So we'll be looking at Psalm
130 this morning, just a couple of verses in there. Really, verses three and four.
And if you look at verse three and
four, David said, if thou, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord,
who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with
thee that thou mayest be feared. The Word of God is just filled
with so many wonderful and blessed truths on just every page, every
picture. We see just so many wonderful
truths. We see redemption. We see love. We see justification. We see God's holiness, his righteousness,
his purity. We see all these things. And
this morning, as we open up this passage, I want us to consider
for a little while the forgiveness of God. God is forgiving God. And there is forgiveness for
sinners with God. And that's a blessed truth. That's
a beautiful truth. And it all stems from his love
for us. He loved us and gave himself
for us. Why? That he would save us. That
there is forgiveness with him. And I want us to kind of consider
this morning, you know, what is this life? this life that
we live, what is this time between eternity past and eternity future
as we're able to talk about it, this time that God has given
us on this earth. And I wanna speak really regarding
eternal matters today, matters that extend beyond time, matters
that extend beyond this temporary, short, brief time that we have
on this earth. And the gospel, the word of God,
is concerning eternal matters. These are spiritual matters. The word of God, it says, endures
forever. This is eternal, because that
word is Christ, and Christ is eternal. We are a created being,
created by God Almighty. He gave us life. He gave us breath. The word of God declares he brings
us forth from the womb. People can talk about birth in
medical and scientific terms and all that, but that's the
work of God. That's the work of God. You consider everything
that happens in birth. We are created by God and we're
created for his glory and for his praise. That's why we exist
on this world, is for the glory of God. We read in Revelation
that thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and
power. Why? Because thou hast created
all things. And they were created for his
pleasure. That's why they were created.
Paul said in Colossians, by him were all things created that
are in heaven, that are on earth, that are visible, that are invisible,
whether they be thrones or principalities or powers. All things were created
by him and for him. That's why they were created.
They were created by him and they were created for him. And
before him is all things. And by him, all things consist. This world turns, this earth
spins, the stars shine, the sun, everything that's created, he
controls everything, everything. And he's the head of the body,
the church, who is from the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,
why? That in all things, he might have the preeminence. So he gets
the glory in everything. We are created for the glory
of God. And that glory is going to be
demonstrated either in salvation or it's going to be demonstrated
in condemnation. But every knee is going to bow
one day before God Almighty. Every single knee is going to
bow before him and he's going to be glorified. And that's why
we are on this earth. That's why we are created. We
have this body, we have this flesh, but we have to understand
that within this body, within this flesh, is a soul, an eternal
soul. The Lord God formed man out of
the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath
of life and man became a living soul. And one day, this flesh,
This flesh is gonna die. We were made from the earth and
we are going to return to the earth. This flesh is grass. That's what Isaiah cried. He
said, what shall I cry? And the Lord told him, he said,
declare all flesh as grass and as a flower of the field. And
that grass withers and that grass dies. And that's us, that's this
flesh. We read in Ecclesiastes, then
shall the dust return to the earth as it was, but the spirit,
the spirit shall return to God who gave it. So this flesh is
one day going to die, this flesh is going to cease to be, and
we're gonna return to the earth with the spirit, the soul, what
we really truly are. That's gonna return to God who
created it, who made it, who gave it. God gave us life, he
gives us breath. And most of this world is consumed
with this life and the things of the world. You know, this
time that man spends on this earth is consumed with the treasures
of this world, the pleasures of this world. the lust of the
flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. We eat,
drink, and marry. It's like the Scriptures talk
about that. The Lord sent Noah to declare
unto that generation, the world at that time, to declare unto
them the gospel, but the only thing they were concerned with
was the pleasures and treasures of this world. They just wanted
to eat, to drink, to marry, And that's what man is consumed with. It's satisfying this flesh. This
world is overcome and consumed with satisfying the flesh. We're
carnal. We're sold under sin. We are
the servants of sin. And so all of our desires, what
we want, what we crave, what we think that we need, it's really
just motivated and controlled by this flesh, which is nothing
but sin. Man does not give much thought
to true spiritual matters. And I emphasize the true spiritual
matters, the word of God. Man is religious. Man's always
been religious. From the fall of Adam, man has
been religious. They have their gods. Since the
fall of Adam, man has had its gods beginning with himself.
Why did Adam fall? What was the sin in the Garden
of Eden? I will be his God. Men have their graven images,
their churches, their ceremonies, their practices, their beliefs.
They seek after wisdom, they seek after knowledge. As everyone,
you read about enlightenment, everyone wants to be enlightened.
Man is religious, and many of them have a zeal of God. Many of them use this Bible,
many of them use the word of God. Christ is, many in this
world profess to worship Christ, but they don't. They have a zeal
of God, but it's not according to knowledge. It's not according
to the truth. It's not according to God's word.
And you see that in what they say and how they act and what
they do. It's not according to this word. They use the word of God, but
it's in a manner that conforms to their thoughts, their opinions,
their wisdom. I've heard it several times.
