I did choose the Lord Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Neiberg. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 10.30 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
9.45 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com.
Now here's our pastor, Todd Nibert. I'm going to be speaking this
morning from Numbers chapters 13 and 14. And if you can get your Bibles
to follow along, it would be helpful. But I also want to tell
you about a Sovereign Grace Bible Conference we're going to be
having at the Todd's Road Grace Church beginning this Friday
evening at 7 p.m. Friday evening at 7, Saturday
morning at 10, Saturday evening at 6, and Sunday morning at 10,
we'll be having two speakers, each service, bringing messages
that exalt the sovereign grace of God. men who really believe
that the Bible is the inspired and errant Word of God. who believe
that God is absolutely sovereign, that men are dead in sins, that
God elected a people to be saved before time began, that Christ
died for the elect and accomplished their salvation, and God the
Holy Spirit's grace is irresistible and invincible toward those that
God elected and Christ died for, and every one of those people
that God elected and Christ died for and God the Holy Spirit called
will persevere all the way to the end. Now, all of these men
believe grace, and that's what that is, sovereign grace. It's
just plain old grace. It's how God saves. And we'd
like to invite you to come visit us beginning this Friday night,
nurseries provided, for this Sovereign Grace Bible Conference. I'm going to speak this morning
on this subject. Why does God continue to forgive
sin? Let me ask you a question. Have you ever in prayer attempted
to confess your sin all the while knowing that you would commit
that same sin tomorrow? Now, such a thing is horrible. Such a thing is something we're
all guilty of. To confess a sin that we know
we're going to commit that same sin tomorrow. Now, I'm not justifying
or excusing sin. That ought not be. It ought not
be. But how does God continue to
forgive someone who commits the same sin over and over and over
again? How does God continue to forgive
sin? Now I hope by the end of this
message, you and I will have some understanding of just how
it is that God continues to forgive sin. Now the story is when the
children of Israel were getting ready to enter the promised land.
They had been some months in the wilderness, and this is before
that God said, you're going to stay out here 40 years. And they
were getting ready to enter the promised land, and they had every
reason to have great optimism. They had seen the Lord bring
them out of Egyptian bondage with those 10 plagues. They'd
seen the Red Sea part for them, and they walked through as on
dry ground. Can you imagine what they must
have felt as they looked at the water on the right side and on
the left? They had experienced God's provision
for them. He fed them with manna by day,
and there was a smitten rock, which pictures the Lord Jesus
Christ, that water flowed out of. They had experienced the
giving of the law. They'd experienced the amazing
forgiveness of God when he had forgiven them for that horrible
sin of making a golden calf when Moses was gone just 40 days. They had every reason to believe
God and take the land that God had promised, the land that flowed
with milk and honey. But before they came into the
land, when they'd finally arrived, They wanted to send spies into
the land to see if they could take it. Now that was a completely
wrong way of thinking because look at what all the Lord had
done for them up to this point. He was fighting their battles
for them and now all of a sudden they want to see if we have strength
to take it. So they sent 12 spies into the
land who spied out the land for 40 days. And they came back with
the report. It's indeed a land that flows
with milk and honey. They brought a big cluster of
grapes that had to be put on a staff and put on the shoulders
of two men. It was so big to demonstrate
just how fruitful the land was. But then they made this objection. Nevertheless, Numbers 13, verse
28, The people be strong that dwell in the land. And the cities
are walled and very great. And moreover, we saw the children
of Anak there, the giants. The Amalekites dwell in the land
of the south. The Hittites and the Jebusites
and the Amorites dwell in the mountains. And the Canaanites
dwell by the sea and by the coast of Jordan. And Caleb Stealed
the people before Moses. I'm sure there was a big murmur
that came to place because they were afraid of these people.
We can't defeat these people. Well, whoever said you could.
But God was the one that was fighting their battles. And Caleb
stealed the people before Moses and said, let us go up at once
and possess it. We're well able to overcome it.
You see, if God be for us, who can be against us? But the men
that went up with him said, we'd be not able to go up against
the people, for they're stronger than we. And they brought up
an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children
of Israel, saying, the land through which we have gone to search
it is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof. And all
the people that we saw were men of great stature. And there we
saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants. And
we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so were we in their sight.
