There Is Forgiveness With Thee

Q: What does the Bible say about forgiveness?

The Bible emphasizes that there is forgiveness with God for those who believe in Him. In Psalm 130:4, it is proclaimed that 'There is forgiveness with thee.' This signifies God's willingness and ability to forgive sin, reflecting His gracious and merciful nature. Throughout Scripture, God's character is described as merciful and gracious, underscoring His readiness to forgive those who turn to Him in faith. The understanding that God delights in mercy provides hope for the sinner, illustrating that forgiveness is not just a possibility but a promise from a loving God who desires to restore His creation.

Q: How do we know God will forgive our sins?

God's forgiveness is assured through His character and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. We can have confidence in God's forgiveness based on His own declaration of mercy and grace. In Exodus 34, God proclaims His nature as merciful, gracious, and forgiving. Additionally, Acts 10:43 affirms that through Jesus, all who believe receive forgiveness of sins. The ultimate act of forgiveness was demonstrated through the sacrifice of Christ, who bore our sins and thus satisfied God's justice. This establishes a firm foundation for the assurance that God will forgive those who truly repent and trust in Him.

Q: Why is forgiveness important for Christians?

Forgiveness is essential as it reflects the core of the gospel and the character of God. Forgiveness is foundational to the Christian faith because it reveals God's character and the essence of the gospel message. It highlights that despite our sinfulness, God offers grace and redemption through Christ's sacrifice. As Christians, understanding and receiving forgiveness is essential for our relationship with God, for it frees us from the guilt and penalty of sin. Moreover, we are called to extend this forgiveness to others, mirroring God's mercy in our lives and communities, which is pivotal for maintaining fellowship and unity within the body of Christ.

Q: What role does Jesus play in our forgiveness?

Jesus is central to our forgiveness as He paid the penalty for our sins. Jesus is the cornerstone of our forgiveness, as His sacrificial death on the cross fulfilled the requirements of justice that sin demands. Matthew 1:21 states that Jesus came to save His people from their sins, emphasizing that His life, death, and resurrection are essential for our redemption. Through Him, the penalty for our iniquities is paid, allowing us to be reconciled with God. The Holy Spirit also works within believers, affirming our forgiveness and transforming our hearts to reflect Christ's love and grace towards others.

Q: How can we confess our sins according to the Bible?

Confession involves acknowledging our sins before God and seeking His forgiveness. Biblical confession is not merely listing our wrongdoings but involves a heartfelt acknowledgment of our sinfulness and a desire for reconciliation with God. 1 John 1:9 teaches that if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us. This process includes recognizing the nature of sin, which is ingrained in our being, and turning to God in humility, seeking His mercy. David’s example in Psalm 51 demonstrates a sincere confession that acknowledges iniquity, transgression, and the need for divine cleansing. True confession leads to repentance and faith in God's promise of forgiveness.

Psalm 130. I looked over this congregation, see lots of different faces, lots of different backgrounds, and I know we're all individuals. We have different experiences. Some quite young, some pretty old. Some of us are folks who have little education, some considerable education, some raised in the splendor of the South, and some raised in the difficulties of the North.

But we have one thing in common, young and old, rich and poor, learned and unlearned, we have one thing in common, we're all sinners, everyone, sinners. Don't ever don't ever begin to think of that description as being something somehow that, because it is so common, it ought not be shocking. I wish I could speak the word with all the hideous, horrible, shocking reality, so that when you hear or think that this man is speaking And yet, at the same time, don't ever, ever, ever try to think of yourself in any other light. Don't do it.

We're sinners. Sinners. This one thing we have in common, from the smallest baby downstairs in the nursery, the oldest man here, some of us are redeemed pardoned, justified, forgiven sinners. Some of us are lost, ruined, condemned sinners, headed for eternity without God. But sinners we are. Now, knowing that we are all sinners, I recognize that as we have this one thing in common, we all have one tremendous And that is forgiveness.