It's like you have to take the word of God and make it to conform
to this day and age. It's men trying to just twist
it and make it appeal to their flesh, and that's what we're
doing. That's what man does by nature. They take the word of
God and they set it up in a way that conforms to what their opinions
and their beliefs are in their flesh, which is nothing but sin. Man does not know who God is.
You know, Paul talked about this in Romans where the glory of
God is revealed in like nature and in his creation, but man
doesn't like to retain God in his knowledge. When he knew God,
he glorified him not as God and he changed the glory of God into
an image made like unto corruptible man and birds and beasts and
creeping things. He changed the truth of God into
a lie and worshiped and served the creature more than the creator.
And that's what man does. When Moses was coming down from the
mountain, what were they doing? They created a golden calf and
were worshiping the golden calf. You know, we're going through
Proverbs and seeing the sins of the kings and everything.
What did they do? They had their idols. It's more convenient for
you. Let's worship these idols instead
of going to the place where God was worshiped. Man by nature is at enmity with
God. He hates God by nature. We're
born into this world at enmity with God, hating God. He hates the sovereign God who
sits on the throne of heaven, who has all power and does as
he pleases. And the truth of God, as he's
declared and revealed in his word, that offends man. It offends
our pride. It offends our thoughts of ourself. It violates our intellect, our
strength, our power that we perceive that we have. And by nature,
we're full of pride and love of self. You know, when God talks
about the things that he hates, the very first one is pride.
What led to Adam's fall? Pride. What led to Lucifer's
fall? Pride. And it's all about who
God is. It's all about our desire to
be God, our desire to control things, our desire to determine
our end. Determine your destiny, right?
It's what this world wants to do. Determine your destiny. We
have high views of self and what we are and who we are. We think
we're God. Paul said in 2 Timothy, this
know also that in the last days perilous times shall come for
men shall be lovers of themselves. And that's what we do. We love
ourself. They're covetous, boasters, proud,
blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural
affection. truce breakers, false accusers,
incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors,
heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of
God. And that's the sin right there. That's sin. We love ourselves
more than we love God. By nature, we do not love God.
We just don't. And they have a form of godliness,
a zeal of God. You know, you look at religion,
it has a form of godliness, right? It does. But they deny the power
thereof. And ultimately what they do is
they deny Christ. Because man by nature despises
God. I mean, it was out of hatred
for him that he was nailed to the cross. When the Lord Jesus
Christ, the word of God clearly states that the Lord Jesus Christ
was delivered to the will of the people. And what was the
will of the people? Was crucified, killed. I mean, that right there, and
that's all of humanity. That's all of mankind. That's
not just that generation, that is all of mankind. They have
a hatred for the Christ. A man does not understand what
he is. Man has no understanding of sin. Man has no understanding
of the consequences of sin. By nature, we're ignorant of
all things spiritual and have no understanding. The Lord looked
down from heaven upon the children of man to see if there were any
that understand. Was there one, anyone that actually
understood? Was there any that seek after
God, like truly seek after him? And it says that they're all
gone aside, they're all together, become filthy. There's none that
doeth good, no, not one, none. There's absolutely none that
doeth good. He sees and views himself in
the light of his own eyes and not in reality, and reality is
how God sees us. God who knows the thoughts, the
intentions, the desires of man. God who searches the heart. You
know, we can do a pretty good job of concealing our true self. I can do a pretty good job of
concealing what my actual true thoughts are. I can conceal it
from you, but I can't conceal it from God. God knows. He's
all-knowing, He's all-wise. He knows our hearts. He knows
what is in us. and there's nothing hid from
him. Man in his natural condition does not see himself as God sees
him. And how God sees you is what
really matters. And in order for us to know that,
God must reveal it to us. The Lord said, this people's
heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and
their eyes they have closed, lest at any time they should
see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand
with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them. But he
said to his disciples, he said, blessed are your eyes, blessed
are your ears, your eyes see, your ears hear, blessed are you. And many prophets and righteous
have desired to see those things which you see and have not seen
them, and to hear those things which you hear and have not heard
them. Many have desired it. Even Peter talking about the
salvation of the Lord, he said that angels desire to look into
these things, because it's glorious, it's wonderful, it's beautiful,
the salvation of a sinner. In the work of salvation, God
reveals to us what we are when he reveals unto us who he is. There's a comparison that's made.
