I invite you to turn in your
Bibles, if you will, to the book of Luke, chapter 5. The book
of Luke, chapter 5, where we have a companion scripture to
the one that we read out of Mark, chapter 2. And so if you would,
turn there, and we'll read beginning with verse 17, and read down
through verse 26. Luke chapter 5 beginning with
verse 17. And it came to pass on a certain
day as he was teaching that there were Pharisees and doctors of
the law sitting by which will come out of every town of Galilee
and Judea and Jerusalem and the power of the Lord was present
to heal them. And behold, men brought in a
bed a man which was taken with a palsy, and they sought means
to bring him in and to lay him before him. And when they could
not find by what way they might bring him in because of the multitude,
they went upon the housetop and led him down through the tiling
with his couch into the midst before Jesus. And when he saw
their faith, He said unto him, Man, thy sins are forgiven thee. And the scribes and the Pharisees
began to reason, saying, Who is this which speaketh blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God
alone? But when Jesus perceived their
faults, he answered and said unto them, What reason ye in
your hearts? Whether is it easier to say,
Thy sins be forgiven thee, or to say, Rise up and walk? but
that ye may know that the Son of Man hath power upon earth
to forgive sins, He said unto the sick of the palsy, I say
unto thee, arise and take up thy couch, and go into thine
house. And immediately he rose up before
them, and took up that whereon he lay, and departed to his own
house, glorifying God. And they were all amazed, and
they glorified God, and were filled with fear, saying, We
have seen strange things today. Now then, I want you to look
at a phrase that we find in verse 18 to begin our message this
morning. And behold, men brought in a
bed a man which was taken with a palsy, and they sought means
to bring him in. and they sought means to bring
him in and to lay him before them. Now we understand by the
reading of the account in the Gospel of Mark that there were
four men that had a very sick and a very impotent friend. And
they found out where the Lord was preaching. It was noised
about that he was preaching in a certain home, that he was preaching
in a certain house. And knowing that the power of
the Lord was present there to heal men and women that would
come under the sound of the message, they picked up this man on his
bed and they sought a way they sought a way to bring their friend
into the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now when the Son
of God saw their faith, we're told, when He saw the faith of
the four and the faith of the one, the man sick of the palsy,
the impotent man, when they saw their faith, when the Son of
God saw their faith, He said unto him, Man, thy sins are forgiven
thee. And we read in the book of Matthew
chapter 9, where that the Lord Jesus said to this man, as Matthew
records it, he said, Son, be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven
thee. Now these four men could not
do a thing to change their crippled friend's condition. There was
nothing that they could do for this man. They were not able
in any way, shape, or form to heal this man. They couldn't
do anything to relieve his mind, his anxieties, and they certainly
could not forgive him of his sins. They certainly could not
in any way, shape, or form change his spiritual condition, but
they knew These four men knew that Jesus Christ, that He could
meet this man's need. They knew that Jesus Christ had
all power in heaven and in earth. They knew that His power was
present there in that home because Christ was there, His power was
present, and they knew that if they could just get this man
in front of the Lord Jesus Christ, if they could get him to Christ,
They knew that this man's need, his spiritual need, and also
his physical need, that they would be met. So they brought
him to the Savior, overcoming great obstacles. Now the crowd
was big. The house was full. And they
were not able to get in. And they came to the door. And
here's this man lying on the couch. upon the bed, and the
four men are carrying the bed, and they come up to the door,
and there's such a crowd that they're not able to get in. And
the man says, I must get in. I must get to Christ. I must
come and face the Lord Jesus Christ. I must do business with
Christ. And so what did they do? Well,
they didn't give up easily. They took this man, and I don't
know why they had to have ropes. I don't know how many people
they had to have to help them. But they got this man upon the
roof of the house, and they began to tear off the roof, the tiles
of the roof, and got them back out of the way and tore a hole
in the roof. I don't know how much noise they
were making or anything, but they got this hole in the roof,
And then they let this man down on his bed, on his couch, right
into the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. These people overcome,
these men overcome these obstacles in order to get this man before
the Lord Jesus Christ. And because of their faith, Because
of their faith in Christ and because of the faith of this
impotent man, this poor sinner was both saved and he was healed. This poor sinner, his needs were
met. The Lord was pleased to touch
him and to deliver him. Do we have such faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ? Do we have such faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ? Do we believe that the power
of the Lord is present where the gospel is preached to save
lost men and women? Do we believe that if we could
just get some of the people that we know under the sound of the
gospel, if we could just get them in, if we could just get
them to hear what the Word of the Lord says that they could
be, they might be, they might be one of the Lord's lost sheep
and that they would hear the Word of the Gospel and they would
be saved? Do we believe that? Now if you
do, there are some things that you can do. Just like these four
men, they always fell out on his bed and took him to the house
and went up on the roof and tore the tile away and let him down.