Lindsay asked me this morning what I was going to be preaching on, and I said, I'm going to be preaching on there is forgiveness with thee. Surely, ever heard me say that? She said, thank goodness. Oh yeah, thank God. There is forgiveness with thee. Now, that's the message. Look at Psalm 130 and verse 3.

The psalmist says, mark iniquities. If thou shouldest mark iniquities, and He does, He does. God marks iniquity in the book of His remembrance. God marks iniquity in the book of His law. God marks iniquity in that book out of which He will judge the nations of the world and judge the people of the world.

And if God Almighty marks iniquity against you, if God marks iniquity against me, listen to what the psalmist says, hold on, who shall stand? If God remembers your sin, if God opens the book in the last day and finds there where he has marked iniquity against you, you can't stand Who can stand before the presence of the great and terrible God? Who can stand before God? Our gods are consuming fire. If God should mark iniquity, there's no hope for you, there's no hope for me. If God should mark iniquity.

But, don't underscore that, put a couple stars by it, but there is forgiveness. Oh, what a word of grace. There is forgiveness with God. God, who is so holy, so pure, so righteous, so perfect, that he cannot and will not look upon sin, that God delights in mercy and there's forgiveness with him. There is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be filled.

We need to recognize something about our sin. We are sinners by imputation. That simply means that when Adam sinned against God, we sinned in Adam. We did not become sinners when we were born. We did not become sinners when we decided to do evil. We did not become sinners when we became of a certain age and chose evil rather than good. Oh no. We became sinners back in the garden when Adam lifted his fist in God's face and said, you've got no right to become. Now understand this. When Adam sinned, we sinned in him representatively. Now folks argue about that and fuss about that and say, I don't like that. Listen to this.

The angels sinned one by one. They sinned one by one. Each angel followed Satan, and the angels sinned without mercy. The angels sinned and are damned forever without the least hope of God intervening and saving them. They're reserved in chains of darkness because they all fell, singly, one by one.

But we sinned, and we became ruined through the sin and fall of a representative man. That, in itself, is a message of hope. For if we fell in the representative, there's hope that we may rise again in the representative. If we became sinners by something that Adam did, then perhaps we can become righteous by something that another Adam does. And that's the message of the gospel. We sinned in Adam, we're made righteous in Christ. We die by what Adam did, we live by what Christ the second Adam has done. Listen to the scriptures.

Therefore, as by one man, sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for all have sinned. We became sinners by our sin being imputed to us, legally charged to us, because he was our representative in the garden. But we are sinners also by nature. David said in the psalm we read earlier, back in Psalm 51, Behold, I was shapen in iniquity.

And in sin did my mother conceive me." Now, he did not, by that statement, suggest that he was a child of an act of adultery or fornication or anything like that. Not at all. He is simply saying that when he was conceived in the womb, as soon as he was conceived, he was a sinner. As soon as he began to have life in the womb of his mother, he was shaken and iniquitous, and he came forth from the womb speaking lies.

So that by nature, sin is what, he says, I am. And I'm telling you, that's what you are by nature. Sin is the inbred family disease of our race. The fairest baby that ever delighted a family is not, as its mother likes to call it, a little angel, but a little sinner. We were born sinners, we came forth from the womb as sinners.

Sin is something that is so natural to us. that no parent ever had to teach his child to be wrong. No parent ever had to show his child how to lie. No parent ever had to teach his child to be selfish, to be mean-spirited, to be self-centered. No parent ever had to teach the child to do that which is evil, because that's within the nature of the child. is a disease which prevails and runs through every part of a man.

It corrupts every faculty of our beings. The understanding, the affections, the reasoning powers, the will, all are defiled by sin. As the prophet said of the nation of Israel, so it is true of us all. From the soul to the foot, even unto the head, there is no soundness in us but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. This is the universal plague of our race.