We see who God is first and foremost. And then we see who we are and
what we are. The comparison is made between
holiness and corruption, purity and uncleanness, righteousness,
sin. The comparison is made. And we
don't see that until we see the holiness of God, because then
it reveals unto us how vile and depraved and corrupt and ignorant
we are by nature. It is then that we know and understand
that we feel by nature who He is and what we are. And as I
stated before, these are eternal matters. This life, this passage
through this world and time is for a very brief moment. You
know, James asked, he said, what is this life? He said, it's a
vapor. It appears for just a very short amount of time and it's
gone. And I'm telling y'all, this life is short. This life is short. And before you know it, before
you know it, it can be gone in a very quick moment. We're here on this earth for
such a short time. And there is coming a day appointed
by God when we shall take our last breath. There is a day appointed
by God when this heart shall pump its last flow of blood. And there's a day when we're
going to close our eyes in death. And when that day arrives and
comes to pass, every man, every woman will open up their eyes and they're
gonna stand before God in the day of judgment. There is a day of judgment coming
for all men. when we are gonna stand before
God and every single one of us will have to give an account
for every thought, every word, every intention, every action. We read in Revelation, I saw
a great white throne and him that sat on it, from whose face
the earth and the heaven fled away and there was found no place
for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before
God and the books were opened. And another book was opened,
which is the book of life, and the dead were judged out of those
things which were written in the books according to their
works. That's how they were judged.
From the books of God, according to their works. And the sea gave
up the dead which were in it, and death and hell delivered
up the dead which were in them, and they were judged, every man,
according to their works. And death and hell were cast
into the lake of fire, and this is the second death. For those
that enter into the condemnation of God, that's the second death.
This body's gonna die, but there is a second death as well for
those who stand before God guilty. For those who stand under the
condemnation of God's law and justice and holiness, there is
a second death, and that death is eternal. The death on this
life is, like I said, this life is temporary, and this is just,
this body of flesh is one day going to die. But there is an
eternal death. that the scriptures declare and
speak about here. It's appointed unto men once
to die, but after this, the day of judgment. And in that day,
we're all gonna stand before the judgment seat of Christ,
that great white throne. And it is a great throne because
of he who sits upon the throne. It's God Almighty, that's why
it's a great throne. And it's a white throne because
he who sits upon that throne is holy and perfect and pure. And he who sits upon the throne
is gonna open the books. There are books that are gonna
be opened that day, books where in every action and thought,
everything concerning you is written in that book, everything. Nothing is secret that shall
not be made manifest, neither anything hid that shall not be
known and come abroad. Our record is kept in the book
of God. And as I've said before, he knows
all things. We must all appear before the
judgment seat of Christ that everyone may receive the things
done in his body according to that he has done, whether they
be good or bad. And by nature, as I said, there's
none good. There's none good, and we do
nothing good. God shall bring every work into
judgment with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether
it be evil. I say unto you that every idle
word that men shall speak, that shall give an account for every
idle word. I mean, you think about that,
like every idle word. That there are sins that we commit
that we don't even know we're committing. Because we have no
understanding, we have no true knowledge. So I asked you the
question this morning that the David presents before us. If
God, he said, if thou, O Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, who's
gonna stand? Who's gonna stand? God who knows
all things, God who is holy and just and pure and true, who is
sovereign, from whom nothing is hid, and he is the judge. He is the one that determines
our eternal life. destiny. He is the one that determines
where we will spend eternity. And he's the one that we've sinned
against. The one who we will stand before in judgment is the
one who we have sinned against. It's his law that we broke. It's
his commandments that we refused to obey. Not that we just didn't
do it, like we just refused to obey it. David said, against
thee and thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight,
that thou mayest be justified when thou speakest and clear
when thou judgest. And understand this, God will
punish sin. God must punish sin. God is merciful. God is gracious. God is long-suffering. He's kind. He's compassionate. He forgives
iniquity, transgression, and sin, where the Word of God clearly
states that God will in no wise clear the guilty. Sin must be
dealt with. It will not be overlooked. It
will not be simply passed by. Sin will be dealt with. The wages
of sin is death, and the soul that sinneth, it shall die. What
we deserve is death and damnation and condemnation. That's what
we deserve. And we must understand our situation and condition before
God in the light of his law and of his justice and his holiness. Man thinks that his good can
outweigh his bad, so God's gonna have mercy on him. Or God knows that my heart's
really good deep down. No, it's not. It's not. And we must understand our condition
and our situation. Before Him, God is holy. He's
separate, He's pure. And He's worthy of all service,
devotion, praise, adoration, and worship. He's worthy of that,
and that's what we don't do. He said, love the Lord your God
with all your heart. We don't love Him by nature.
We're at enmity with Him. He said, keep my commandments,
but we can't keep it. We're incapable of keeping it,
and we don't want to keep it. He is a pure eyes and a behold
evil. He can't even look upon iniquity,
and we have to understand that. He can't even look upon iniquity,
but yet that's all that I am by nature. That's what I am.
Consider what Isaiah's confession was. The Lord gives us some confessions
of some of his men in the word of God. Consider Isaiah's. He
said, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord also, the
Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up. And when we see
God, where do we see him? On his throne. That's where we
see him, on the seat of power, sovereignty. And his train filled
the temple, and above it stood the seraphims, and each one had
six wings, and with two he covered his face, with twain he covered
his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another
and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, and the earth
is full of his glory. That's all those seraphims did.
was all they did was they just cried out, holy, holy, holy,
because that's who we're dealing with. That's the God that sits
upon the throne of heaven that Isaiah is seeing here. He's holy,
he's just, he's pure, he's true. And all those seraphims could
do was just cry out, holy, holy, holy. and the posts of the door
moved and the voice of him that cried and the house was filled
with smoke. And when Isaiah saw this, when Isaiah saw God sitting
on his throne, when Isaiah saw the holiness of God, he said,
woe is me. And that's the comparison. We see the holiness of God and
we look at ourselves and we say, woe is me, I'm undone. I'm a
man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean
lips, for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.