There are some things that you and I can do for poor lost sinners. Now I know, I know this morning
that we cannot change a sinner's condition. Because a sinner is
powerless himself to do anything for himself. And if you look
at this impotent, this palsied man, then you discover they're
a picture of the sinner in his lost condition. He's absolutely
helpless. He's helpless to come to Christ
on his own. He cannot come to the Lord Jesus
Christ on his own. And certainly we can't do anything
for him, but there are some things that we can do for lost people. And what you and I can do, we
are responsible to do. And I hope this morning that
we've got a mind and a heart that is willing to receive what
we can do. And I want to suggest Just a
few things here in my opening remarks this morning that you
and I can do for poor lost sinners. And I hope that we'll have the
faith that these four had who brought this sick, palsied man
into the presence of Christ. Number one, beloved, you can
pray for those who believe not. Yes, you can pray for those who
believe not. You can call for a prayer meeting. You can take to your closet.
I mean, if God be pleased to give you a burden on your heart
for some poor lost soul, you can bear them up before the throne
of grace and seek the face of God Almighty until God be pleased
to intervene on their behalf, that God will be pleased to draw
that soul unto Himself. Now, we're convinced Calvinist
here, but we believe that prayer, that God is pleased through prayer
to work his will and his purpose. And we know nothing about who
the elect of God are until they're brought to believe. And until
that time, we believe that we should come to the throne of
grace and pray unto our God, who is the God of salvation,
and pray that he'll be pleased to intervene for these poor sinners. Brothers, sisters, see poor sinners
round you slumbering on the brink of woe. Death is coming, hell
is moving. Can you bear to let them go? My friend, that's the words of
the old song. Can we bear to let them go? Can
we let these poor sinners go without a prayer to God on their
behalf? How many people do you know today
that don't have anyone to pray for them, nobody to carry their
name before the God who is able to save. How many people do you
know? There's a lot of people this morning that have nobody
to remember them, nobody to pray for them before the throne of
God. Number two, after I said that
we can pray for them, I want to tell you this also, that we
can tell these people what we know of Christ and what we know
of His grace. We can tell them. We can open
our mouth and give a reason for the hope that is within us and
do it with meekness and fear. There's a story in the ninth
chapter of the Gospel of John. You might turn there. I'd like
to read just a couple of verses. This was the man who was born
blind from birth. And this man was healed by the
Lord Jesus Christ, John chapter 9. And after he was healed, after
he had washed and came seeing, then the neighbors, we read here
in verse 8, the neighbors therefore and they which before had seen
him that he was blind said, is not this he that sat and begged
And some said, This is he, and others said, He is like him,
but he said, I am he. Therefore said they unto him,
How were thine eyes opened? And he answered and said, A man
that is called Jesus made clay, and anointed my eyes, and said
unto me, Go to the pool of Siloam and wash. And I went and washed,
and I received sight. So then, beloved, here is an
example of how a man who was delivered by the Lord Jesus Christ,
and they ask him a question, how were your eyes open? How? And so, beloved, when people
ask us, How it is that we've come to such hope in the Lord
Jesus Christ. How is it that we can have a
peace, a settled, solid peace and rest in our souls? we ought
to be able to tell them what it is. We can tell our friends,
neighbors, relatives, and acquaintances what we've seen, what we've heard,
and what we've felt and experienced of the gospel of God's grace.