Wherever you go in the world, you find sin. No matter where you go. Among the most civilized areas of the world, to the most barbaric, to the most remote places in distant, distant, distant parts of the world, to the present place right here in this assembly, we are all sinners. It's found everywhere. There's no place where you do not find this crime of the sepulchre. Even among those who are redeemed by the blood of Christ. Even among those who are justified by the grace of God, even among those who are voted in by the power of God's Holy Spirit, sins are commentated.

We long to be free from sin. God let me say no more than is absolutely certain. If I had anything on this earth I wish I could have, I could have anything on this earth, that which I want more than anything on this earth, is to be without sin. Oh, never to sin again. Never to sin again. And if you're a believer, I have no question that's your desire too. You want to be without sin, to live without sin.

Sometimes our songbooks we open up and we start singing a song about living above the world and seeing that's what we want but rather that's not what we practice that's not it that's just not that's not the experience of any child of god With all our hearts, we wish we might never sin again, but that is not so. And so long as we live in this world, it will not be so.

We live in this body of flesh, and as long as we live in this body of flesh, we live in a body of sin, and we carry sin with us in all things because sin comes from within. Sin is what we are by nature. The old man is still with us, and we carry that body of sin until we go to the grave. Not only are we sinned by nature, but we're sinned by choice. By nature, all men choose to do evil over good. Always. Always. If ever a man chooses good over evil, the root of his choice is pride and self-righteousness, and that makes his choice to be evil. You understand that?

If man had no restraints, no restraints at all, so that there were no restraints of moral conscience, no restraints of government, no restraints of law, no restraints of society, no restraints of someone else's opinion, man would never do that which even appears to be good, because men are evil at heart. That which we do, which appears to be good in the eyes of men, is always the result of some kind of constraint placed upon us by God's providence. And my friends, we are sinners by practice. Honestly look over your life.

Go back as far as mid-memorabilia. If you're honest, Your life can be summed up in one simple three-letter word. Simple. Simple. You came forth from the womb speaking lies, and you spent your youth speaking lies, and you spent your adulthood speaking lies.

We are all, by nature, sinners, and we are all, by practice, sinners. We habitually have broken God's law in every detail. There is not a single commandment that we have not broken from our youth, not even once. We have broken them inwardly, and we've broken them outwardly. And those who somehow never, by some kind of constraint of society, by some kind of constraint of moral decency, by some kind of constraint of God's providence, have been kept from outwardly committing all the vile deeds of iniquity in their hearts, are as guilty as the most vile, profligate sinner in all the world. They're no exception. No exception. Even now, we are sinners. with just a massive sin, a massive iniquity. I have sinned, I am sinning, and as much as I despise the fact of it, I shall yet sin. That's just fact.

I was preaching last week and made a statement one day, during the course of the sermon. If any man says, I have not sinned, he's a liar and the truth is not in him. And I made the statement, I made the comparison, you remember the harlot in Proverbs 7, she wipes her mouth and she says, there, I haven't seen it. I haven't seen it. And I'm saying to you, if in what you're doing right this second, right now, you foolishly imagine you haven't seen, you're a liar. You're a liar. The truth of God's not in you. You don't know God's truth.

I got done preaching. A lady met me at the door. She said, uh, she met me at the door the next morning. She said, you know, when you said that, I thought to myself, well, I'm not sinning. I said, well, the text is the same. It's still the same. I said, what do you mean? Sinning? Are we at God's house worshiping? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

Because we're so full of self-interest. I'm trying to preach to you. I could somehow one day, oh, to preach a message purely for God's glory. Just purely for God's glory. But I can't do it. I can't do it. It doesn't lie within the realm of possibility. Or if I could somehow, as I tried to lead the congregation in prayer a little bit ago, I tried to pray purely for your glory and God's glory, but it's not possible to do so. Not possible.

There's too much seeing, too much I mixed with everything I do, so that as we read the Word, as we preach, as we hear the Word preached, we're always thinking of self, and how we're going to appear to somebody else, and what other folks are going to think of us, or our minds are running to a thousand manners of evil, because we are seeing. Do you understand that? Seeing is what we are, and there's no getting rid of it by ourselves. Now here we are. must somehow learn to look upon sin in its true character.