What was Job's confession? After the Lord put Job through
his trial and revealed unto him who he is, Job said, I heard
of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now through all of this,
through this trial that you've put me through, through this
experience, he said, I heard of thee, but now mine eyes seeth
thee, and having seen thee, I abhor myself, I hate myself. And we
do, when we see the holiness of God, when we understand that
He is worthy to be praised and that He is to be reverenced and
worshiped, and then we see ourselves, we see our violence and our corruption
and our inability to do any of that, we hate ourselves by God's
grace. Daniel wrote, in the fourth and
20th day of the first month, and I was in the side of the
great river, which is Hedekel. Then I lifted up my eyes and
looked, and behold, a certain man clothed in linen, whose loins
were girded with fine gold of Yupas. His body was like unto
beryl, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes lamps
of fire, and his arms and his feet like in color to polished
brass. and the voice of his words like
the voice of the multitude. And I, Daniel, saw the vision,
for the men that were with me saw not the vision, but a great
quake fell upon them, so that they fled to hide themselves.
And Daniel says, I was left alone, and I saw this great vision.
And the language here, when you read about it, his beauty, the
beauty of the Lord, it reminds me of going through the Song
of Solomon, my beloved, and you read the description of the Lord
that the beloved gives of him. And that's so similar to what
Daniel's talking about here, the beauty of the Lord. We see
that, he's beautiful. He's altogether lovely. And he
said, I was left alone and I saw this great vision and there remained
no strength in me. And it's just like a collapsing
because it is just so overwhelming. The comparison made, he said,
there's no strength in me for my comeliness was turned into
corruption. And that's us. We do think that
we're beautiful. We do have such high views of
self. We do think that we're just something that we're just
not. But when we see the holiness of God, Daniel said, there was
no strength in me. I'll think about it was Peter
in the boat. It's like he fell down before
the Lord and he said, depart from me, because I'm a sinful
man. And his comeliness, his beauty, It
was turned into corruption because there is no beauty in us by nature. There is no beauty in us. But
we're not going to see that and we're not going to understand
that until we see the beauty of God and we see what true beauty
is. Just like we're not going to
understand what righteousness is until we see Christ, who is
God's righteousness. And these confessions are the
result of God's work of mercy and grace, the work of God in
the heart of the sinner. These are not the confessions
of all men. The Pharisee prayed with himself. I thank thee, Lord,
I'm not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as
is publican. And then he went on talking about
how he fasted twice a week, gave tithes of all that he possessed,
That's not the same confession that Daniel had. That's not the
same confession that Isaiah had or that Job had. So the confession
of all men is not the same. This man, this Pharisee sat there
and boasted of his works, boasted of his goodness, boasted of who
he was. We read in Matthew 7, the Lord
says, not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter
into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my
Father, which is in heaven. And he said, many are gonna say
unto me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy
name? And in thy name cast out devils, and in thy name cast
out many, or done many wonderful works. That's their confession,
they're standing before God and they're confessing this. And he said, I'll profess unto
you, unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that
work iniquity. So all the things that they had
just boasted of, the Lord declared unto them what those things truly
were. It was iniquity, it was sin. To them, it was good. To
them, everything that they had done had earned them salvation. But the Lord declared unto them
what they really are. And like I said, we have to see
things as God sees things, because as God sees things is the reality
of the situation. We think that we're holy, we
think that we're just, we think that God should grant unto us
forgiveness. Because we see it through the
eyes of our flesh. We're looking within. We're not
seeing it in reality. In reality, everything that we
do is iniquity. Every single thing. There's none
that doeth good, no not one. And so all of these things that
they boasted of that was their foundation for salvation, at
this point in time, the Lord declares unto them it's iniquity. And when we see God on his throne,
when we see him in his holiness and sovereignty, and then we
see ourselves, what happens by the grace of God? We're humbled.
We're brought down, we're brought down into the dust where we belong. We're brought to the feet of
Christ where we're just nothing but sinners begging for his mercy
and forgiveness and love. And that is the best place in
this world that you can ever be. When God humbles you and
brings you down, it causes you to come to him for mercy, for
grace, Lord. That was the publicans prayer.
