the seven sayings of the Savior
on the cross. And this is the first saying
of our Savior on the cross. And you'll find it there in verse
34. Then said Jesus, Father, forgive
them, for they know not what they do. You see how they treated our
Lord Jesus Christ. They came and got him in the
garden. He was led as a lamb out of the garden. 500 men come to get him. They
apprehended him. Tried him in the Sanhedrin, in
the high priest court. Sent him to Pilate. Pilate sent
him back to Herod. Herod tried him. The soldiers
put on a robe on him and a crown of thorns on his head and found
him an old reed stuck in his hands and said, bowed to him
like he is a king, slapped him and mocked him. Pilate come out
and told him, please let this fellow go. He's not done anything
worthy of death. But that mock and that crowd
just kept trying to crucify him, crucify him, crucify him. They
said, well, we got a murderer here that wants to go free. Would
you rather have a murderer go free than this man who's done
nothing? They said, yes, we would. Turn loose that murderer. Turn
loose that manslayer. And take this man who's done
nothing. who is perfect in all of His
ways, you take Him, and you take Him and crucify Him. And so they
brought Him out of Jerusalem, and a whole big, mocking, screaming
crowd followed Him where He was going. And some women were weeping
and crying and lamenting. And our Lord told them, He says,
don't cry for Me. Whatever you do, don't cry for
Me. You cry for yourselves. You weep for yourselves. You're
the ones in trouble. You're the ones that need hope.
You're the ones that need help. You're the ones, if they've done
this in a living tree, what in the world will they do with a
tree that's dead and dry? And that's what he's talking
about. And this screaming mob, they brought him out there and
the scripture says there in verse 33, and when they were come to
the place, called Calvary in the margin says place of a skull.
There they crucified him. Now that don't sound like much.
There they crucified him. That means that they took his
hands and took his feet and took big nails and some big burly
soldier reached back with a hammer and nailed those nails through
his hands. And them bones were crushed going
through there. Blood started coming out of him.
Took his feet, crossed them one on top of the other. Took that
big old hammer and drove that big spike in there again. All
the way through his feet. Blood's all over him. He'd been
beaten. He'd been slapped. He'd been
spat on. And he had been forsaken. And not only that, but they brought
two malefactors, men guilty of crimes, actual crimes, and crucified
them too, one on either side of him. And as he hangs there,
he's being derided, he's being ridiculed, he's being spat at,
he's being made a mockery of, And a lot of them were standing
there enjoying what they were seeing very much. And after our
Lord had been treated so cruelly, so cruelly by everybody that
was anybody, by a king, by the religious, and by the governor,
the top people in the country, after being treated so cruelly,
by the high priests, by Herod, and by Pilate, and by the Jews.
Our Lord's mouth is very parched. The scripture said over in Luke,
Psalm 22, that his tongue cleaved to his jaws. And our Lord, you'd
think that the first time he had opened his mouth, that he
would have pronounced a curse on these people. You think when
he opened his mouth the first words out of him, the Lord's going to swallow up
the earth and damn you all right now. You think that's what he
might have done. You think he's going to cry out
for pity the first time he opens his mouth? Please have pity on
me. I'm a pitiful person? They're
treating me pitifully? I've been mistreated to the utmost
degree? No, no. But when he opens his
mouth, on that cross, with all that's just happened to him,
with all they just did to him, look what he says, Father, Father,
my Father, My Father, forgive them, and this why, for they
know not what they do. Oh my. And while He was saying
this, there were men at the bottom of His cross. When He said this,
there were men gambling for His clothes at the foot of His cross. And what our Lord is doing is
He's praying for His enemies. He is praying. This is the first
time that our Lord speaks on the cross. And He's praying. And what is He praying for? For
Father forgive them, they know not what they do. Our Lord's
ministry started, His public ministry started with a prayer.
The day he was baptized the scripture says that he rose up out of the
water praying, praying. And he ends his life praying.