I've already hinted at this, but man's problem is not his environment. Man's problem is not in his education. Man's problem is not because the society in which he lives is corrupt, and the educational system is corrupt, and there's so much theft and corruption going on all around him. Oh no, that's not the problem. The problem's in our hearts, in our hearts.

If it were possible for Ruth and Sam to take that little baby, lock that baby up in a closet, and let it never hear anything evil, and never watch a dirty picture show, and never read a dirty magazine, And never be influenced by anything outside the environment of itself. Just lock it up in a closet and raise it for 20 years that way. Turn it loose and you turn loose a monster. You turn loose a monster. What are you talking about?

Because the child is by nature sin. That's all. And the evil that's out there that we all look down our nose on and we all shake our finger and say, oh you ought not be that way. That's what we are. That's what we are. That's our nature. Do you understand that?

We are sin. Sin is not outside of us, sin is within us. The problem with man is his heart. Somehow we have a phallicynic notion of sin, and we think that sin is to be judged as men judge sin. Sin is to be looked upon as men look upon sin. But that which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination to God.

So that in the eyes of God, now you listen carefully to this preacher. You listen carefully to me. Listen to me now. Old and young alike, listen to me. In the eyes of God, morality and immorality amount to the same thing. In the eyes of God, The honesty and the dishonesty of the unregenerate master the same thing. In the eyes of God, the uprightness and the propagacy of the unregenerate master the same thing. Same thing.

Did you hear me? That's the same thing? They call the unregenerate operation of principle of corruption and rebellion, whether he runs in the path of morality or runs in the path of immorality. The honest, unregenerate man or the dishonest, unregenerate man operates on the same principle of corruption and serves certain power, no matter which direction he takes. Do you understand that? Do you understand that?

Seein's what we are. Are you saying it has to win, that it doesn't matter how a person behaves? Oh no, oh no, it matters a great deal, it matters a great deal. We raise our children to live in uprightness, we raise our children to walk in decency, to be good, responsible citizens, but don't, don't, don't, don't ever, don't ever, don't ever suggest or inquire to those children that somehow walking this path It's going to bring them to God. They won't do it. They won't do it. They won't do it.

These are boys here, I've known them since they were five, son. I always sit right on the front row. I remember, this boy was eight years old, reading Grace for the Day. He came up one day on the grass and said, I'm sick of the day. Do it. Keep on doing it. But don't ever imagine Sitting on the front row reading your Bible and saying your prayers is going to get you to glory. It ain't going to do it. Because sin's next to everything you do. Sin's next to everything you do. God looks from the heart. And when God looks from the heart, he looks for one thing. Faith in Christ. Faith in Christ. Faith in Christ. Faith in Christ. That's it. And if you have no faith in Christ, God sees nothing in you but sin, nothing in you but sin.

I travel a lot and I meet folks on all kinds of walks of life all around the world and somehow people get the silly notion that the television set in the living room, that's evil sir, blow up television sets. I went to school with a fellow who took his television set out in the garden, blew it up, chopped the thing, you shoot on television sets in the world, you're not going to kill sin. The problem's not in the TV set, the problem's in the fellow using it.

Somebody said, well, you ought not to use alcohol. Some fellows ought not to. Please understand, there are folks who simply cannot, cannot, cannot use alcohol without abusing it. But the alcohol's not the problem. We use wine every Lord's Day in the Lord's Supper. There's nothing wrong with that. That's what God commands. That's what God commands. Our Lord turned water into wine. He didn't turn it into grape juice.

The problem is what folks do with alcohol. The problem is man's abuse of alcohol. Somebody said, well, you ought not to have tobacco. The problem's not in the tobacco, the problem's in the use of it. Somebody said, well, drugs are terrible either. There have been times I've been really thankful for drugs that knock you out. I may just let it knock you out. It's man's abuse of the drugs.