The publican there in the temple where God was worshiped. that
he wouldn't even, he stood outside the court to where he wouldn't
even like lift up his eyes onto heaven, but he just looked within
and he said, Lord, be merciful to me, the sinner. Man is sin
and we must understand this truth. Sin is our nature. It's not just
what we do, it's what we are, it's who we are. We sin because
we're sinners. We have a nature of sin. David
said, behold, I was shaped in iniquity, and in sin did my mother
conceive me. That's how we're born into this
earth, we're born in sin. There is not a just man upon
the earth that doeth good and sinneth not. All have sinned,
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Paul said,
I know that in me, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. for to
will is present, but how to perform that which is good, I find not
in this flesh. There's nothing good in this
flesh. And we see that, especially when we're born again, when the
Lord God Almighty performs a work in our hearts, we see that, that
there's nothing good in us. And we deal with this flesh,
we battle with this flesh, we war against this flesh, and this
flesh wars against the spirit. In Christ, we're new creatures,
and we have a new heart, and we have a new mind, and we desire,
we want to worship Him. We want to do that which is good.
We want to follow Him. We want to do these things, but
this flesh is constantly battling against us. I thought about it
this morning. One of the things that in regards
to forgiveness, we're talking about forgiveness. especially
when you're looking at it in the light of the spirit and the
flesh. If you think about it, okay,
one of the hardest things to do is to actually, truly forgive
somebody. As a child of God with a new
heart and a new mind, my desire is to forgive. The Lord said,
love one another as I've loved you. Forgive one another as I
forgive you. But when I, with this flesh,
that's one of the hardest things to do. Because I want retribution. I want things to be made right.
I want, you know, that person who did me wrong to pay for it.
And that's what this flesh is. It's like we want vengeance or
we want justification or validation or whatever the case may be.
Forgiveness is truly one of the hardest things that you can actually
do to truly forgive somebody. The Lord said there's sins I'll
remember no more, but I guarantee you this, I'm gonna remember
when someone does me wrong. And I may say like, I forgive
you and we're good, But the next time you do me wrong, I'm gonna
remember everything that you did, every single thing. I'm
gonna bring it back up. And that's the evil of this flesh. That's the corruption of this
flesh. And when you consider it in that light, the fact that
God actually forgives us who we sinned against, whose son
that we nailed to a tree. You consider that what we actually
did, we killed the son of God. His blood is on our hands. And
yet, God forgives. There's none righteous, no, not
one, Paul said. There's one thing that all men
and women have in common, we're all sinners, we're sinners by
nature. And sin is not just an act, it's an attitude. Sin is
not just a performance of the flesh, it's a principle in the
heart. Sin is not just an action, it's a nature, it's in us, it's
a root. It's who and what we are by nature. We are sin. You know, Henry Mahan would always
give some of the most beautiful illustrations on that. And why
does a man steal? Because he's a thief, that's
why. The stealing is a revelation
of what he is. He's a thief. Why does a man
lie? Because he's a liar. Everything we do outwardly is
a reflection of our inward condition. Everything we do, in being nothing
but sin, Everything we do is the heart, the heart. And that's
what we're talking about this morning. It's the heart. The
heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.
Who can know it? The Lord knows it. Because he
said, I search the heart and I try the reins to give every
man according to his ways and according to the fruit of his
doings. So the fruit of his doings comes from what? The heart. Out
of the heart proceeds what? Evil thoughts and murders and
adulteries and fornications and thefts, false witness and blasphemies. And that's why we must be born
again. That's why we need a new heart
and a new mind. That's why we must be made new
creatures in Christ. Because this heart that we have,
It's corrupt, it's vile, and out of it proceeds every evil. What does forgiveness look like?
Look at Luke chapter seven, real quick. Luke chapter seven, let's
look and see what forgiveness looks like. Luke 7, verse 36. And one of the Pharisees desired
him that he would eat with him, and he went to the Pharisee's
house and sat down to meet. And behold, a woman in the city
which was a sinner. And everything, you know, every
description, every word is so key, is so critical to our understanding. This woman was a sinner, a sinner. And when she knew that Jesus
sat at meat in the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster
box of ointment and stood at his feet behind him weeping and
began to wash his feet with tears and did wipe them with the hairs
of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment.
Now when the Pharisee which had bidden him saw it, he spoke within
himself saying, this man, if he were a prophet, would have
known who and what manner of woman this is that touches him,
for she's a sinner. But the Lord knew. The Lord knew. He knew exactly who she was. He knew exactly what she was.
The only reason why she was there was because he called him and
drew her to himself for this very moment, for this very action,
this act of, this act that she performed,
her tears, her sorrow, broken over sin, she knew who she was
by God's grace. She knew she was a sinner. And
Jesus answering said unto him, Simon, I have somewhat to say
unto thee. And he saith, Master, say on.
And he said, there was a certain creditor which had two debtors.