Tell them of your hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now then,
thirdly, I believe also we can distribute tracts, we can distribute
tapes, and bulletins, and books to those who might profit from
them. Now we can get a hold of literature
here that don't cost too much. There's plenty of books. And
there's plenty of books that are available that we can get. There's tapes that we can share
with others. And that which cost us so very
little may be of infinite value to another soul. And we can do
that. We can share what God has been
pleased to give us in the way of material. We can share that. that which will spread the gospel
and proclimate the gospel unto those that are unconverted. And then, fourthly, we can use
what God has given us for the support and the propagation of
the gospel. We can get involved with whatever
means that God has put into our hands. And I'd like for you to
turn to the third of John, the third epistle of John, And I'd
like you to listen to these words. I begin reading with verse 5.
We can get involved and we can use what it is that God has blessed
us with, what he's put into our hands, in order to spread this
gospel wherein the power of God is found to save lost souls. Beloved, thou doest faithfully
whatsoever thou doest to the brethren and to the strangers. Verse 5. You do faithfully whatever
you do to the brethren and to strangers which have borne witness
of your charity before the church, whom if thou bring forward on
their journey after a godly sort, thou shalt do well, because that
for his name's sake they went forth taking nothing of the Gentiles. We therefore ought to receive
such that we might be fellow helpers, fellow helpers to the
truth. God's people can be fellow helpers
to the truth by receiving and through their charity and through
their support of the gospel, assisting those who've been called
of God to preach. You may not be able to preach,
You may not be able to be a public preacher of the Word of God,
but you can help send a preacher. You may not be able to preach
as we said yourself, but you can help feed and clothe the
man who does. And you can support the gospel
ministry. This is what you can do for lost
souls. Now the fifth thing is that you
can bring sinners To hear the gospel you can bring men and
women these four men are a perfect example of that They said the
power of god is present over there. We're going to get him
over there and we're going to get him in there One way or the
other and if you want to my friend if you care if you care a bit
Then you can make every effort and must make every effort to
get people under the joyful sound of the gospel of God's grace.
Get them in, get them under the sound of the gospel. And then
sixthly, I believe you can exemplify the grace of God in your own
life. You can. Now listen, you can
adorn the doctrine of God so that those who know you will
want to hear the gospel that you believe and they'll want
to believe that gospel and they'll want to be what God has made
you through his grace. Well, We have said a few things
already here that has kind of opened up, I believe, the text
somewhat. But there are two things this
morning, basically, that I want to talk to you about in this
message, that I want to impress upon you. And the first thing
that I want to impress upon you is a doctrine, is a doctrine. And then secondly, I want to
ask a question. And this will take up the rest
of our time this morning. Now the doctrine that I want
to talk about is this. The doctrine is this that teaches
that it is one of the greatest comforts It is one of the greatest
comforts in the world to have your sins forgiven you by the
Lord Jesus Christ. Son, be of good cheer. Thy sins are forgiven thee. Man, thy sins are forgiven thee. Now, we want to deal with that,
but we also want to ask a question. And that is, have I had my sins
forgiven? Have my sins been forgiven? Am I a forgiven soul? If so, I have a right to be of
good cheer. I have a right to rejoice. If
the Lord has forgiven me my sins, then I have a right to entertain
a hope. and to have some joy and peace
and rest in my soul. Now then, if my sins have not
been forgiven, then I am destitute of the greatest comfort which
Christ himself can speak to a sinner's heart. in this world. I'm destitute
of that. If my sins have not been forgiven,
then I'm a lost soul and I'm going yonder to suffer eternity
in the lake of fire. First then, let's talk about
the doctrine. It is taught here that the pardon
of sin is one of the richest, one of the greatest comforts
which the Lord can give to a man. One of the greatest, one of the
greatest comforts. When this man came, before the
Lord healed him, when this man came in his awful, awful state,
the Lord Jesus Christ said firstly to him in response to faith,
He said, Man, thy sins are forgiven thee. Now it is so because the
pardon of sin, I say that this is the richest and the greatest
comfort which God can give to a man's soul. And it is so because
the pardon of sin removes the heaviest sorrow which a man can
ever feel in his soul. Now, I don't know whether there's