And He does it with a prayer here. And what's He praying for? He's praying for His enemies.
He's praying for those who came and got Him. He's praying for
those who cruelly mistreated Him. He's praying for those who
cursed Him. He's praying for those who spat
on Him. He's praying for His enemies.
And I tell you what, when our Lord prays for His enemies, Let
us always remember this, that nobody, nobody's beyond the reach
of prayer. Nobody. If our Lord prays and
reaches out for people, and I'll tell you something else, His
prayer was effectual. When He prayed, Father forgive
them, they know not what they do. His prayer was effectual. You know the first time, the
first evidence of His prayer being effectual? That thief said,
Lord, remember me when thou comest into your kingdom. Our Lord said,
today, you're gonna be with me in paradise. That's the first
answer to that prayer. And then the second answer is
when that centurion was at the, when Christ died on the cross,
and all that phenomenon happened, he said, truly, truly, this is
a righteous man, truly, this was the Son of God. And then
on the day of Pentecost, 3,000 souls were saved on the day of
Pentecost. 3,000 at one time. And I'll tell
you what, and that's why Peter said, I walked through ignorance
that you did this as did your rulers. And that's why our Lord
said, forgive them, they know not what they do. And you know
our Lord Jesus, he prayed for us. He prayed for us. In John 17, 20, our Lord said,
I pray for them which shall believe, shall believe through their word. So I'll tell you what, we're
answers to our Lord's prayer. We're answers to our Lord's prayer.
And I want you to look with me in Isaiah 53. Look in Isaiah
53. This is a fulfillment of a prophecy. When our Lord said these things,
these are the fulfillment of a prophecy. When He said, Father,
forgive them, they know not what they do. Look in verse 12 with me. Therefore will I divide him a
portion with the great, and he shall divide the small with the
strong. Listen to this. Because he hath poured out his
soul unto death. Now listen, this is the fulfillment
of it. He is numbered with the transgressors.
He is hung between two transgressors. Two men. And listen to this. And he bore the sin of many.
And here's the fulfillment of this right here. And made intercession
for the transgressors. Numbered with them. and prayed
for him. Made intercession for who? The
transgressors. All of God's transgressors. All
of us were transgressors. And so he was numbered with transgressors. He made intercession for who?
For transgressors. Here in Isaiah it says he was
despised and rejected. A man of sorrows, acquainted
with grief. It told us he was to be wounded.
He was to be bruised. He was to be chastised. And he
was led as a lamb to the slaughter. He was led with no resistance. He poured out his soul unto death. They took him down and buried
him in a rich man's tomb. And the last word is that last
word of Isaiah 53. When you start out there, And
you get to the last verse, the last words, He made intercession
for the transgressors. Made intercession for them. And
here's the fulfillment of it. Father forgive them, they know
not what they do. And when He done this, He thought
of His murderers. He pleaded for them who crucified
Him. And He said, Father forgive them,
they know not what they do. First, it's a fulfillment of
a prophecy concerning our Lord Jesus Christ. And then the second
thing we see here when our Lord prayed, Father forgive them.
Here we see Christ identified with His people. You notice what
He says, Father forgive them, for they know not what they do. You know, did you and I know
what was happening when our Lord Jesus Christ was on the cross?
We was ignorant of it. We didn't know what we was doing.
We didn't know when we had these thoughts of Christ. And oh my! He forgave others, our Lord Jesus,
when they let that man down in the roof of that house. He said,
Son, be of good cheer. Thy sins be forgiven. And that
woman who came in and washed his feet with her tears, and
dried them with the hairs of her head. He said, women, thy
sins be forgiven thee, which are many. And here he is, he's
asking God. Oh Father, you forgive, you forgive. Why is he asking God forgiveness?
Because right now, right now, our Lord Jesus Christ is not
standing in the place where He can forgive. He's hanging
there as a sin bearer. He's hanging there as a sacrifice. He's hanging there as a substitute.