The one owed 500 pence and the other 50. And this is us before God. We
owe a debt. There is a debt that we owe for
our sin and our transgression. God demands perfection. And there's
a debt that we owe and we got nothing to pay. So they have
nothing to pay. What are we going to give to
God to satisfy his law and his justice? We have nothing to pay. There is a price. and we can't pay that price. But when they had nothing to
pay, he frankly, and that word frankly there means freely, he
freely forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which of them
will love him most? And Simon answered and said,
I suppose that he to whom he forgave most, and he said unto
him, thou hast rightly judged. You know, you think about it,
you know, if debt is forgiving you, the greater the debt, the
more you're going to appreciate that, right? The more it's going
to mean to you. And Simon answered and said,
or sorry, and he turned to the woman and saith unto Simon, seeth
this woman, I entered into thine house, they gave me no water
for my feet, but she has washed my feet with tears and wiped
them with the hairs of her head. Thou gavest me no kiss, but this
woman, since the time I came in, has not ceased to kiss my
feet. My head with oil thou did not
anoint, but this woman has anointed my feet with ointment. Wherefore
I say unto her, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she
loved much, but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth
little. And he said unto her, thy sins are forgiven. I mean,
here we have an account of forgiveness and a parable of forgiveness.
And that to me is just beautiful. You get both of them that come
in together. You get the account of it and you get the parable
of it that teaches us the account of it. Her sins were great. She had a great need. And the
only place that her need could be met was at the feet of the
Savior. And she was broken over it. She knew who it was, whose
feet she was anointing. She knew it was the Christ, the
Son of God. She knew who this was, and that's
why she was broken. That's why she cried. There was
no strength in her. Her comeliness was turned into
corruption. But the only place that she knew
that she could find forgiveness and mercy was at the feet of
the Savior, and that's why she was there. And that's the only
place that we're gonna find forgiveness, is at the feet of the Savior.
That's the only place, and we need to come to Him. And when
we come to Him, by God's grace, we come as this woman did. You
know, God, when He reveals unto us what we are, we're broken
over our sin. And if we're not broken over
our sin, then it's not true repentance. I've sinned against Him. And that's why we cry, that's
why we beg. And there's forgiveness with
Him. That's how God speaks of forgiveness.
And you know, the comfort that we have The comfort that we have
is that we know that when we come to him, he's able. Do you believe that I'm able?
Yes, Lord. Lord, I know you can. Are you
willing? Are you willing to have mercy
on me? Are you willing to forgive me? And we can come to him, rest
assured that he has the power. He has the ability. to forgive us. On the day of
judgment, there will be two determinations made and declared by God. Then
shall the king say unto them on his right hand, come ye blessed
of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation
of the world. And he shall say to them on the
left hand, depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire,
prepared for the devils and his angels. So what makes the difference?
Who makes the difference? Davis gives us the answer in
our text. He said, but, but, there is forgiveness
with thee. Who shall stand? But there is
forgiveness with thee. And that word there, that but,
I mean, we see that throughout the word of God. But God, who
is rich in mercy for his great love with which he loved us,
saved us, even though we were violent, corrupt, just as the
others, but God saved us. And here we begin to enter into
the love and mercy of God. There's a blessed truth that
is spoken of throughout the Word of God is given to us in pictures
in the Old Testament. All the sacrifices in the Old
Testament pictured this. They're pictures of pardon and
forgiveness. When that priest will lay his
hands on the sacrifice, the transfer of sins, and then that lamb had
to be sacrificed, blood had to be shed. And so throughout the
Word of God, we see these pictures. We see it in the parables, just
like we saw in the parable here. We see it in the actions of our
Lord Jesus Christ, his forgiveness. There is forgiveness from and
with God. And David said, bless the Lord,
O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless his holy name. Bless
the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all of his benefits. And
the very first benefit he mentions is that God forgives iniquity.
Thou forgivest iniquity. We're reading Psalm, the Lord
has been favorable unto thy land. Thou has brought back the captivity
of Jacob. Thou has forgiven the iniquity
of their people and covered all their sins. Thou has taken away
all thy wrath. Thou has turned thyself from
the fierceness of thine anger. And that's blessed is that man.
The wrath of God does not abide upon him. Understand this, God
is angry with the wicked. And I think it says every day,
God is angry with the wicked. By nature, what do we deserve?
The wrath of God. But David says, bless the Lord. You've been favorable upon us.
You've blessed us. You've forgiven us. And we don't
fear the wrath of God. The wrath of God doesn't abide
upon us because Christ consumed the wrath of God. And this forgiveness, this forgiveness
is for sinners. This forgiveness is not for the
wise, not for the mighty, not for the noble, not for the self-righteous.
It's for the poor and needy, it's for the foolish, it's for
the weak, it's for the vile, it's for the corrupt, it's for
the debased, the helpless and the broken, the captive and the
prisoner. It's for sinners. That woman was a sinner that
came to Christ. Christ came into the world to
save sinners. And this forgiveness was accomplished
in, by, and through Christ. In order to accomplish our forgiveness,
a price had to be paid for the debt that we owed. That's why
the Lord talked about it with the creditor and those that owed
the debt. There's a price that must be
paid for the debt that we owe. God's justice has to be satisfied. Paul said, blessed be the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. How has he
blessed us according as he has chosen us in him before the foundation
of the world? For what purpose that we should
be holy and without blame before him in love, having predestinated
us, having elected us, having determined before the foundation
of the world, chosen of people, having predestinated us unto
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according
to the good pleasure of his will. God does as he pleases, and that's
why he saved some, that's why he chose some, according to the
pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace.
