I cannot imagine any pastor anywhere
having enjoyed 32 more blessed years. I thank you and thank
God for you. I wouldn't trade places with
anybody in the world at any time in history. Thankful God put
me in this place. I sat down before anybody got
here this evening and Just checked my email, something I rarely
do on Sundays. No one was here. I had done my
studying and checked my email and I had a letter note from
Mark Warta, Sherry's husband. I talked to him last week and
I said to him, if there's anything I can do for you, I know it's
going to be a long time for you. You're going to be by yourself.
Anything I can do for you, don't hesitate to call me. and he made
several good encouraging comments and he said there's something
you can do for me. Preach the gospel to my family. Preach the gospel to my family. That's the reason they're there. That's the weightiest responsibility
I know anything about. The heaviest burden I carry. Shelby and I have had the privilege
and honor over the years to have folks so respect us that they
would ask permission to put in their wheels. If something happened
to them, we'd take their children and raise them. And that's a
heavy burden. That'd be Man, I'm 61 years old. I wouldn't want to start over
again. But Mark, that would be a piece of cake to what I've
got to do right now. It is my responsibility and my
great privilege to preach to you, who soon will meet God in
judgment, the gospel of his free grace. Here's my question and
my subject. How can God forgive sin? How can God forgive sin? I'll give you a challenge. Next time you run across someone
on the streets, someone knocks on your doors and wants to buttonhole
you, and I'm not saying this to be sarcastic of me. Maybe
you can help them. Maybe you can help them. on the
street corner one Saturday and just ask them, how can God forgive
sin? I'll guarantee they've never
considered the question. They've never thought about it.
Well, he just does. He's good. He's gracious. How
can God forgive sin? How can God forgive sin? He declares
himself holy, righteous, just and true. He says he will by
no means clear the guilty. He says, the soul that sinneth,
it shall die. How then can God forgive sin? How can he do it? I took every
course that was offered in theology and Bible, anything related to
the Bible in two of the nation's leading Bible colleges and in
postgraduate work as well in seminaries. And in all those
years, in all those studies, I never one time heard anybody
even raise the question, let alone answer it. How can God
forgive sin? Shelby went through school before
me and she was a far better student. And I asked her, I said, did
you ever hear anybody raise the question? She said, never came
up. How can God forget, go through
a Bible college? Take everything we've got to
teach about religion, about the Bible, and never raise the question,
how can God forgive sin? Ask your neighbors, your friends.
Folks go to church, and I don't know why it is, when I walk through
church doors, otherwise brilliant folks check their brains at the
door. How can God forgive sin? Until you find the answer to
that question, until you're able to answer that question, You
have not understood anything taught in this book. Now, you
can memorize it from cover to cover. You can quote scripture
on top of scripture on top of scripture until you find the
answer to this question. You don't understand anything
in this book, and you certainly have no understanding of the
gospel of God's grace. This is the first question that
arises in the mind of a man or a woman convinced of his sin
by God, the Holy Spirit. When you seriously give consideration
to the fact of your guilt before God, of your sin, you've got
to know how can God forgive sin. It's a question that ought to
alarm you who are without Christ. How can God forgive sin? In the oldest book of the Bible,
the book of Job, that book was written before anything else,
as far as I can determine. This question was asked again
and again. Eliphaz couldn't understand.
He said, what is man that he should be clean? And he which
is born of woman, that he should be righteous. Behold, God putteth
no trust in his saints. Yea, the heavens are not clean
in his sight. How much more abominable and
filthy is man which drinketh iniquity like water. Bildad was
just as perplexed. He asked Job, how can a man be
just with God? Or how can he be clean, this
born of woman? David, the psalmist of Israel, was troubled about
this matter. He said, if thou, O Lord, shouldst
mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? And I say this is
the greatest concern of a convicted sinner. How can God forgive sin? He says to himself, God is just.