And when the Jews said, who can forgive sins but God only? That's
absolutely so. And when it comes to the cross,
when our Lord was there, He was there as a man. Dying as a man. And now He's there as the Lord's
Lamb. We sing that song. O Lamb of
God, I come to Thee. O Lamb of God, I come to Thee.
He is God's Lamb hanging there. Here He is a sacrifice for sin. How awful must sin be that it
took the Lord Jesus Christ to put it away. You know He said,
and if I be lifted up from the earth. And here He is lifted up between
heaven and earth. And when he's lifted up on that
cross, the first thing out of his mouth was, Father, forgive
them. He's identified with these people.
When I hear that, say that, I think of myself. Father, forgive them. Forgive me. Forgive them. Forgive
them. He looked down through eternity
and he said, forgive them. Forgive these, my enemies. And
we were enemies in our minds by wicked works, yet Christ stood
in our room, stood in our place. He's identified with his people.
And he's always been identified with his people. When they come
to take him in the garden, he said, if you want me, let these
go their way. And when he died on that cross,
bless his name, He identified with us. And that's why Paul
said, I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. When Christ
died, we died. When Christ was buried, we was
buried. When he rose, we arose. When he ascended, we ascended.
Why? Because he so identified with
his people. He said, Father, I pray not for
the world, but for them thou gavest me out of the world. And here we see when our Lord
said, Father, forgive them. Forgive them. They know not what
they do. We see God's estimate, how God
views sin, and the guilt that's associated with sin. You know,
under the law, God required an atonement for sins that's made
of ignorance, made out of ignorance. You know, I want you to see,
look with me over here in Leviticus chapter 5. You know, when men sinned ignorantly,
and they had to be in atonement and
say, well I didn't know. You know, if you go to court
and you say, well I didn't know the law. Ignorance is, they use
ignorance as an excuse. And look what he said here in
verse 5. You know under the law, God required
a sin offering, a sacrifice to be made for sins of ignorance.
When a person sinned and he didn't know his sin. And it shall be
when he shall be guilty in one of these things that he shall
confess that he sinned in that thing. And he shall bring his
trespassing unto the Lord. In my Leviticus 5. 5.15, not 5.15, excuse me. I'm in the
wrong place. I'm in the wrong place. Luke
5.15. When I started reading, I said, there's
no ignorance there. Look what he said in verse 15.
The Lord spake unto Moses, if a soul commit a trespass and
sin through ignorance in the holy things of the Lord, that
he shall bring for his trespass unto the Lord a ram without blemish
out of the flocks with thy estimation after the shekel of the sanctuary
for a trespass offering. And he shall make amends for
the harm that he hath done, listen to this, in the holy things and
shall add the fifth part thereof and give it unto the priest,
and the priest shall make an atonement for him with the ram
of the trespassing offering, and it shall be forgiven him. Now I wonder how many sins we've
committed that we're absolutely not conscious of at all. Well, sin is sin whether you
know it or not. Sin before God is always sin
whether you're conscious of it or not. I'll tell you, sin in
God's sight, whether it's conscious of it or ignorance, it don't
make any difference. Sin is always sin in God's sight. And sins of ignorance need somebody
to put them away just as much as they do when you deliberately
sin. And I'll tell you what, there's no telling. God only
knows how many sins we commit that we're not even conscious
of. What about the ones that we are conscious of? And even
though we're ignorant of many things that we've done, the seal,
the fault is ours, and the blame is ours, and God's going to say
that that flame is ours. You see, God's got a very, very
high standard. His standard is higher than any
man's on the face of this earth. His law is way up there, and
He ain't going to bring it down. He ain't going to bring it down
to meet our needs. No, no. And I tell you, you know
the only place where He met the standard that was up to where
He is? That was His blessed Son hanging
on that cross. He was equal to His Father. He could satisfy His Father.