Wherein he has made us accepted in the beloved, whom we have
redemption, how? Through his blood. How are we
redeemed? Redeemed, how are we bought? That's what that word, redeemed,
when you look at redemption, it's bought with a price. Hosea
went and bought Gomer, but a price had to be paid in order for him
to have her. But we have redemption, how?
Through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches
of his grace. The cost of our forgiveness was
the blood of Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ suffered
the wrath and judgment of God on the cross and shed his precious
blood for all those whom the Father gave him, and he accomplished
their salvation and their forgiveness. As our substitute, all the wrath
of God that we deserve. for our sins which we committed
against Him, our transgressions, our breaking of His commandments,
His law, those whom God the Father gave to Christ and chose in Him,
He suffered every single bit of that wrath. He consumed it
on the cross. He was forsaken by God the Father.
He was wounded, why? For our transgressions. Why was
he bruised? For our iniquities. He was perfect
and pure. In order for God's law to be
satisfied, the sacrifice had to be a perfect sacrifice without
spot and without blemish. And he was perfect. He was without
spot. He was without blemish. He was
everything that we're not. that he was wounded, why? For
our transgressions, he was bruised. And that word bruised is crushed,
it's destroyed, it's consumed. You know, we think, you know,
when we talk about bruise, we consider like a little bit of
a bruise on our flesh. That's not what this word means.
Christ was destroyed on the cross. He was crushed. under the wrath
of God because that is exactly what sin deserves. And we have
to understand that. Like if we want to know what
our sin deserves, then we have to look at the cross and see
the suffering and the sorrow and what our Lord endured for
his people. And outside of Christ, that's
what you deserve. That's what we deserve. That's
what I deserve by nature because of my sin. And that's why hell
is eternal, because that can never be satisfied in this flesh.
That can never be satisfied by man. That's why hell is eternal. He was made a curse for us. He
bore our sins in his own body on the tree. When he suffered
and died there, he bore my sins, your sins, the sins of his people,
he bore them. He died for our sins in our place
and satisfied all the demands of God's law and justice. When
he cried out, it is finished. That word there is perfection.
It is perfect. Everything that the law required,
everything that the law demanded, it was satisfied. And that's why the Lord is able
to look at us and say, your sins, I will remember no more. Without the shedding of blood,
the scripture says, there is no remission, there is no forgiveness
of sins. Blood must be shed. And Christ
declared, this is my blood, which is shed for the remission of
sins, for the forgiveness of sins. Peter said, by this man,
by Christ is preached unto you, the forgiveness of sins. That's
my message this morning. I'm talking about forgiveness,
but I'm talking about Christ. I'm declaring Christ because
he is forgiveness. Through his name, whoever believes
in him shall receive remission of sins. He is good, ready to
forgive, and plenteous in mercy unto all that call upon him.
He opens our eyes and turns us from darkness to light, from
the power of Satan unto God, that we, the elect, might receive
the forgiveness of sins. Everything he did, his life on
this earth, establishing a righteousness for us, going to the cross, he
said, I go to the cross to prepare a place for you. Everything he
did for us, And that act of love was so that we, his people, could
be forgiven everything he did. I'll tell you this this morning,
repent, repent, change your mind, and be converted that your sins
may be blotted out. And that's what God did. In the book, my sins have been blotted
out. When those books are opened by
the grace of God, in, by, and through Christ, when the Lord
opens up those books, there's no sin. Not a idle word, not
a single thought, nothing. It's gone. They've been cast into the sea
and the sea is gone. There's absolutely no sin. Acknowledge your sin before him.
Hide not your iniquity. Confess your sin, and God will
forgive the iniquity of your sin. And when we come to him,
don't hide anything. Don't hide anything. Bartimaeus,
when he came to the Lord, it says he cast off his garments.
He came naked, just as he was. And that's how we come. confessing
all of our sin. And the Lord knows it. Like I
said, there's nothing hid from him. But he's promised, he's promised
in his word, he who cannot lie, he who is truth itself, he whose
promises are sure and secure, he promised forgiveness for some,
for some. And the question is, who are
the some? They're sinners that come to
him like that woman did. That's who the some are. They're
the ones that are, Lord said that, you know, all those whom
you've given me, that gift, or our brother talked about that
the other night, you know, talking about we being the gift of God
to his son. those whom he became surety for,
those whom he took the responsibility for, those whom he came to this
earth to save, that he may present them to the Father one day, glorious,
having no sin, holy, and just, and pure, just like him. His promised forgiveness, and
blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered,
We talked about it this morning in that song. Come now, let us
reason. Though your sins be as scarlet,
they should be as white as snow. And you read what Isaiah, actually
what the Lord declares through Isaiah in that word concerning
us. From the head to the sole of the foot, there's nothing
but sin and corruption and depravity. Blessed is he whose transgression
is forgiven, whose sin is covered. We've been washed in the blood
of the lamb, and we're pure, we're righteous, we're just like
him. And you know, when we stand before
God in that day of judgment, when I stand before God, my only
hope My only hope, what I've rested everything in, what I've
put trust in, my only hope is that when I stand before God,
God does not see me, but that God sees his son. That's my only
hope, that God does not see me. Don't look upon me, because I'm
vile, I'm corrupt. But I rest in, I hope in that
when God looks upon me that he sees his son who's perfect, sees
his son who is righteousness. And if God sees me in Christ,
the law has no hold upon me as far as wrath and condemnation.