anybody here this morning or not, there's not many that feel
a deep sorrow for their sin. There's not too many people that
are made sinners by the Holy Spirit, that are made to feel
themselves to be sinners, and that feel the guilt and the weight
of their sin upon their soul. To know the burden of sin is
to carry a crushing, a crushing load. To feel the guilt of sin,
my friend, is to have a weight upon you which you cannot hardly,
as it were, you cannot hardly manage it. It just weights you
down and presses you so down that you're hardly able to endure
it. Thoughtful people who have seen
things in the true light. Honest people who refuse to be
flattered. Who refuse to allow people to
tell them they're not such bad people. who refuse to allow people
to say, oh there's nothing wrong with you, surely you're okay,
and surely if anybody goes to heaven when they die, you will
go, but honest people who refuse to be thus comforted, people
who want to be right with God, all of these will tell you that
sin is indeed a misery and that the conviction of this sin is
very sharp and it's very disquieting to the soul of a man. Now to know that you've sinned
against God and all sin is against God. David said, against thee
and thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. But to know that one has sinned
against God and sinned against light and sinned against knowledge
is like a hot iron in the conscience of a man. That is, if the Spirit
of God is pleased to make that conscience sensitive to his sin,
there's no rest, dare not, to a soul which carries this very
hell within it. There's no rest. Now then, listen
to me. The poet said, Sin, like a venomous
disease, infects our vital blood. The only balm is sovereign grace
and the physician God. Isn't that right? My friend,
listen, once let conviction come on the soul and the world loses
It's fascination. The amusements of this world
are robbed of their enchantments. Even business itself becomes
a very dull thing and it wearies a man. Domestic joys are deprived
of their sweetness. Guilt on the conscience hangs
over everything like sorrow. in a funeral parlor. Guilt, I
say, conviction of sin, and the knowledge that one has this disease,
this fatal disease in their blood. Listen, sin, sin, this is the
disease. A man infected with a deadly
disease is never comfortable. You can picture a man and he
knows he's dying. He has an incurable disease and
there's no way that he can possibly be healed and he's never comfortable. Let him put on the best clothes
that money can buy and still he's uncomfortable because he
knows that he has within him that which is going to destroy
him and that which is going to separate him from this world
and his loved ones. Let him eat the most palatable
food that can be prepared by whatever cook that you can find. Let him just eat anything. Sit
before him, whatever. And that man will be unhappy. That man will be uncomfortable.
That man will have no appetite for it because he has within
him a deadly A deadly disease. Now he's unhappy. Nothing can
please him. Nothing can please him until
the disease be taken away. Something's got to happen about
this disease. So it is with a sinner under
conviction of sin by the Spirit of God. The pardon of his sin
removes the bitterest cause of distress and alarm from that
man. And therefore I say to you that
this man being forgiven of his sins This was the richest, this
was the greatest comfort that Jesus Christ could give to this
poor man's soul. And so when he speaks forgiveness
to you, and when he speaks in your ear, my son, thy sins are
forgiven thee, it'll be the greatest comfort that God can give to
any man this side of heaven. Now, next, forgiveness of sin
I think is a great comfort because it is indispensable. It is indispensable. You can have the world by a downhill
pull, but you'll never be solidly happy until your sins are forgiven. You'll never really be right. Until your sins are forgiven. Now have you not felt that something's
out of place? Have you not felt that there
was something that just didn't mesh in your life? Have you not
felt that there was something you just simply did not have
that you must have to be happy? My friend, it's the forgiveness
of sins. You cannot be happy until God
forgives your sins, until He puts them away. Now a man cannot
really be happy until his sin is pardoned, because sin brings
more or less this sense of condemnation, and you feel all the time that
you're condemned by a holy, a thrice holy God. Picture a man on death
row, if you will, and you try to make him comfortable. He may
just put on a face, he may act like he's okay and that everything's
alright, but you give him anything short of a pardon, and that man
really, he really will hate it. He really will find no comfort
in it. It'll really be of no help to
him. Tell him that he just inherited a large estate. Tell him that
somebody's died and left. God in his soul and understand
what this dreaded disease of sin is going to result in. And that individual, offering
what you will, he'll not be happy. Now if he could just hear the
governor, this man on death row, if that phone would just ring.