If he's just, how can he pardon my sin? My iniquities cry aloud
for punishment. My transgressions demand that
his right hand slay me. How can I be saved? Where can
God find a way to forgive sin? Were he unjust, he could do so,
but he cannot be unjust. God is just requiring exact righteousness. He lays justice to the line and
righteousness to the plummet. He is the judge of all the earth
who must do right. So how can God forgive sin? Now, understand this. God will
not bend his law. He will not compromise his justice. He will not stoop to your condition
in order to do something for you. God will not cease to be
God that he might be gracious. The God of glory is absolutely,
perfectly, intensely, indescribably just. He's just. He's just. That means he can't
bend. That means he can't give in.
How then can God forgive sin? The sinner is right. when this
disturbs him. You see, Sodom and Gomorrah are
an ash heap that stand to this day before men as a declaration
that God will, God must, God shall punish sin. Korah, Dathan,
and Abiram had the earth open up beneath them and thousands
in one day swept into hell because God will punish sin. One day God Almighty caused rain
to fall on the earth and it continued to rain until all the earth was
covered with the waters of God's wrath and God destroyed all flesh
upon the earth because God will punish sin Don't imagine he's
gonna let you get by Hell is your portion unless God forgives
sin God must punish iniquity. He must punish transgression.
He must punish sin. The bottomless pit of eternal
damnation and torment declared the vengeance of God against
the sins of humanity. The sighs and groans and screams
and screeches of the damned rise in our ears and say, God is just. Sin must be punished. Yes, the
sinner is right. in his conviction. And the inference
that follows is also right. If God is just, my sin must be
punished. If God is just, your sin must
be punished. Don Ranieri, read this book. Read it carefully. You will not
find that God ever pardoned any sin in an absolute sense. I chose my words deliberately.
God never pardoned any sin in an absolute sense. God cannot
and will not pardon iniquity, except the iniquity be punished
to the full satisfaction of justice. Can't be done. Well, how then
can God forgive sin? How can the sinner be pardoned?
How can our transgressions be put away? Is there no hope for
sinner? Oh, blessed be his name. God
found a way in himself to pardon iniquity and still punish it
to the full satisfaction of his justice. And that way is Jesus
Christ, the Lord. by the substitutionary sacrifice
of his darling son. God Almighty making his son to
be sin. Punish sin until justice was
fully satisfied and God sheathed his sword. And now God in justice
forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin. Only in Christ Jesus
the Lord. How can God forgive sin? That's the great riddle of the
law and the blessed discovery of the gospel. Turn with me,
if you will, to our text. First, John, chapter one and
verse nine. By the rich atonement of Christ,
precious blood at Calvary, justice is satisfied and now the justice
and law of God have not a word. to say against the sinner for
whom Christ died. Can you get hold of this? The
justice of God, the law of God, have not a word to say against
the sinner for whom Christ died. The justice of God, the law of
God, in fact, takes sides with every believing sinner. and demands
that we be justified. Demand that we be sanctified. Demand that we be glorified because
Christ has fully satisfied the justice of God by his death upon
the cursed tree, put away sin by the sacrifice of himself and
brought in everlasting righteousness for our souls. And God now freely
forgives all our sin upon the merits of Christ's sacrifice
as our substitute. And we receive the forgiveness
of sin by confessing our sins, trusting Christ alone to cleanse
us from all sin as our redeemer. First, John chapter one, verse
nine. If we confess our sins. If we confess our sins. He is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. I want to make three statements.
I want you to get to them. These three things are clearly
revealed in the text. If we would obtain this forgiveness
of sins, there must be a confession of sin to God Almighty. God forgives the sins of his
people according to strict justice upon the grounds of Christ's
finished work. Third, God's forgiveness of our
sin is both certain and complete. All right, let's look at the
first. Here, John puts a condition upon forgiveness. A condition. You must confess
your sins. You must confess your sins. There
must be a confession of sin before we can receive the pardon of
sin. If we confess our sins. Now understand clearly what I'm
talking about. I'm talking about the experience
of forgiveness. I'm talking about receiving the
forgiveness of sins. Bill, we recognize and clearly
understand that our confession of sin does not atone for sin. Our faith in Christ does not
accomplish forgiveness. Our believing the word of God
and the gospel of God's grace does not cause God to do anything. Our faith in Christ, our believing
the revelation of God in the gospel, our confession of sin
toward God, believing on the Lord Jesus, is that which is
the means by which we receive this blessed forgiveness of sin.