God's justice is satisfied. And those are the ones to whom
the Lord will say, come. Come ye blessed of my Father. Are you a sinner? Truly a sinner in need of forgiveness? If you are this morning, I pray that you would come to Christ.
Come to him. Come just as you are. Come right
now. Today is the day of forgiveness.
Today is the day of salvation. And I tell you, the God of heaven
and earth, the God who sits upon the throne, the God who is holy
and just and pure, he's loving. God is love, and he's merciful. The scriptures declare that God
delights in showing mercy. He's gracious, and he forgives. Sin. And he's promised that all
who come to him, all that come to him, come to him just as that
woman did. All that come to him and with
their tears, wash his feet and with their hair. All that come
to him, he will forgive. He's promised. And again, like
I said, come just as you are. Because if you come just as you
are, you come with a great need that can only be fulfilled in
Him and by Him and through Him. And it is a great need. Again,
like I said, I mean, we're talking this morning about spiritual
things, eternal things. And by nature, we don't contemplate
that like we should. We don't think about it like
we should. Because we wake up every morning and we're just
concerned about today. What do I have to do today? What
do I need to accomplish today? What's my goals for today? We're
so blinded to just the reality of things and so consumed in
this world and in this flesh and in sin. But again, like I
said, we're a soul and this body is a soul. And I pray that God would give
us understanding on that and give us like a true perception
of what this life is truly about. And again, like I said, this
life is so short. I mean, just, and things can change very quickly. His eternal house. The Lord said, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. Isaiah says, seek ye the Lord
while he may be found. This morning seek him. By God's
grace, may he put it in our hearts that we seek him out of the desire
and need for him knowing that he's the only one that can fulfill
that. Seek him for rest, seek him for
peace, seek him for comfort, seek him for righteousness, seek
him for everything that you need right now. Seek him and don't
seek anything else. Count everything but loss and
dumb that you may know him and be found in him, not having your
own righteousness. but the righteousness which is
of God, the righteousness which is in Christ, and press toward
that mark. Call upon him while he's near,
cry out to him. This prayer, David's in the depths, and that's where a sinner's gonna
need forgiveness, is when he's in the depths. Out of the depths have I cried
unto him. Call upon him while he's near. Let the wicked forsake
his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him
return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy. He will have
mercy. And he will abundantly pardon. He will forgive. There's forgiveness with him.
And we come to him constantly, don't we? You know, Chris was
just looking at the prayer. Lord, teach us to pray. What
was part of that prayer? God, forgive me of my sins. Because even in this flesh, I
still, everything I do is sin. Forgive me of my sins. This body,
Paul said, is a body of death, death, death. Forgive me of my sins. Come to
him, seek him. John said, if we say we have
no sin, we deceive ourselves. And this world lives in deception. Because by nature, we have such
high views of ourself, we don't see it. If we say we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. Because when God
reveals his truth to us, what do we know? We see his holiness,
we see our sin. But he's faithful. He's faithful. And not just faithful, but just. Like I said, God will not simply
clear the guilty. His law had to be satisfied.
that He's a just God and Savior. He's faithful and just to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And
that's what I desire. That's what I desire. I desire to be washed in the
blood of Christ. I desire to be clothed in that
white linen, the linen which is the righteousness of the saints,
which is Christ. I desire to be just like him. I wanna know him. By God's grace,
by God's grace, I can stand today knowing that I'm forgiven. And
I can rest in that. And my desire is that for each
and every one of us today, As we leave this place and we go
back out into the world, and we go on with life and all
of that entails, I pray that we do bring to heart that we
are soul, that these are eternal matters. May God impress that
upon us, the importance of it. You know, it's like I look out
today and I see so many young kids and young adults. And it's like I want them to
know the truth. I want them to know these things.
I want my kids to know these things, that this life is short. And that they are a soul. And
that one day they are gonna stand before God. And I pray that God
presses on upon the hearts of our children to seek Him, to
seek Him for forgiveness and to come to Him. And for each
and every one of us, our coming to the throne of God,
to the feet of the Savior, it's continual every day. It's continual because every
day I wake up in His flesh still. I wake up in this flesh, and
I feel the burden of my sin. I know what I am, and I need
Him constantly, continually. I need Him.