Do you understand that? The evil is not out here, the evil's in here. The problem between man and God is not that man stole the woman, or that man told a lie. The problem is man in his heart says, God, you've got no right to be God. Man in his heart hates authority. He hates rebellion. That's what sin is in its essence. It is despising God. despising God. I don't know how to make this seem clearer. The reason men behave as they do is because man by nature hates authority. He hates authority because authority represents God. Authority represents God. Adam in the garden, when he took the forbidden thing, he looked up into God's face and he said, God, you've got no right to do this to me.

You've got no right to say I can't have this. You've got no right to say my wife is going to perish because she's done this. You've got no right to be God. You've got no right to control me. And when a man comes to faith in Christ, broken, humble before God, He bowed before the throne of a sovereign God and said, you've got a right to be God. You've got every right to control me. You've got every right to rule me. You've got every right to have my life. Here, take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, today.

That's what faith amounts to. Now then, having laid that as the foundation, I've got good news for you this day, for you who are sinners. God help you to understand that you are, and then help you to hear this, there is forgiveness with God. There is forgiveness with God. Can I be sure that God will forgive sin?

When a man hears just an unusual, astounding good news, hears something that's almost unbelievable, he wants to know, oh what a thought, can I believe that? What's the basis of that good news? I have on occasion heard some things that I was just, I was just shocked by and I was a little reluctant. Well, I'll investigate that for myself. I want to see if this is so.

I remember when first God convinced me of my sin. And I heard the good news that there is forgiveness of God. I simply couldn't believe God would forgive my sin. Forgive my sin? I could honestly believe he'd forgive your sin. Because I didn't see your sins, I saw my sin. But forgive my sin? How can I be certain that God will forgive your sin? How can I be certain that God Almighty will forgive my sin?

Let me give it to you on the authority of God himself, in God's own word, according to God's own covenant. Turn back to Exodus chapter 34. Exodus chapter 34. I'm going to give you several reasons. From the scriptures, I hope that God the Holy Spirit will stamp each of them on your heart. First, I know that God Almighty will forgive sin, because his name is forgiveness. That's his name. The names of God, as they're given in scripture, are reflective of his attributes. They describe who and what God is.

In Exodus, chapter 33, you'll recall Moses made this prayer to God. The Lord told him what he was going to do for him, and in verse 13, he said, Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, show me now thy way, that I may know thee. Then he said, later in the same verse, Consider that this nation is thy people. And he says in verse 50, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. What prayers! Oh, what words of intercession!

And then he opens his mouth and his heart before God, and he says in verse 18, I beseech thee, show me thy God, show me who you are. Oh, God, show me who you are." And the Lord God said, all right, Moses, I'm going to hide you in the cleft of the rock. I'll put my hand over you because you can't look on my face, and I'll pass by you, and I'll show you who I am. Now, listen to what happened in verse 5, chapter 34.

The Lord descended in a cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed by before him and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and in truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and upon the children's children unto the third and fourth generation.

His name is forgiven. And when he forgives sin, he does so so thoroughly that there is no record of sin left, so that those whom God forgives are altogether guiltless in God's sight. His name is forgiveness. God condescends for His glory to forgive sin. The forgiveness of sin is altogether agreeable with God's character. He is gracious, so gracious that it is written of him in the prophecy of Malachi, our Michael, he delighteth in mercy. Oh, God delights to forgive sin. God delights to forgive sin. How can I describe it? God is more ready to forgive sin. He's more ready to forgive than you are to seek forgiveness. He's more ready to forgive than you are to ask for forgiveness. He's delighted in this thing. His character is to forgive sin.

Secondly, turn to Acts chapter 10. Acts, the tenth chapter. I want you to follow with me through the scriptures this morning, because I want you to see this is what God says. I know that there is forgiveness with God, because this was the message of all the early prophets. In Acts chapter 10 and verse 43, we read, To him give all the prophets witness, all of them, that through his name, that is, through the name of Jesus Christ, whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. This is the message of all the scripture.