They were afraid to go take the land. And then we read in chapter
14, verse 1, and all the congregation lifted up their voice and cried
and the people wept that night. And then you can read about them
murmuring against Moses and Aaron for bringing them up, said, would
to God we could return back to Egypt. Then they complained against
the Lord. And, oh, Aaron and Moses were devastated over this,
hearing this, and they were so troubled. And all of a sudden,
the people said, we're going to stone you. They'd stone them
with stones and bash their brains out, this ungrateful, wicked
group of people. And God speaks to Moses at this
time. We read in verse Chapter 14,
But all the congregation bade stone them with stones. And the
glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation
before all the children of Israel. And the Lord said unto Moses,
How long will this people provoke me? They keep committing the
same sin over and over again. How long will it be ere they
believe me for all the signs which I've showed among them?
I will smite them with the pestilence and disinherit them and will
make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they." Now
Moses intercedes for them. Listen to what he says. And Moses
said unto the Lord, Then the Egyptians shall hear it, the
ones that you brought us out of their land. They shall hear
it, for thou hast brought us up this people in thy might from
among them, and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this
land, for they've heard that thou, Lord, art among this people,
that thou, Lord, art seen face to face, and that thy cloud standeth
over them, and thou goest before them by daytime in a pillar of
a cloud, and in a pillar of night, or a pillar of fire by night.
Now, if thou shalt kill all this people as one man, Then the nations
which have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying, Because
the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land which
he sware unto them, therefore hath he slain them in the wilderness."
They were just too bad, they were too disobedient, they were
too unbelieving. The Lord was not able. Now remember this question, is
anything too hard for the Lord? Is He able to save you with no
help from you? Is He able to do it all? Now, they were saying He was
not able. They were robbing God of His
glory, His ability to save. And Moses is appealing to that
which is most important to God, His own glory. Because the Lord
was not able to bring this people into the land which he swear
unto them, therefore he has slain them in the wilderness. And now,
this is Moses' prayer, now I beseech thee, let the power of my Lord
be great according as thou hast spoken. Saying, the Lord is long-suffering
and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and
by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the
fathers upon the children into the third and fourth generation. Pardon, I beseech thee the iniquity
of this people according unto the greatness of thy mercy. And
as thou has forgiven this people from Egypt, even until now, and
the Lord said, I have pardoned according to thy word. Now, as I've already alluded
to, The children of Israel were the most wicked bunch of people
you'll ever read of, and they picture you and I. I'm not getting
on them. I know that you and I, by nature,
are no different than them, and they actually present a very
accurate portrait of us. I know they certainly present
an accurate portrait of me. I speak by experience. I'm filled
so often with sinful unbelief and mistrust. I fear the giants
in the walled cities. I fall before the same sins over
and over again, familiar sins. How does God continue to forgive
me? How does God continue to forgive
anybody? I mean, you can see forgiveness
once, but this continual, continual forgiveness. You know, it won't
do me any good if God gives me a new start and wipes the slate
of my past clean. I'll filthy it quick enough.
How is it that God, a holy God, a just God, a glorious God who
hates sin, how is it that he can continue to forgive sin. Now, in that prayer of Moses,
I find seven reasons as to why God continues to forgive sin. Now the first argument Moses
uses as to why God should continue to forgive their sin, even though
God said, I'm going to smite them with a disease. I'm going
to disinherit them. I've had it. They're unreformable. And
I'm going to make of you a greater and a mightier nation. And Moses
says, don't do that. Oh, please don't do that. Because
if you do that, here's what's going to happen. The Egyptians
are going to say, he was not able to save them. They were
too bad. He didn't have anything to work
with. He was not able to save them. Now the first argument
Moses uses is God's glory. This is for your glory. Moses
does not say forgive them because they have some commendable traits.