He could put away sin in the sight of His Father. His blood
can cleanse us from all our sins in the sight of His Father. And
I'll tell you what, this is what's so blessed, that His blood cleanses
from how many sins? All of them. And you know all
of our sins were future when Christ died for us. Me and my sweet wife Shirley, this morning
we both were talking about it. Does sometimes something come
across your mind, something you've done years ago, or something
you've done in your youth, or something you've just done two
or three, four years ago, does it ever come to your mind and
you just, oh, God forgive me. You automatically start saying,
Lord, forgive me. I'm sorry. Oh, how could I have
done that? Oh, how could I have done that? And I tell you, I don't know
why these things come to our mind. But I know that whatever
it is, Christ has already took care of it. But still yet, it
troubles me. It bothers me. It shames me. And I shouldn't feel guilty about
it, but I cannot help it. Because it's such a shameful
thing. It's such an awful thing to deliberately sin against God. to walk right in where the light's
at and walk over here in the darkness and do something that's
awful and sinful and against God himself. How did I get out of that darkness?
How did I leave this light and go do that sinful thing? I bet none, I should say, none
of you have probably ever had that feeling. But didn't you know what our
Lord says? Father forgive them, they know
not what they do. And here's another thing when
our Lord said, Father forgive them, they know not what they
do. We see how blind, how sinful, how wicked the human heart is. They knew not what they do. Now
when it says here they knew not what they do, you reckon those
people said crucify, crucify, didn't know what they were doing?
Huh? They weren't ignorant of the
fact of it, in fact they asked them to it. They were there when
they nailed him to the trough. Huh? Pilate finally, he says,
the voices of them prevailed. And in one place, it says that
Pilate willingly, willingly gave in to the people. They just kept
on and kept on and kept on. He said, the only way I can shut
them up is to let them do what they want to do. And I'll let
them have it. I'll let them have it. And they
seemed there nailed to that cross. When He says they know not what
they do, what's He talking about? What's He talking about? There
were people that were eyewitnesses there. They knew exactly what
was going on. Huh? What did our Lord mean then
when He says they know not what they do? Well, I'm going to tell
you what I think it means. They were ignorant of who it
actually was that they crucified on that cross. They were ignorant of the enormous,
enormous crime that they had just committed. They were ignorant
of who was on that cross, why he was on that cross, and what
would be accomplished on that cross. All they saw is they said
we'll not have this man to reign over us. And do you know it says
that for that the princes of this world knew they would not
have crucified the Lord of Glory. That's who they crucified. And
they did not understand the enormity of their crime. Then Jews told
him in one place over there in John 18 said let his blood be
on us and on our children. Now you're watching that, saying,
we're gonna kill him, but let him, you know, we are not worried
about what we're doing against him. You let his blood, let his
blood be accounted best. And you know, God told his preachers,
he said, listen, you'll be guilty of the blood of souls if you
don't, blood will be on your hands if you don't tell men the
truth. And this is what they said, they
said, will his blood be on our hands then? There's nothing to
him. He's nobody. He's an imposter. So his blood be on us and on
our children. That's an enormous crime. And they knew not who it was
that they crucified. Now they ought to have known.
They ought to have known. You follow Him in His life. They
ought to have known by the words that He said. Did He ever utter
a word that wasn't perfect and complete and glorious and kind
and compassionate? Did He ever utter a word that
wasn't truth? Did He ever say anything that
wasn't perfect? Well, did he ever say anything?
Did he ever do anything when it is deeds? Follow him around. Look at what he did. Find the
leper that he cleansed. Find the blind man that he gave
sight to. Find that woman who said, if
I can just touch the hem of his garment. Find Lazarus, and he said, Lazarus,
come forth. Find the 5,000. He said, sit
down here, and I'll feed you. What do you got here? I got five
fishes and two loaves of bread. Give it to me. Pass it out. They brought back 12 baskets
full of food after he fed them. Find those and feed them. Found
Simon Peter that was out on the water, walking to him. And somehow Simon Peter started
going down and he said, Lord save me, I perish. And he rushed
and got him. Follow him around with these
deeds. Follow him around when he took
Jairus' daughter and put his own hand and lifted her up. Oh my, they ought to know who
he was because of what he did. They picked up stones to stone
him one time when he said, before Abraham was I am. And they picked up stones to stone
him and he said, for what good work are you going to stone me?
