If you want to turn your Bibles
back to the Scripture that was read to us this morning, you
will find it in Psalms 130. Psalms 130. I want to read it
to us again. Psalms 130 and verse 1. Out of the depths have I cried
unto thee, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice. Let your
ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications. If thou,
Lord, should mark iniquity, O Lord, who shall stand? For there is
forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared. I wait for
the Lord. My soul doth wait, and in his
word do I hope. My soul waits for the Lord more
than they that watch for the morning. I say more than they
that watch for the morning. Let Israel hope in the Lord,
for with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption. And He shall redeem Israel from
all his iniquities. My thought this morning that
I wanted to speak about for a few minutes for us to think on is
found there in verse 4, there is forgiveness. There is forgiveness. Sometimes we run into these little
statements in the Word of God that just thrills our soul to
think on them. A few weeks ago we looked at
Romans chapter 5 and verse 5 where it said, The love of God is shed
abroad in our hearts. And I thought what a thrilling
passage of Scripture that is. And this is another one this
morning that is so pleasant a thought. There is forgiveness. What a
good subject. Could I have chosen a better
subject this morning to preach to you few people here this morning?
It's not only a pleasant thought and an excellent subject, but
it's a most needful subject. This is a subject that should
interest everybody in this world, men and women and boys and girls,
because everybody should have an interest in this subject,
because everybody stands in need of forgiveness. The wise men said, there is not
a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not. We are
all in need of forgiveness, aren't we? And the Lord Jesus said,
all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven, the sons of
men. The Bible is just full of this
word and the whole concept of forgiveness. Listen to some of
these passages. If we confess our sins, He is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. In whom we have redemption through
His blood, the forgiveness of sins. Be ye kind one to another
and forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath
forgiven you. Through this man is preached
unto you the forgiveness of sins. I have blotted out as a cloud
thy sins and as a thick cloud thy iniquities. I will forgive
their iniquities and their sins and transgressions I will remember
no more. And James said, ìThe prayer of
faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up,
and if he hath committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.î
And the Lord said about that sinful woman in the town, ìHer
sins, which are many, are forgiven her.î The Bible is full of the
Word and the whole concept of forgiveness of sins. There is
forgiveness. Isnít that just a wonderful word
just to think on? Just to roll it around in your
mind. I used to have an old red bone hound. He's an old coon
hound. And sometimes my wife would cook
a big ham and she'd leave some meat on the bones and we'd give
that old bone to that dog. And I'm telling you what, he'd
lay and just chew until all the meat was gone. And then he'd
roll it around in his mouth and suck on it. And there was nothing
left but just an old white bone. That's the way we ought to do
with this. When we run upon a word like this, there is forgiveness. Just take it and chew on it and
get the meat from it and suck on it and roll it around in our
mouths. And I tell you what, this is
a bone that you'll never get all the meat off of. I mean, you can chew on it and
suck on it and you'll never wind up with just a bone. It's a wonderful
thought. There is forgiveness. There is. forgiveness with thee. But what's
necessary to make this subject interesting and appealing to
men's minds? What is necessary? I say something
has to be necessary because you and I have talked to people,
young people and old people. We've talked to those who are
in good health and those who know that they're dying. And
the majority of those people that we've talked to have no
interest in this subject. Even those who are on their deathbed,
and you try to speak to them of forgiveness of sins. And I
believe, and I believe the Bible confirms this, that most adults
in this world who are dying are dying unforgiven. What's needful,
therefore, to make this subject interesting Well, first of all,
let's consider this, a personal conviction of guilt. That'll
do it, won't it? A personal conviction of guilt
within a man's own conscience. And when I say guilt, I mean
a conviction, a convincing of a heart that has sinned and come
short of the glory of God. That he is indeed accountable
to God for what he's done. that he is guilty before God. He is guilty in the court of
his conscience and cannot escape that conviction. He cannot escape
it for this reason, because it's not man who has convicted him. It's not man who has convinced
his conscience. It's the Holy Spirit. I tell
you, it's impossible for me to convince a man's conscience of
his sins. And you know I'll even go farther
than that. It's impossible for a man to
convict his own self. He cannot even convince his own
self of his guilt before God. We're utterly helpless to know
ourselves until the Holy Spirit comes into our conscience, our
hearts, and opens our hearts to show us our guilt before God. When the Lord said about the
blessed Spirit of truth, when He has come, when He has come,
He will convict, He will convince the world of sin. He will reprove
the world of sin. You know conviction of sin comes
from outside of us. The heart is so darkened, the
conscience is so seared to the whole concept of being guilty,
that it cannot and will not confront its own guilt. The source of
conviction must come from outside of ourselves. And what is that
source? That is the blessed Holy Spirit. When Saul of Tarshish, sinning
against the Lord Jesus as he had, was on the way to Damascus,
and he found himself there laying on the face, and he was guilty
before God, but here's what happened. Suddenly there shone round about
him a light from heaven. See where conviction comes from?
