ. Therefore is the kingdom of heaven
likened unto a certain king which took account of his servants
and when he began to reckon That word reckon is the same
word as impute or account. He's reckoning the books. God's
reckoned the books and He's reckoned us forgiven. He's looked to the blood of Christ
and everyone for whom He died is forgiven. When he had begun to reckon,
one was brought unto him which owed him 10,000 talents of silver."
Now in the margin of my Bible it says a talent of silver is
750 ounces. A talent is 750 ounces of silver. I did a little calculating on
that. Today's market, that's about 125 million dollars. Now if you owed somebody 125
million dollars, what chance you got to paying them back?
And that's what you owe God, and you've got no chance of paying
it back. But for as much as he had not
to pay, his Lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and
his children, and all that he had, and the payment to be made.
And the servant therefore fell down and worshipped him, saying,
Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. Now
that's where this servant starts out. That's where it begins with
this problem, thinking he could pay off his debt. That's why he gets in trouble
later on. Because he thought he could pay off his debt. He
didn't ask for mercy. He asked for time. Just give
me some time and I'll fix this. Then the Lord of that servant
was moved with compassion and loosed him, forgave him the debt.
But the same servant went out and found one of his fellow servants
which owed him a hundred pence. Now I calculated that too, it's
about two hundred dollars. If you owed somebody $200, you'd
probably pay them, couldn't you? You might wait till next paycheck,
but you could do that. And he laid hands on him, and
took him by the throat, saying, Pay me what you owe me. And his
servant fell down to his feet, and besought him, saying, Have
patience with me, and I will pay thee all. And he would not,
but went and cast him into prison, till he should pay the debt.
So when his fellow servants saw what he had done, they were very
sorry, and came and told unto the Lord all that was done. And
then his Lord, after he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked
servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desirest me. Shouldest not thou also have
compassion on thy fellow servant, even as I had pity on thee? And
his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he
should pay all that was due unto him. So likewise shall my heavenly
Father do also unto you, if you from your heart from your heart. That doesn't mean, well, I forgive
you, but I'm not going to forget. I'm going to harbor it here.
No, that means by the grace of God, you understand that you
owe God a debt you could not pay. And though we offend one
another all the time, what right do I have to hold that offense
against you based on how much God has forgiven me? This isn't a feigned forgiveness. This isn't a, well, I'll just,
I'll mark it off. No, this is a forgiveness from
your heart. And the only way that you're
going to be able to do that from your heart is for God to do a
work of grace in your heart. And you're going to be a forgiving
person. forgiven, forgiven, and forgiving. What grace! Is there anything
more central to the gospel? Our Heavenly Father, we thank
you for your word and know how we pray that your Holy Spirit
would minister grace to our hearts and give us grace from our hearts. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Number 36, let's stand together
in the hymns of grace 36. Behold my soul, the love of God. Behold the grace most free. Before all worlds His purpose
stood. His heart was fixed on me. Elected by eternal love, the
covenant firm and sure, the triune God agreed in love, salvation
to secure. My soul was given to the Son,
He promised to redeem. By blood and righteousness His
own, He would my soul reclaim. In the due time, Emmanuel came
to live and die for me. He lives today and bears my name. Christ is my surety. In love He sent His Spirit down,
Who gave me life and grace. He drew me and I followed on,
My Savior to embrace. Now I rejoice in covenant love,
amazing grace I sing. I now am conquered by His love,
my Savior is my King. Okay.