Beginning back in the Old Testament with the book of Moses, or the books of Moses, Genesis through Deuteronomy, the Lord God declares the forgiveness of sin. Going from Deuteronomy on through Malachi, the Lord God declares the forgiveness of sin. Through all the prophets they said there's one coming, Jesus Christ the Messiah, the Son of God, the Lamb of God, through whom God will give the remission of sins to all who believe. All the prophets, then, of the Old Testament preached the remission of sins through Christ, God's Messiah. And the forgiveness of sins through the merits of Christ was not something that was kindly, ambiguously conceived in the minds of a few men, it's something that men believed clearly and taught distinctly through the Old Testament. David declared it.

In Psalm 51, we read earlier, David's penitential psalms, his cry to God for forgiveness. There's another psalm that was written on the same occasion, back in Psalm 32. Psalm 32, whenever I start to study the subject of forgiveness or think about preaching on it, I always read Psalm 32 and Psalm 51. These are psalms in which David, who experienced forgiveness, describes for us the blessedness of forgiveness. You remember when David had sinned against Uriah, he took his wife Bathsheba. And then he had Uriah murdered. And God had been silent. God hadn't spoken a word to David. The scene. Nathan's next words, as soon as David said, I have sinned. Nathan's next words were, the Lord hath put away your sin, you shall not die. And David went home and he wrote these words, Psalm 32.

Blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered, atoned for. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputed not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile. The Apostle Paul translates that second verse like this, blessed is the man unto whom the Lord will not impute sin. God imputed our sins to his son. He'll never impute them to us. Nathan said to David, the Lord has forgiven your sins, the Lord will not impute your sin to you. And David said, oh blessed God, who will not forgive my sin, I am blessed in him. Who will not impute my sin to me, I am blessed in him. When I kept silence, That's our nature. That's our nature. We see a conscience torments us. Conscience pricks us. Conscience, the voice of God in a man's soul, aggravates and stirs up the wrath of God in his soul. The word of God comes and aggravates and stirs up the wrath of God in a man's soul. When I kept silence and would not confess my sin, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long, day and night.

Thy hand was heavy upon me. My musters turned into the drought of summer." That's a picture of a man, a description of a man. who's carrying within the guilt of sin, tormenting, the hand of God's heavy on his soul. I want the hand of God's heavy on your soul blessed to you, blessed to you, blessed to you. It's when God takes his hand off. Oh, then I'm David said, your hand was heavy upon me, my moisture was turned into the drought of summer.

And then, verse 5, I acknowledge my sin unto thee, mine iniquity have I not healed. I said I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. If we confess our He's faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Confessing sin.

So many people have so many struggles with that and it's the simplest thing in the world. In Baptist churches most of the time folks come to the front and they start to confess their sin and hear the preacher or before the congregation and start itemizing sin.

I did this, and this, and this, and this, and the other. I said this, and did that, all of it. That's easy. That's easy. It's easy talking to a man who's a sinner about sin. That's easy. You may think it's tough, but that's easy. In Catholic churches, they go to the priest and make a confession. That's easy. That's easy. Talking to a man who's a sinner about sin, that's easy.

But the confession of sin is not the listing of transgressions. That's not it. The confession of sin is not saying, Lord, I stole this, and I cheated on that, and I went out with this fellow's wife, and I took this from the office. That's not it. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. That's not it.

The confession of sin is before God Almighty. Open it up your heart. Say, God, this is what I eat. This is what I eat. And notice David speaks of his sin as iniquity, transgression, and sin. Iniquity is failing to measure up to what God requires. And transgression is breaking that which God has clearly stated is breaking through the fears. It's transgressing God's law and sin. That's your nature. That's your nature. David says, Lord God, I confess my sin. my transgressions and my iniquities, you forgive it all."