I mean if that phone would just ring and the governor would speak
in his ear, Son, be of good cheer. Be of good cheer. Thy sins are
forgiven thee. Be of good cheer. I've just wrote
you a pardon. I've written you a pardon. And
you're free. And you're going to go free.
Now, my friend, that man would be so happy that he couldn't
enjoy probably anything that you could give him. He would
be so happy. He would rejoice. And when he
gets home, everything would look different to him. I mean, if
the grass is three foot high around his house, it wouldn't
matter. I wouldn't make any difference what was wrong. He'd just be
so happy that he'd just absolutely rejoice. I'll tell you, listen,
you cannot. This is indispensable. Nobody's
going to be happy that has been brought under conviction by the
Spirit of God until they close savingly with the Lord Jesus
Christ. Until you get to Christ and He
forgives your sin, you will never, never, never be happy. A man must have forgiveness or
everything else is nothing. It's empty to that man. Now,
I want to say a little bit about this, that the pardon of sin
In thinking about it being the greatest blessing and comfort
that men can have here in this world is that the pardon of sin
is the guarantee of every other blessing. If Jesus Christ pardons
your sin, that in itself is a pledge from God that every other blessing
is going to follow. Romans 8, 32. He that spared
not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall
he not with him also freely give us all things? When Christ said,
Thy sins be forgiven thee, was there any question really as
to whether or not this man was going to receive healing? Was
there any question? Well, certainly not. The same
love that forgave this man said to this man, Take up thy couch
and go into thine house. The very same love that forgave
him met his needs. And if God pardons you, you'll
never have a need. But God will assuredly supply
that need. If you have it, God will supply
it. Covenant mercies, they follow
each other like links on a chain. who forgiveth, listen to these
scriptures, who forgiveth all thine iniquity, who healeth all
thy diseases, who redeemeth thy life from destruction, who crowneth
thee with loving kindness and tender mercy, who satisfies thy
mouth with good things so that thy youth is renewed like the
eagles. These covenant mercies just one
right after another like links in a chain. They come to those
whom the Lord forgives. Pardon is the pledge of everlasting
love and security and that pledge that our Lord has made will never
be forfeited so that God's people can rely and trust in their God,
and they can rest in Him, and they'll never be disappointed,
put to shame. Well then, so much for the doctrine.
Now for the question. Let's get to the question this
morning. Are we forgiven? Have we heard? I mean, has the
phone run? I mean, have we got the message?
Has God spoken it in our ear? Son, be of good cheer. Thy sins
are forgiven thee. Are we forgiven for Christ's
sake? Have we been forgiven for Christ's
sake? You say, preacher, don't judge
us. Don't judge us. Well, I'm not here to judge you,
but listen to me. You say, well preacher, you know,
I don't think you can know. whether your sins are forgiven
or not. I don't think you could know whether or not you're saved
or not. Well, is that so? Well, my friend,
that is not so. That is not so. You can know
that your sins are forgiven. Yes, the voice of Jesus Christ
is still being heard in the souls of His people, telling them,
thy sins are forgiven thee. The Lord Jesus Christ is still
speaking these words to men's souls. Will you never listen? Will you never be happy as long
as you live? If you never hear these words,
you never will. Not a moment's peace on this
side or on that side. Listen, not a moment's peace
this side of heaven or hell. If you don't know your sins are
forgiven, you're in for a tough road between here and the time
you leave this world. And when you leave this world,
My friend, then the eternal hailstorm of the wrath of God is just beginning
to fall upon your immortal soul. Listen to me! You must know whether
your sins are forgiven or not. My soul, you can have no peace
unless you come to this. How can we rest in the fear of
hell? How can the danger of eternal
wrath give us any peace? It won't. If we're in danger
of the judgment of God, then my friend, listen, we shall have
never any rest or peace. We must have this word spoken
to our souls. Don't you long to be certain?