Forgiveness was done in eternity Forgiveness was accomplished
at Calvary when the Lord Jesus Christ God's darling son was
made sin for us and he endured all the penalty of divine justice
in our room instead and he cried it is Finished sins were then
put away our forgiveness was then accomplished in him by his
blood We had the forgiveness of sins But there is no knowledge
of this forgiveness. There is no experience of this
forgiveness. You cannot in any way possibly
know your forgiveness until you confess your sin to God Almighty,
believing on his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. If we confess our
sins, we have forgiveness. If we don't confess our sins,
we declare God a liar. and his truth is not in us. The
Apostle John writes to us as men who know ourselves sinners
in need of forgiveness. If there is a confession of sin,
there must be a knowledge of sin. If we confess sin without
the knowledge of sin, we would only be adding to sin duplicity,
hypocrisy, and insincerity. Multitudes do that. They confess
sin because they read it off of a piece of paper. They confess
sin because some preacher tells them how to confess sin. And
just confessing what you do not know, confessing what you're
not convinced of is utter hypocrisy. The confession of sin arises
from the conviction of sin. When God the Holy Spirit makes
you to know your sin, you don't need me to tell you about it.
Because God has sent his word in your heart and caused you
to taste the bitterness of what you are We all need forgiveness
because we're all sinners He does not know His need of Christ
and his need of the gospel who does not know his sins And yet
the facts we read in the scriptures, we read all of sin to come short
of the glory of God. We read about man who drinks
iniquity like water, and we know that we commit acts of transgression.
We know that Adam all died. We know that we were made guilty
by the sin and fall of our father Adam. We're born with that in
nature. We know all those things. We have the facts fixed in our
head Our daughter's known him since she was just a toddler.
Your children have known them all their lives We taught them
and taught them well so that they can recite the words but
reciting words And knowing you're saying oh my god There's a world
of difference There's a world of difference. I Can't convince
you of yourself Mama and daddy can't convince you of your sin.
Oh, we can pull you aside and tell you sad stories and scare
you to death and and we can Talk in the profession of faith and
we can make you feel guilty because you got caught lying or cheating
or are doing some Some evil thing and make you feel bad and feel
ashamed, but we can't convince you of sin We can't convince
you say we scare you to death, but we can't convince you sin.
I And the scaring and the fear and the fear-mongering that goes
on in religion has nothing to do with dealing with men's souls
faithfully. What do you do? You declare the
gospel of God's grace. The word of God's grace in Jesus
Christ the Lord and wait for God the Holy Spirit to do what
only God the Holy Spirit can do. Oh God send your word tonight. like barbed arrows into the hearts
of chosen sinners and calls the sinner to be convinced of his
sin. If you confess your sin, if you
confess your sin, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins. This confession is confession
that must be made to God himself, not to the preacher. Won't do you any good to come
talk to me about your sin. I can't put it away. Oh, it'll
soothe your conscience. And I can, uh, I can psychologically
manipulate you. I've been trained to do it. I
know how to do it. And I can get you to feel better about
yourself and send you home on your road to hell. Make you thinking
well of me, but I can't do anything about your sin. I can't do anything
about it. No need going to a priest and
saying your Hail Marys. No need going to join the church,
getting baptized. All the water in that bad district
changed every day. Can't wash away your sins in
a millennium. What does it take? Confess your sin. Confess your
sin to God. To God. Confess your sin entirely. You can't name all your sins
because you don't know them all. Don't know them all. But you
dare not hide one. You dare not hide one. You rip
your heart open before God and acknowledge what you are. I am
sin. That's my nature. That's been
the habit of my life all my days. There's not a law in the book
of God I haven't broken and break continually. Sin is my nature. Sin is what I am. Sin is what
I do. Sin is what I love. That's what
I love. Man drinks iniquity like water. He takes to it like fleas to
a dog because he loves it. He loves it. It's his nature.