Isaiah preached the forgiveness of sin by substitute. He said Christ was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, and the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. Turn to Daniel chapter Daniel the ninth chapter. And listen to what the prophet Daniel says, as he's confessing sin. He's owed in the sins of the people. He says in verse nine, this is the reason for the confession. To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him.

Look in verse 24. Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring you everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and the prophecy, and to anoint the most holy.

Now listen to me. No, don't listen to me, listen to God himself. The Lord God himself speaks by his prophets, but he speaks himself. and declares that he will forgive Satan. Let me read a few verses of scripture to you. Beginning in Isaiah 1, verse 18. God says, Come now, let us reason together, saith the Lord. In what reasoning he gives. Come now, let us reason together, saith the Lord.

Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be raised like prince, they shall be his war. Come on, let's reason together. If you're willing and obedient, come to me. Hear my voice, believe on my word, and your sins I will forgive you.

Look in chapter 43 of Isaiah. Isaiah 43 and verse 25. I, even I, am he that boughteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins. Chapter 44, verse 22. I have bought it out as a thick cloud by transgressions, and as a cloud by sins, return it to me, for I have redeemed thee. Chapter 45, verse 22.

Look unto me, and be ye saved all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is none else." Look in chapter 55, Isaiah 55, verse 7. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous may in his thoughts let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him. And to our God, and he will abundantly pardon. Look at verse 3. Incline your ear and come unto me. Here in your soul shall live, and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. Here. Come. Believe. God says, I'll forgive. I'll forgive. In the next place, I know that there is forgiveness with God, because every sacrifice of the Old Testament proclaims it.

What is the meaning of all the blood constantly flowing from the altars of the Jewish temple and tabernacle? It means that there is a lamb to come through whose blood the forgiveness of sin would be accomplished. All those priests sacrificed all those sacrifices knowing that those sacrifices could never take away sin, but they pointed to him whose coming would take away sin by the sacrifice of himself. The first blood that was shed in the world was shed by God.

God took an innocent victim and killed it in the place of Adam and Eve, and took the skin of that innocent victim and clothed Adam and Eve. A picture of Christ. He died for us. Behold, rather, the Son of God, the Lamb of God, was slain by God's hand for us. Through his blood our sins are put away. His righteousness has been imputed to us. That's the picture. The next blood that was shed was by Adam's son Abel who came to God with a blood sacrifice by which he said, I can't come to God a sinner except my blood atonement.

Abraham meets his son Isaac and takes him up to Mount Reliah. And Isaac is carrying the wood and the fire in his hand. And he says, Father, we have the wood and we have the fire for a burnt offering. But where is the lamb for a sacrifice? We can't worship God without a lamb. And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. And then the Passover sacrifice that was sacrificed in Israel every year was a portrayal of Christ, our Passover, who was sacrificed for us.

I know there is forgiveness with God. Turn to Matthew chapter 1, because that's the reason Christ came. Matthew 1 verse 21. Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Now listen to me and learn the gospel. It is the glory of God to forgive sin. God delights in mercy. He's willing to be gracious. But God Almighty cannot and will not forgive sin at the expense of his justice. Mark, God loved you with an everlasting love. He chose you before the world began. But God must send you to hell unless his justice is satisfied. You understand that? His love is not going to keep you out of hell. His graciousness is not going to keep you out of hell. His mercy is not going to keep you out of hell. His justice is going to keep you out of hell. Only his justice.

God sent the soul that sent it, it shall die. And the Lord Jesus Christ came to die for sinners because justice must be satisfied. And the Son of God came here to satisfy justice for those people loved and chosen of God before the world began. He came here to suffer for them, to put away their sins.

The Lord Jesus Christ assumed human nature. The Son of God became one of us. And Emmanuel must mean forgiveness. God has come and become a man. God has come in the form of human flesh. God has come, one of us, to redeem us from our sins. And the sacrifice of Jesus Christ at Calvary declares that God forgives sin.