Don't you want some certainties in life? Do you want facts, my
friend? Do you want facts? We must never
be content till we are sure, until we're infallibly sure,
until we are assured that we are forgiven. We must not be
content. Well then, to deal with this
question, I'd like to use it like this, first of all. There
is a way by which we may know that we are not forgiven. There is a way, now hear me carefully,
there is a way by which we may know that we are not forgiven.
Here it is. We may know that we're not forgiven
if we have never felt the need for forgiveness. If you've never
felt where guilt has never been, where guilt has never been sensed,
where it has never been owned, then my friend, it has not been
removed. If a man says, well I know that
everything's okay, have you ever been brought under conviction?
Has God ever brought you down? If we say we have no sin, the
Bible says, we deceive ourselves. Has God ever shown you your sin? Now listen, God will not heal
where he's not wounded. God will not make alive till
he kills. until he brings a man to see
his death in sin, and until he brings a man to see what he is.
If you've never been humble before God so as to acknowledge your
sinnership, then you're still, my friend, listen to me, you're
still under the wrath of God. You're still under God's wrath
if you've never been humble and brought to the place where you
feel your sinnerhood and your sinnership. If you say I'm rich
and increased with goods and have need of nothing, then you
can be sure that in God's sight you're wretched, miserable, poor,
and blind and naked. And I hope this morning that
that cannot be said of any of you here. And again, let me say
it like this, that He has never been forgiven who does not hate
sin. He has never been forgiven who
does not hate sin. Now Christ came to save us. He came to save us from our sins. He did not come to save us in
our sins. Now this does not mean that we're
without sin. No, we sin every day in word
and in thought. But wherever the Lord takes away
the guilt of sin, He also kills the love of sin. Now Romans 7
and 15, Paul said, for that, and I think this verse sums it
up better than any verse in the Bible. Listen to it. Paul said
in Romans 7 and 15, for that which I do, I allow not. For what I would, that do I not. But what I hate, but what I hate,
that do I. A child of God sins. There's
no such thing as anyone being sinless as long as we live in
a body such as you and I have. We do have sin, but now there
is a hatred for that which we do. And when we do sin, it's
the attitude that's important. If God has done a work in us
and you never believe for a minute that you can be pardoned and
then live as you did before, it will not work. Salvation will
ruin your enjoyment of sin. Have you not found it so? Salvation,
I say, will ruin your enjoyment of sin. It will not keep you
from sinning in this body of sin, but it will ruin your enjoyment
of sin. You cannot go back. You will
be miserable. You cannot enjoy your old ways. You can't enjoy it. You say,
I'll just go back. No, you won't. Not if you're
one of God's children. You say, I'll just go back and
I'll feel the same way I used to feel. No, you won't. There will be a hatred in your
heart for sin. And you won't like it. You'll
be miserable. Miserable all the time. You just
simply can't stand it. Now a hog can wallow in a mud
hole and enjoy it quite well. But you take a sheep and you
get him in that mud hole and he can't stand that. He can't
tolerate it. He got to get out of that mud
hole. And a child of God is the same way. You cannot go back.
You must hate sin. And then, and you will hate it.
It's not something I'm telling you to do. It's something I'm
telling you you're going to do if God has forgiven you your
sins. And if you still love sin and
you can enjoy it, then that's an evidence that you've not been
forgiven. Now then again, you've never
been forgiven unless you've obtained this forgiveness that you claim
to have from the Lord Jesus Christ. Unless you've obtained it from
Christ, the priest can't do it. Say, I went to the priest and
he absolved me of all my sins. Well, I would like, but I won't.