Nature. I recognize the evil of evil
influence, and we want to protect our children from it, you'd be
smart to protect yourself from it. You don't want to be influenced
to evil. Keep yourself from those things
that influence you to evil. The problem is there's no devil
in hell and no band of wicked men on this earth that will incline
you to wickedness like your own heart. Your own heart. Larry Brown had
nothing in there but corruption. And you don't have to have my
influence to make it pop out. Your own heart. No mother ever
had to teach your child to lie. No father ever had to teach his
son to cheat. You don't have to teach your
children to do wrong. It just comes up by nature. That's the nature of humanity. We must confess our sin, take
our place in the dust before the throne of the holy Lord God
and acknowledge what we are. We deserve. We deserve, you deserve,
I deserve. The endless torments of the damned
in hell by the hand of God fixed on me alone. Now, Jonathan, I can convince
you of that. Theologically and logically and morally and philosophically. But I can't convince you of that.
I can't convince you of that. But when he. The spirit of truth
comes. He will convince you of your
sin. Your sin. Lord. I am vile, conceived
in sin. And born unholy. and unclean,
sprung from the man whose guilty fall corrupts the race and ruins
us all. Soon as we draw our infant breath,
the seeds of sin grow up for death. Thy law demands a perfect
heart, but I'm defiled in every part. I would disclose my whole
complaint, but where shall I begin? No words of mine can fully paint
that great distemper sin. It lies not in a single part,
but through my fraidness spread, a burning fever in my heart,
a palsy in my head. Lord, I'm sick. Regard my cry
and set my spirit free. Say, canst thou let a sinner
die who longs To live with thee. Only confess your sin. Did you ever notice how simple,
sincere, honest confession is? Nathan came to David. David had
taken his loyal, faithful friend's wife. And then he had his friend
murdered to cover his sin. And Nathan came to him, stuck
his finger right in his heart, and God stuck his finger in his
heart. And he said, thou art the man. Now, how would you like
to hear David confessing his sin? How would you like to hear
it? Oh, man, I bet that takes up
a whole chapter. I have sinned against the Lord. I have sinned against the Lord. David takes sides with Nathan,
or takes sides with God before his prophet Nathan and before
God. He goes into his closet and writes Psalm 32, writes Psalm
51, perhaps the 130th Psalm, all in the same evening. All
about his confession before God. But he simply acknowledges when
all's said and done, I have sinned against the Lord. Adam Kibbe,
dare you rip your heart open and cry out to God, this is what
I am, sin against God. Dare you do so? Dare you expose
what you are to God? Dare you acknowledge before God
what you know yourself to be? If you do, go home with this
word from God, the Lord also hath put away thy sin. Thou shalt not die. The Lord
has put away your sin. Death is beyond your reach. You're
beyond the reach of death. And the confession of sin has
an eye to Christ. His sin atoning blood. But the
confession of sin arises from the fact that God, the Holy Spirit,
convinces you of sin because you have not believed on me. You have not believed on me. Well, boy. That's that. Whatever you think
about that is sin. When I was in school, they would
tell us that when Jesus died, he settled the sin question.
Now it's the son question. And they would teach that unbelief
is something in between sin and no sin. What could be worse than
unbelief? The crux of it, unbelief. Jesus
Christ, God's Son, He who is the truth, steps into human flesh
and reveals truth. And you say, no, not true. God's
a liar. I don't need Him. That's unbelief. That's unbelief. The confession
of sin has an eye to Jesus Christ, God's darling son, who by the
sacrifice of himself has put away sin. Now, here's the second
thing. God's forgiveness of sin, the forgiveness of the sins of
all his people and the forgiveness of all our sins is according
to strict justice upon the grounds of Christ's finished work. If
we confess our sins, watch this now, he is faithful and just
to forgive us our sins. If we confess our sins, oh, he's
so merciful and gracious. That's true, but that's not what
the text says. If we confess our sins, God is so loving, he
forgives our sin. That's true, but that's not what
this text says. If we confess our sins, God is so good, he
forgives it. That's true, but that's not what
the text says. Merle, the text says if we confess
our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.
Faithful and just to forgive us our sins. Oh, that's better
than gracious. That's better than merciful.
That's better than good. That's better than loving. You
see, mercy and grace and love and compassion and tenderness.