Why did the Son of God die? Why did he die? Because he was made to be sin. He was made to be sin for us who knew no sin. Because there's no other way, no other way under heaven, no other way while God's throne stands for God to be just and justify the ungodly, but for him to be made sin and there to suffer the wrath of God for sin. that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Yes, forgiveness is as sure and certain as the throne of God. For the Lord Jesus Christ died and rose again. He died for the forgiveness of our sins and he rose again to declare sins are forgiven.

He put him away. He put him away. Here's another reason. I know that there is forgiveness with God. God, the Holy Spirit, according to John chapter 16, has come to convince the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. Our Lord Jesus is speaking, and he says in verse 8, When he, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will reprove, convict, or convince the world, not everybody in the world, oh no, but every one of the chosen throughout the world. He will convince the world of sin, the fact of it, of righteousness, the fullness of it, of judgment, the finality of it. When he convinces the world and his people of sin, their sin, and of righteousness, Christ's righteousness, and of judgment, he convinces them of the forgiveness of sin.

Here I stand, a man guilty. If I had what I justly deserve for what I have done in the last forty-five minutes, Hell would be my eternal portion. Hell would be my eternal portion. And if you have what you rightly deserve, Hell would be your eternal portion. You deserve the wrath of God. You deserve the wrath of God. You deserve judgment. You deserve it.

And I'm convinced of that. I'm totally, absolutely, fully convinced of that. But I see in the person of Jesus Christ, God's soul, an infinite fullness of righteousness. And as hideous, and as horrible, and as vile as my Sion is, his righteousness is infinitely fuller, infinitely better, infinitely more delightful in all things. His righteousness is perfect.

And I see judgment. Judgment certainly, fully, finally accomplished by Jesus Christ. Bobby, God Almighty, judged our sin at Calvary. He judged our sin at Calvary. It's gone. It's gone. Then, the seers of God's people, for whom Christ died, which Christ bore in his body on the tree of Jerusalem, were forgiven of sin. The Holy Spirit has come to convince us that through the blood of Christ, God forgives sin. Again, I know that there is forgiveness with God. Because the Lord told his disciples, after he arose from the dead, just before he ascended back into heaven to go tell the world that he would forgive sin.

Look in Luke chapter 24. Luke chapter 24. Verse 44. He said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you. that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms concerning me.

Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, and said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name, among all nations.

The Lord Jesus Christ has sent his preachers into all the world to tell sinners of forgiveness. God sent me here today to tell you he will forgive sin. He will forgive sin. He'll do it. He'll And I know there's forgiveness with God. I know it because I've experienced it. I've experienced it. I've come to God full of guilt, full of sin. I've come to God with hell in my heart, and hell tormenting my soul.

And looking to Jesus Christ alone as Lord and Savior, believing Him, I've heard Him say, And I'm forgiven. I'm forgiven. I'm forgiven. So that I have no dread, no fear, no terror, no apprehension in my soul whatsoever that one day God's going to deal with me again for sin. He won't do it. He won't. I've been forgiven.

What a blessed, blessed, blessed word of grace. Forgiven. There is forgiveness within, that thou mayest be there. And what God's done for me, he'll do for every sinner, every sinner in the world, who trusts his son. You trust him now? God's forgiven you. Be trusted, if you trust Him, God's forgiven you sin. May God give you grace now to trust Him for the forgiveness of sin.

There Is Forgiveness With Thee

What does the Bible say about forgiveness?

How do we know God will forgive our sins?

Why is forgiveness important for Christians?

What role does Jesus play in our forgiveness?

How can we confess our sins according to the Bible?

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There Is Forgiveness With Thee

What does the Bible say about forgiveness?

How do we know God will forgive our sins?

Why is forgiveness important for Christians?

What role does Jesus play in our forgiveness?

How can we confess our sins according to the Bible?

Sermon Transcript

About Don Fortner

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