You know what they said? We're not going to stone you
for a good work. We don't care about good works. Everybody ought
to do good works. You know what we're going to
stone you for? Because you, being a man, make yourself to be God. And we can't have that. Because
if you're God, we're going to have to face you as God. We're
going to have to deal with you as God. And we're not going to
do that. And then, oh, our Lord's work.
My soul, what work he did. No wonder he asked him, said,
what think ye of Christ? What do you think of him? If
our Lord asked you today, asked me or you today, what think ye
of Christ? What would you say? Huh? What would you say? If our Lord
asked you today, what do you think of Christ? What would you
say? How would you answer that? What
do you think about Him? Who do you think He is? What
do you think He did? Who do you think He did it for?
Why did He do it for them? What did He do before God? Oh, what thank you of Christ!
He asked his disciples that one day, he said, who do men say
that I am? They said, well, some say you're Elijah. Some say you're
Jeremiah, because you're such a sorrowful person, you weep. And some say you're one of the
prophets. And he said, but who do you,
who do you, who do you say that I am? Simon Peter answers, says,
Thou art the Christ, the one anointed of God, the one sin
of God. The Old Testament pictures and
types and prophecies concern you. Thou art the Christ. And
not only you're the one that God sent, but you're the son,
the son of the living God. You know what our Lord said? Oh, my, you're blessed. Why are you blessed? Because
flesh and blood didn't make you understand that. My father, my
father gave you that. Huh? Oh my. They ought to have
known who he was. And that's one of the awfulest,
shameless things that I've ever faced in my life. Is the things
that I did not know about him and preached anyway. The things that I said about
him, the things that I thought about him, and the things that
I preached. I preached a human righteousness
besides the righteousness of Christ. I preached living right
more than getting life from Christ. I preached how to dress and dress
right rather than being dressed in the blessed righteousness
of Christ. No wonder our Lord said, Father,
forgive them. They know not what they do. Oh, bless His name. I'm grateful
He prayed that for me. I didn't know what I was doing.
He was talking about ignorance. And then I tell you, I, Lord,
Our Lord, here is an example of His own. He practiced what
He preached. He actually, you listen to what
He said over here in Matthew chapter 5. He said, Father forgive
them. They know not what. He's praying
for His enemies. Look in Matthew chapter 5. In Matthew 5, verse 43. Oh, our
Lord. He followed his own example. Look what he says here in verse
43. You have heard that it hath been
said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor,
but hate your enemy. But look what our Master said,
But I say unto you, Love your enemies. Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. He
said, you know, did our Lord love our enemies? Love his enemies? And look what he says. Bless
them that curse you. They were cursing him. Oh, how
they cursed him. And he said, pray for them. Bless
them. Do good to them that hate you.
pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you. What
did our Lord do on that cross? He done every one of them. He
loved his enemy and prayed for him. Grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ. You've heard it said, people
say it's awful hard to forgive. If it becomes hard to forgive,
I don't know what to think about it. To me, you know, I'm speaking
for myself. I'll speak for me. When God saves
a man, saves a man, He finds it so easy to forgive. And I
said this, I don't know how many times I've said this. Charity
covers a multitude of sins. Put the best spin on anything
anybody says to you, does to you, says about you. Of course,
listen, anything they say, if you didn't do it, you least thought
it. So you'd be guilty of it. But it is easy. If somebody wrongs
you, it's easy. Why is it easy? Because, listen,
I know what I am. I know what I am. How can we
hold grudges when Christ forgave us? How can we not forgive when
Christ forgave us? How can we not put the... You
know if somebody says something bad to us? So what? So what? So what? They're speaking to
a man. Look at things they say about
God. They say, well listen. Our Lord said pray for your enemies,
love your enemies. And our brothers and sisters
is not our enemies, but still yet we all offend in every part
with this tongue of ours. So the next time somebody says
something to you, somebody says something to hurt your feelings,
somebody says something to offend you, somebody gets in your face. Well, they had a bad day. They
didn't mean it. Well, there's no telling what's
going on in their life. There's no telling what just
happened to them. You just never know what goes
on in a person's heart and life that makes them say or do something
at that particular time. Would you all not agree with
that? Huh? I've heard people say, I just
know I can forgive, but I can't forget. Well then you can't forgive. If you can't forget, you can't
forgive. I'm telling you the truth. Now you wait a minute.