Are things that in men's minds. Can bend to its objects and be
manipulated by its objects, not justice, not faithfulness. not justice, not faithfulness. When our daughter was growing
up, after she got to be more 18 months
old or so, unless she challenged me in public, I never paddled
her in public. Now, if she was brazen enough
to challenge me, I was brazen enough to oblige her. But unless
she challenged me in public, never paddled her, I wouldn't
humiliate her, wouldn't embarrass her. But when she misbehaved, that's all it took. She knew
when I get home, I got to go get the paddle and Daddy's going
to wear my fanny out. She just knew it. How does she
know that? Because I was faithful to my
word. And I let her know if I have to say it twice, you're going
to get paddled. Just that simple. And she knew it. She knew it.
Looked at her while I was preaching, she misbehaved, cut up. If I looked that way, She knew
when we go home, first thing before you get any dinner, you're
going to get punished. She knew it. How can that be?
Because if she ever once managed to talk me out of doing what
I said I would do, she could never count on me doing what
I said I'd do. Never. She'd never be absolutely
sure. God Almighty is faithful and
just in the forgiveness of sins. What does that mean? He forgives
our sins because of his faithfulness. Faithful and unchanging is the
character of our God, even in this matter of forgiving sin.
In forgiving sin, God's faithful to his covenant. Faithful to
his covenant. You don't need to turn there.
Listen to what he says. Listen what he says. You can
read it later in Psalm 89. Before the world began, the triune God
established a covenant with our head and representative, our
surety, the Lord Jesus Christ. And he said with regard to forgiving
our sins, my faithfulness and my mercy shall be with him. And in my name shall his horn
be exalted. My mercy will I keep for him
forever. Isn't that wonderful? He's talking
to our Redeemer. My mercy will I keep for Him
forever. And my covenant shall not stand
fast with Him if they break my statutes. If they keep not my commandments, nevertheless my lovingkindness
will I not utterly take from Him. nor suffer my faithfulness
to fail. My covenant will I not break,
nor alter the thing that has gone out of my lips. The Lord
Jesus was in the everlasting covenant, the lamb slain from
the foundation of the world. And thus it was possible for
David to write hundreds of years before ever he came into this
world. Thou has forgiven the iniquity of thy people. Thou
has covered all their sins. and forgiving sins, God's faithful
to his name. He said, the Lord, the Lord God,
merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and
truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression,
and sin. Forgiving sin, God's faithful
to his son. God sent word by his angel, called
his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.
And he came here to do the will of the Father. He came here to
do the will of the Father. That's what Rex read to us back
in the office. Wished you not I must be about
my father's business. All the time he was on this earth,
he came out of his mother's womb and said, Lord, I've come to
do thy will. Oh, my God. And all the while he was here,
he did the will of God perfectly. Now, listen to me. Listen to
me. Listen to me. God in glory now does the will
of his son. And the will of his son is the
saving of his people. The will of his son is the salvation
of his elect and forgiving our sin for Christ's sake. God's
faithful to his word. This is what God says in his
word. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man
his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord and
he will have mercy upon him to our God for he will abundantly
pardon I Will cleanse them from all their iniquity whereby they
have sinned against me and I will pardon all their iniquities whereby
they have sinned and whereby they have transgressed against
me this forgiveness This is the message of all the
Old Testament prophets It is written of him and all the prophets,
that by this man's sacrifice is remission of sins. Every law
given in the Old Testament, every single law was given to point
us to an altar of earth on which we might come to God, Christ
Jesus the Lord. The whole revelation of the law,
the Ten Commandments and every other ordinance of the law was
given to make us know our need of a Redeemer. And the Lord established
those sacrifices one after another, after another, after another,
hundreds of sacrifices and laws of sacrifices, all of them pointing
to one great sacrifice by which God would put away sin. On the
day of atonement, the high priest had two goats brought to him,
one to be the Lord's goat, the other to be scapegoat. And on
both goats, he confessed all the sins of his people. And he
slit the throat of the one goat and took the blood and sprinkled
it on the mercy seat. And he came back out and he took
the scapegoat and laid his hands on the head of the scapegoat,
put him in the hands of a fit man. And he led him out into
no man's land. And there the scapegoat pictures
our blessed risen Savior, who by his sacrifice has taken away
our sins. He's taken them away. In the
evening, that man who took the scapegoat away comes back by
himself. And so Christ Jesus on the third
day, he who was made sin and buried under the wrath of God
as that great transgressor now rises from the dead, freed from
sin. And we are freed from sin in
him, in forgiving sin. The Lord God is faithful and
the Lord God is just. Just. Just. It's right for God to forgive
every sinner who trusts his son. It's right. If you go to court. I haven't been in a long time.