I'm too serious this morning. It's not going to happen, my
friend. Let me tell you, the church can't do it. None but
God only. These Pharisees and doctors of
the law, they were right when they said who can forgive sins
but God alone. They were right. Nobody can forgive
sins. Dream on, friend, about you being
forgiven. If you have not come to the Lord
Jesus Christ, and if you've not received pardon from Him, if
you've not done business with Christ, then you are not forgiven. You are not. Let the church tell
you, and let the priest tell you, and let anybody tell you
that wants to, but I'm telling you this morning on the authority
of the Word of God, that none but God only, none but God in
Christ, and save you and deliver you and forgive you of your sins. And you're not forgiven unless
you've done business with Christ. You say, I just think, Preacher,
that my good that I've done is going to atone for the bad that
I've done. You'll go to hell just as sure
as I'm a foot and a half high. You will! Because there is no
way to get one sin put away except for it to be put away through
the shedding of blood. And it was the blood of Christ,
it was the atonement made by the Lord Jesus Christ that puts
away sin. And only as His blood atones
and covers your sin, then and then only is your sin blotted
out and atoned for. Well, once more, You don't have
it unless, you listen to me now, I'm being honest with you. I'm
not preaching myself, I'm preaching what the Word of God teaches
and you see if it's not so. You don't have it. You don't
have it. My son, be of good cheer. Thy
sins are forgiven thee. You don't have it unless you
have forgiven everybody else around you in this life. unless
you've forgiven them. Now I'm just telling you what
the Bible says. Now this cannot be counterfeited. It cannot be
counterfeited. It can only be done by that grace
which was communicated unto us at the time of our forgiveness
of sin. When the Lord forgave us of our
sins, He put a nature in us that was His nature, and the nature
of God is to forgive repentant sinners. That's God's nature
to do it, repentant sinners. And whenever somebody comes to
you and says to you, I've wronged you, I've done you wrong, I've
sinned against you, that it becomes your duty and obligation and
you will have the ability as God gives you the ability and
brother sister this is something I say can't be counterfeited
if you have got it then you don't have it and you don't have it
until God gives it to you and then it'll be a matter of you
staying on the Lord day by day And I'll tell you what, this
is where it separates the men from the boys. If you do not,
listen to what the Word of God says, if you do not forgive everyone,
his brother, his trespassers, neither will your Heavenly Father
forgive you. There it stands, there it stands,
forgive us our sins for we also forgive everyone that is indebted
to us. a malicious, a revengeful spirit,
my friend, is contrary to the Spirit of God. You say, well
preacher, didn't you ever have a revengeful spirit? Didn't you
ever have a malicious spirit? My friend, the easiest thing
on earth to do in this world sometime is take the ball back
and knock a few people in the head. I mean, get a gun and just
simply settle some matters in this world. That's the easiest
thing after the flesh there is to do. Put a stop to some of
this stuff that people are putting up with. That's the easiest thing
to do. But that is after the flesh,
the wrath of man worketh not the judgment of God, worketh
not the righteousness of God. Leave it to God's wrath. You
must, if you're a man or woman of faith, you've got to leave
it with God's wrath. Let Him take care of it. Let
Him settle the score. And you say, well, I don't think
I'll ever get to be around to enjoy when the Lord settles the
score. You may not be, but He'll settle
it. He'll settle it. And if He settles
it, it'll be settled right. You can count on it. You can
count on it, but our business is to forgive. There's where
it stands. This truth is very seldom preached,
but you're not forgiven unless, if you cannot forgive, you're
not forgiven. Now, I'm telling you what the
Word of God says. I'd rather maybe left it out. Be easy to
leave it out, but I'm telling you what the Word of God says.
I've got to be faithful to God's Word. Come what will, I've got
to do it. Now let me, this morning if I
can, I've told you how we can tell if we're not forgiven. I've
told you that. I'm trying to answer this question.
Am I forgiven of my sins? Now let me help you with something
positive. There is a positive test. Let
me help you with this. Number one, you are pardoned. You are forgiven. Your sins are
canceled. They are remitted. They are put
away. They are blotted out if you are
a true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. If you're a true believer
in the Lord Jesus Christ, look at verse 20. And when he saw
their faith, he said unto him, Man, thy sins are forgiven thee. When he saw faith, faith, if
you are a believer on the Lord Jesus Christ, then your sins
are forgiven. And in Acts 16, 30 and 31, the
Philippian jailer said, Sir, what must I do to be saved? What
do I have to do to be saved? And they said, believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Now I hope you can
say that. I hope you can say I'm a believer.