I'm telling you the truth. If you can't forget, you can't
forgive. You know what it means? If you
can't forget, that means that you're still holding that grudge.
You're still holding it against them. And what if Christ treated
us like we treated one another? We'd be in a mess, wouldn't we? You say, boy, you're meddling
now. No, I'm not meddling. I'm telling you the truth. When you forgive, you forget.
When you forgive, you let it go. You let it go. That's what our Lord taught us
right there. And did our Lord do us that way? Huh? If any have a quarrel against
any, let them forgive them, even as God, for Christ's sake, has
forgiven us. Ain't that what it said? It'd be awful to go around in
life just holding grudges against people, not forgiving people.
That'd be an awful way to live. That's the way of a transgressor.
The way of a transgressor is hard. But not the Lord's people. Our way's not hard, is it? Our
burden's light. Oh, our Lord's done so much for
us. But grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ. You know, He taught truth because
He was truth. And there is no way in the world
that we're not going to offend one another at some time. It's
just an impossibility. Just an impossibility. We'll
open our mouth and a lot of times we'll offend when we had no idea
that we'd done it. And we're going to turn around
and say, well you just hurt my feelings. No. No. You know what you're
going to say? Well, they just don't tell them
what's going on. That's the only thing you can
do. That's the only thing you can do. And here I'll tell you
what, our Lord, He followed His own example. He prayed for His
enemies. He loved His enemies. Bless them
that cursed Him. Father, forgive them. They know
not what to do. And here we see, when our Lord
prayed, we see man's greatest need. Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. We're sinners. We are sinners. Not pretend sinners. Not preacher
made sinners. Not church made sinners. Not
priest made sinners. Oh no, men may have great, great
ideals and noble ideals that I'm going to accomplish these
great things. They may make great, good resolutions. Good resolutions. They make them
a set of rules to live by. I went to a place down in Goodmanville,
Tennessee to preach one time, and the fellow had 25, 25 things
written in a big old cardboard on the wall that to be a member
of that church, you had to do all those things. And he told
me, he said, and there was about 15, 20 people there. A fella's
named Bobby Flatt. And there's about 15, 20 people.
He said, you know, this church, there's been so many people saved
here that this building wouldn't hold them. But they all back
slid. I said, no wonder. I said, you know, who lives by
that right there? That's the first thing that needs
to go. That's where people set up roads for you to live by.
Wouldn't it? You know, I thought of this this
morning. If I got on people for not reading their Bible, I can't
do that because I don't read my Bible that much. If I got
on you for praying, not praying, well I don't pray that much.
And what I'm telling you is that you do not preach nothing but
how desperately we need the word Jesus Christ. Everybody knows
what goes on in their life. Everybody knows that we do not
live according to our own ideals. Everybody knows that. But that's
why we need Christ and we come to Christ. We're sinners. Oh
my! Everything that a person thinks
or does in this world, in this world is useless and vain until
this question about sin is settled once and for all. Huh? Oh my! If you got paralyzed feet, what
do you need shoes for? If you're blind, glasses ain't
going to do you no good. And that's why our Lord said,
Father, forgive them. Who needs forgiveness? Sinners
need forgiveness. Sinners need forgiveness. Huh?
Oh my. It doesn't matter who you are.
Doesn't matter where you're from. Doesn't matter who you know.