I'm right proud of myself. I haven't been arrested since
I was a boy, but I I've been in court. And I was guilty as
sin, as they say. And my only hope was that the
court would not exercise justice. My only hope is that somebody
would bend the law and let me get by. And you know, I never
spent a night in jail. How come? Because somebody bent
the law and let me get by. And I'm thankful they did. I'm
thankful they did. Somebody bent the law and let
me get by. God won't bend his law for you.
Daddy might, mama might, society might, and I might, and the world
might. God won't. You're going to meet
God in the day of judgment and answer to him according to strict
justice. He's faithful and just to forgive
our sin. How can that be? He sent his
darling son in human flesh in the room instead of chosen sinners. And at the appointed time, he
made his son sin. He made his son sin. The scourging and humiliation
in Pilate's court was difficult. The whipping was difficult. Gethsemane
was horrible. That parade through the streets
of Jerusalem with his lacerated back, held up naked upon the
cursed tree is horrible. But at last, God Almighty made
his son sin. And the Savior cried, my God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? God forsook his son, Rex,
because he wouldn't forsake you. And he drew forth the sword,
and he cried against his darling son, Awake, O sword, against
the man that is my fellow! Smite and slay the shepherd! And the Lord God turned in vengeance
and anger, in holy wrath and terror upon his son and wore
out his sword of justice so that there is no more fury for his people. No wrath, no
terror, no threat, no punishment to be given. You see, Christ
died as a substitute And when he finished his work, our sins
were put away. And now, God, because he is just, listen to
me now, because he is just, because he is just, must and will forgive
every sinner of all sin for whom Christ died. He must, He will
forgive every sinner of all sin who trusts His darling Son. That means if we confess our
sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins. If we
look to Christ and acknowledge what we are, God in faithfulness
and in justice forgives our sins. You see, it's not possible for
justice to punish the same crime twice. Justice can't do that. You can bend law and do that,
you can corrupt law and do that, but justice cannot punish one
offense twice. If my sins were punished in my
substitute, God's justice will not allow me to be punished for
my sins. Jesus Christ died in my stead. bearing the wrath of God for
me, and as he is freed from sin, now by God's free grace through
his blood in strict justice, I'm freed from sin. Freed from
sin. Freed from sin. So that God looks
on me in his Son as righteous as the Holy One. Because it's
really so. It's really so. Christ and I
are one. Now, understand this. This forgiveness
of sin is certain and complete. If we confess our sins, he is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. That corruption of my heart, that corruption
of my nature, that vile, obnoxious corruption of my life, the criminality
of my very being before God, the filth. I've been drinking
like water all my life, Samuel, all of it. The blood of Christ
has cleansed and continually cleanses it away. Oh, what wonderful good news
the gospel is. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's
Son. I love the way John was inspired
to put it. It doesn't say cleansed. Cleanseth
us from all sin. Would you be cleansed of all
sin before God? cleansed of all sin before God. I mean clean. I mean clean. Clean before God
in your own conscience. So that when you think of God
looking on you, you're neither embarrassed nor terrified. Clean
before God. Clean. Cleansed of all sin. Clean before God! Confess your
sin, trusting the Lord Jesus Christ, and go home clean forever. And children of God, as often as you sense and feel
the defilement of sin, Open your heart to God at the
foot of Calvary's tree and confess your sin and lay down clean before God.
Clean before God. The blood of Jesus Christ, his
son, cleanseth us from all sin. Oh, blessed be the God and father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. who hath blessed us with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as
he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world,
in love having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will. In whom we have redemption. through His blood, listen now,
listen now, to forgiveness of sin. Oh God make it yours. Amen.