He doesn't say forgive them for after all they had enough faith
to walk through the Red Sea. He makes no reference to anything
about them when he is asking the Lord to pardon their sins. He says, they'll say, you were
not able to finish what you started. You brought them out of Egypt,
but you couldn't get them into the promised land because there
just wasn't any there to work with. They were too bad. Now, if I say that, I'm saying,
if they were a little better, if God had something to work
with, then he could have brought them into the land of Egypt,
and that would give man glory, that would make salvation by
works. If I say, if men say he couldn't do it, it's calling
into question the very character of God. Now, question, is anything
too hard for the Lord? Is the Lord able to save you
with no contribution from you. When you have no good work to
recommend you, when you have no ability to avoid sin that
would recommend you, you're nothing but sin in and of yourself. That's it. Sin is your name,
sin is your nature, sin is your practice. You really believe
that about yourself. Is he able to save you? You know, the Apostle Paul said,
I know whom I have believed and I'm persuaded that he is able
to keep that which I've committed to him against that day. What
have you committed to him, Paul? The entire salvation of my soul. If he doesn't do it all, I will
not be saved. It must be 100% grace or I will
not be saved. And when I stand in glory, In
my own mind, I will be the biggest example there of just how much
salvation is all of grace. I'll be a trophy of His grace,
and in His saving of me, He gets all the glory. and none goes
to me. The songwriter said, when I stand
before thy throne, dressed in beauty, not my own, when I see
thee as thou art, love thee with unsinning heart, then, Lord,
shall I fully know, not till then, how much I owe. It will not be said, Todd was
too sinful or too weak, God had to send him to hell because God
had nothing to work with. When God created the universe,
what did he have to work with? Absolutely nothing. He simply
willed the universe into existence, and the sinner doesn't have to
contribute anything for God to work with in order for him to
be able to save them. Salvation is of the Lord. Now, why does God continue to
forgive sin? Here's a second reason, because
that's who He is. He forgives. Moses reminds the
Lord of what he said. He said, and now I beseech thee,
this is a quotation from Exodus 34, and now I beseech thee, Lord,
let the power of my Lord be great according as thou hast spoken.
He appealed to what God had said, the Lord is long-suffering and
of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgressions. You see,
this is who God is. He forgives sin. That's His nature,
to forgive sin. God is a gracious God. This is
His glory, that He is willing to forgive sin for the sake of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, He says, we're depending
on what you told us about yourself. Your power is magnified in the
forgiveness of sin. You see, when God created the
universe, What an act of power. But when God forgave sin, much
more power was involved. God had to become flesh. God had to keep the law. The
God-man in the Lord Jesus Christ had to die on Calvary's tree
to put away that sin. And he delights in forgiving
sin. And every attribute of God is
magnified in what the Lord did on the cross to forgive sin. The reason God continues to forgive
is because that's who He is. If I'm in Christ, my sins are
going to be forgiven. Now, if I'm outside of Christ,
there is no forgiveness. But in Christ, there's the complete,
full, free forgiveness of sins because that's who He is. Now, here's the third reason.
The Lord continues to forgive sin because of justification. Notice what he said in verse
18. The Lord is long-suffering and
of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no
means clearing the guilty. And did you hear that? God said
He will by no means clear the guilty. If I have any sin on
me, if I have any guilt on me at all, I must be sent to hell
because God must punish sin. God's just. God's holy. He will
by no means clear the guilty. Now the reason God will continue
to forgive sin is He's made a way for His people to be not guilty. That's what justification means,
not guilty. You see, all my sin was put away,
and the very righteousness of Jesus Christ is mine, so that
the very justice of God demands my salvation, because I don't
have any sins to be condemned of. That's what it means to be
justified. Oh, I love to think of that publican
in the temple, beating on his breast, crying, God, be merciful
to me, the sinner, while the smug Pharisee was thanking God
for all the wonderful things he did. Our Lord Jesus Christ
testified concerning that publican. I tell you, that man went down
to his house justified. Justified. perfectly righteous
in my sight, rather than the other. For everyone that exalts
himself shall be abased, and he that humbles himself shall
be exalted." Paul said, who shall lay anything to the charge of
God's elect, it is God that justifieth. The reason he forgives me of
my sin, the reason he continues to forgive me of my sin, is because
of the great work of Christ in justification. Fourth reason we find in this
passage of scripture of Moses interceding to God on behalf
of the children of Israel after this horrible crime they'd committed. He appealed to the greatness
of God's mercy. He said in verse 19, pardon I
beseech thee the iniquity of this people according unto the
greatness of thy mercy. You see, like the psalmist said,
thy mercy endureth forever. Do you know if God ever has mercy
on you, he will continue to have mercy on you because his mercy
endureth forever. It can't be exhausted. It can't
run dry. For as the heavens are high above
the earth, so great is His mercy toward them that fear Him. Paul
said in Ephesians 2, For but God, who is rich in mercy, for
his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in
sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. The reason he continues
to forgive is because his mercy is continual. It never runs dry. You cannot out-sin God's mercy. Aren't you thankful? None of
us would be saved if you could. But thank God His mercy endureth
forever." Now, why does the Lord continue to forgive? Let me give
you the fifth reason. Because the ground or basis for
forgiveness is always the same. That's why He continues to forgive.