Unless I am awfully deceived, I am trusted. I am trusting the
blood. I am trusting the merits of Jesus
Christ. I have committed myself to him
for time and for eternity. I am trusting Christ. Romans
8 and 1 says there is therefore now no condemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus. Romans 5 and 1 says therefore
being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord
Jesus Christ. If you, this morning my friend,
have trusted Christ in the last hour, then your sins are forgiven. Your sins are pardoned. Your
sins are put away. Your sins have been put behind
this back as far as the east is from the west. 1 John 1 and
9 says if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive
us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Well, let us be of good cheer
then. Our sins are forgiven. Say, preacher,
but I'm poor. I'm poor. I don't hardly have
anything to live on. Are you forgiven? If you're forgiven,
then you have the richest and greatest blessing that God could
give unto you. Now then you say preacher, but
I'm weak. You don't know how weak I am preacher. I'm weak. I mean the temptations come and
they come and Satan rages and I can't seem to, I just always
seem to just be on the very verge. Are you forgiven? Say, well,
yeah, I'm forgiven. And you may say, well, I'm getting
old preacher and I'm nearing the end. I mean, I won't be long
before I'll be leaving this world. But are you forgiven? Are you
forgiven? If you're forgiven, my friend,
then be of good cheer. Be of good cheer, because your
sins are forgiven. We may be full of infirmity and
vexed in many, many ways with different adverse situations
and complex problems in our daily lives, but our sins are forgiven
us. And they're forgiven for His
namesake. Then amen, hallelujah. Whatever be our state in this
life, if our sins are forgiven, be of good cheer. Be of good
cheer. Now if you're not happy, it'll
be disobedience to Jesus Christ because He said, Son, He said,
Son, be of good cheer. That's what He said. And so if
you're not of good cheer and your sins are forgiven, you're
disobedient to the Lord Jesus Christ. And it will appear that
you do not value the gift that cost Him His blood. Your sins were forgiven through
His shed blood. Do you place no value on a gift? that cost the Son of God His
own blood. Rejoice, my friend. Be of good
cheer. And it will appear that you do
not value this gift as you ought. It cost Him His life laid down
to buy you this forgiveness. And I'm sure that no doubt it's
true that if you give somebody something, then you look for
some gratitude. You don't always get it, but
you look for it, don't you? If you do something for your
children, and you do something for them, and sometimes they
don't act like they even recognize that you've done something. And
no gratitude. None whatsoever. And that bothers
you. But I'll tell you this, our Heavenly
Father's gifts, they must be valued. They must be. Son, be of good cheer. If he's
forgiven us, let us be happy. Let us be joyful. If we don't
have it, the outside world will say that there's not much comfort
in the grace of God after all. Must not be much to that religion.
Must not be very much to that hope that preacher talks about.
Must not be very much to that salvation that he's talked about
and that forgiveness of sin. And also, I've described it as
the richest, I've described it as the greatest comfort and blessing
that God can give to a poor soul. Forgiveness! And we ought to
rejoice. If you believe your sins are
forgiven, then act like it! As one husband said, well, he
said, my wife, she claims to be forgiven. But around our house,
when there's any problem, she's the first to hang her head and
to just simply go to pieces. And then there was a wife that
said, you know, my husband claims to be forgiven. But his murmuring
and complaining makes our lives miserable in our home. Well,
my friend, this is just exactly the opposite the way it ought
to be. God's people ought to act like they're forgiven. Son,
be of good cheer. Thy sins are forgiven thee. And
there can't be anything bad if your sins are forgiven you. Because
this dreadful, in a dreadful disease, this killer disease,
you've been healed from it and delivered from it. And so my
friend, all is well and all that remains for me, the poet said,
is but to love and sing and wait until the angels come to bear
me to the king. God's people are delivered. They
are forgiven. The Lord's people are truly forgiven
and they have this solid, solid rest in the Lord. Father, we
give thanks this morning for your word and for this opportunity
to preach your word. Do thou use the message for thy
glory and for your honor. Own it. We're so weak and so
helpless in and of ourselves and so, Father, as it were, unable
to convey to people what we want to try to tell them. But, Father,
use what has been preached and bless the word. Father, and overrule
our infirmities. For Christ's sake, we pray in
His name. Amen.