Sin is our nature. Sin is not what we do. We do
what we do because we are sinners. A man don't become a sinner when
he lies. He lies because he's a sinner.
A man don't become a thief and steal something and becomes a
sinner. He steals because he's a sinner. And I'll tell you, sin is our
nature. It's our nature. Sin is our name. What's your
name? Sinner! Sinner! Born that way! Live that way! And if God don't
take care of my sin, I'll die that way! Huh? And our sin is before God! God, who is infinitely holy! Huh? I said, how can he justly
forgive us our sins? And that's why Peter stood and
preached, said, Be it known unto you, men and brethren, that through
this man, Father, forgive them. Through this man, it's preached
unto you through forgiveness of sins and by him you can be
justified from all things that you could not be justified any
other way. Oh my! Our Lord Jesus Christ,
He said, Father forgive him. I heard old Bonner say one time
you go to bed and sometimes your sins crawl over one another's
back to see which one's the worst. But all bless God's name. Christ
said, Father, forgive them. Forgive them. Who needs forgiveness? Sinners do. And then here's my
last thing about this cross. It says there in verse 34, Back
where we started. Here's the victory of redeeming
love. You know we sang that song, redeeming love has been my theme
and shall be till I die. Then, then said Jesus, Father
forgive them. Then, when the violence and depravity
of the human heart was on display, Then when man had done his very
worst, then when wicked hands had crucified the Lord of glory,
our Lord could have destroyed them like that. He could have
poured his wrath out on them like that. He could have caused
the earth to swallow him up like it did Korah. But here he was subjected to
the unspeakable shame. You know what made his cross
so awful, his suffering so awful? It's because who it was that
suffered. Who it was that suffered. Oh
my. He was suffering excruciating
pain. He was despised. He was rejected. Nevertheless, He says, Father,
forgive them, they know not what they do. You know, redeeming
love won the victory that day over sin, over his enemies. And I'll tell you something else,
when he said, Father, forgive them, his redeeming love forgave
all our sins. They're completely gone. Perfectly
gone. Full forgiveness. Past, present,
and future sins. He said, blessed is the man to
whom the Lord imputes not iniquity. I want to show you one thing
and I'll be done. Look over in Colossians chapter
2. Colossians chapter 2. You know, blessed is the man,
when our Lord said, Father, forgive them. Here is what? His redeeming love,
that blood that flowed from that cross. Forgave. Won the victory. Got victory
over all our sins. Full forgiveness. Look what is
said here in verse 13. buried with him in baptism, where
also you are risen with him through the faith of the operation of
God. Now see, God done this. God operated
the faith in us. Who hath raised him from the
dead. And you, being dead in your sins, and this old filthiness
of your flesh, hath he quickened, given life together with them.
Listen to this. having forgiven you all trespasses. So when Christ shall appear,
shall we also appear with him in glory? There is right now,
therefore now, no condemnation to them that are in Christ. Oh,
ain't you thankful that our Lord prayed, Father, Father, forgive
them. They don't know what they've
done. They don't know. We didn't know, but He did. And not only did He know what
we did, but He knows who we are. And He says, Father, forgive
them. Forgive them. Our blessed Savior, oh, great
and glorious God. Thou who loved us, oh, you loved
us. You went to that cross for us,
that humiliation, that humiliation, that suffering, that shame. Hated and despised, rejected,
counted as nothing in men's sight. But yet, he is numbered with
the transgressors. And you made intercession for
them transgressors. And Lord, all of us here today
are transgressors. But Lord, you prayed for us.
You prayed, Father, forgive them. And Lord, we thank you that you
prayed, Father, forgive them. For they know not what they do.
And Lord, how ignorant we've been in our life. Bless your
holy name for praying for us. You even pray for us even now.
And we thank you for that. In Christ's name, Amen. There is a fountain filled with
blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins. And sinners plunge beneath that
flood. Lose all their guilty stains. Lose all their They're all gone. See you tonight, God willing.