Now, where do you get that from the text? He said, pardon, I
beseech thee, the iniquity of this people, according to the
greatness of thy mercy, and as thou hast forgiven this people
from Egypt, when you first forgave them, even up to now. Now, when God forgave them the
first time, when he brought them out of Egypt, why did he forgive
them? Now you will remember God told
them to slay a spotless lamb with no spot or blemish. Take
the blood and put it over the lintels of the door and you stay
in the house. And when I pass through the land,
he said, when I see the blood, I will pass over you. What's the one thing God was
looking for at that time? the blood. Do you know that never
changes? The ground of forgiveness is
always the same. It's the person and work, the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why He can continue to
forgive. Be ye kind, Paul said, tenderhearted,
forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath
forgiven you. Moses said, the way you first
forgave them, continue to forgive them. And that's the way the
Lord continues to forgive, because the ground is always the same,
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the first time I sinned,
And the last time I'll sin before I close my eyes in death, they'll
all be forgiven for the same reason, for Christ's sake, for
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now here's the sixth reason he
continues to forgive. He says, and the Lord said, I
have pardoned. Not I will pardon. I have pardoned. according to thy word." The reason
he continues to forgive is he's already forgiven them. I have forgiven. Listen to me
real carefully. When the Lord Jesus Christ bowed
his mighty head on Calvary's tree and said, it is finished. Every one of my sins, including
the sins I have not yet committed, were forgiven." He continues
to forgive because all of those sins have already been forgiven. You see, he's the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. And all of God's elect, all those
who believe, were in the Lamb slain from the very foundation
of the world. God continues to forgive sin
because all those sins are already forgiven for everybody for whom
Christ died. Now, the last reason I see for
forgiveness is found in verse 20, and the Lord said, I have
pardoned according to thy word. Now, Moses interceded for the
children of Israel. He prayed for them. He prayed
for the Lord to pardon them. And Moses is a great type of
Christ. You know, I'd want Moses praying
for me, because when he prayed for somebody, the Lord heard
his prayer. But he simply serves as a type of Christ. Christ is
our great high priest and intercessor. John said in 1 John 2 1, These
things write I unto you that you sin not. Make it your resolve
to never sin again. These things write I unto you
that you sin not. and if any man sin. And that
word if is quite often translated when, when you do. We have an
advocate, a lawyer with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. Now
our lawyer, the Lord Jesus Christ, happens to be the great judge's
son. And he's a lawyer who has never
lost a case. And he makes all of his clients
plead guilty. and yet causes them to get off
scot-free, justified before the law of God. What a lawyer we
have. Now that is why God continues
to forgive because Christ continues to intercede. Wherefore he is
able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing
he ever liveth to make intercession for them. Now I'd like to remind
you of the announcement I gave at the first of this sermon. We're going to be having a Sovereign
Grace Bible Conference beginning this Friday at 7 p.m. and you're
invited to come. This is Todd Nybert praying that
God will be pleased to make himself known to you. That's our prayer. To request a copy of the sermon
you have just heard, send your request to messages at toddsroadgracechurch.com. Or you may write or call the
church at the information provided on the screen.