It was a light, but the light wasn't in himself. The light
came from outside of him. And a man will never know his
guilt and his need of forgiveness until the blessed Holy Spirit
convinces him of that. This light shined from heaven
into Paul's conscience. Then he became keenly interested
in forgiveness of sins. And that's what we as preachers,
as pastors, are shut up to when we preach to people. We preach
the truth with the hope and the pride that the blessed Holy Spirit
will come to men's conscience and make them know and feel their
guilt before God. It is guilt my personal guilt
of sin before God that will give me a personal interest in forgiveness
of sins. And there are those who resist
the conviction of sin. They resist it with all their
hearts, not realizing that it is guilt that qualifies them
for forgiveness. It's not the whole. But it's
the broken that need a Savior. It's not the clean that need
to be washed, is it? It's the vile and the filthy.
Look here again what he says in verse 3 of my text. The reason
I say that guilt And that awareness of our sin before God has to
be known before we'll be interested in forgiveness is because you
feel this as you read verse 3. Look what the psalmist said in
verse 3. If thou, Lord, shouldst mark
iniquity, O Lord, who shall stand? This word mark, it means to mark
an object, to narrowly look upon something. to observe it, to
give special attention to. And he says here, if God, whose
eyes are holy and too holy and too pure to look upon iniquity,
if He looks upon my iniquity and imputes it to me and demands
payment at my hands, if He should deal with me exactly as He finds
me, If He overlooks nothing and He is willing to forgive nothing,
then my hope of being saved is all taken away. Because there
is no man living that can say, I have no sin. God can see sin
in us where and when we cannot see it in ourselves. And the
psalmist says here, if He marks it against us, who can stand? Who can stand upright before
Him? Is anybody here this morning? If He marks one iniquity against
you, that you can stand upright before Him? Anybody? Nobody, is there? Who can stand
before His presence? Who can hope to be acquitted
if God marks one sin against you? What does verse 3 suggest
to our mind? It suggests two or three things.
that the writer of this psalm was conscious of his guilt and
knew he was a sinner. And there is not a just man upon
this earth, including himself, that did perfectly good and sinneth
not. He was aware of that, wasn't
he? You feel that in this writing. Thou, O Lord, if you should mark
the things that I have failed to do, It's not just what we don't do
or do, it's what we don't do, isn't it? It's what we don't
do. And then it's what we do. How
many sins can you put your finger on that there's no doubt in your
mind you sinned against God? You sinned against the law of
God. There's no doubt about it. And then how many things do you
do that you see sin mixed with all of it? Defiling it all. When I would do good, evil is
present with me. And so the writer here is conscious
of that and he says, I know this. I know this. If God looks upon
me and He sees what's in me and He marks just one of them, then
there's no hope for me to stand before Him. And there's no hope
for anybody else to stand before Him. It suggests this to our mind,
that there is a depth of depravity in a sinner's heart which can
always be discovered by God. If thou, Lord, shouldst mark
iniquity, when I'm not conscious of it, if He marks it, then I
can't stand. It suggests this. that God has
the power of bringing that iniquity to light if He chooses to do
so. And if He does, then the man
will be overwhelmed with guilt. If you mark iniquity, if you
do, who could stand? Obviously, the answer is nobody. Nobody. Because if He marks iniquity,
we'll be overwhelmed with guilt. And the reason I've said all
of this is this, that there's no interest in forgiveness of
sins until we know a sense of our guilt before God. We'll never
be interested in it. We're preaching and we're spending
our wills in vain unless the blessed Holy Spirit begin to
teach man. I have seen people sit in churches,
years, decades and decades, and you talk to them and they don't
know the first thing about themselves. They don't know the first thing
about sin, about its nature. They don't know themselves, their
hearts. They just don't know. And there's
no use to speak to them and expect them to love to talk in your
about forgiveness of sins. And this is why they have no
need of it. Can you imagine talking to a
pharisee about forgiveness of sin? What are you talking about? Sins? I don't have any of that. Wasn't
that what they said? Because you say you have no sin. Oh, they had it, didn't they?
But they were not aware of it. So the Master could not speak
to them of forgiveness of sins. If you are going to talk about
forgiveness of sins, you need to go beyond and find those hardships.
You need to find them publicly. Don't come to us. We want to
hear about holiness. We want to hear about cleanness.
and a good life. But here the psalmist said right
in the face of this deep conviction of his own sin and his guilt
and the justice of God, he rested his hope that God would not deal
with him according to what he deserved and what was in his
heart, but that God would deal with him in pardoning mercy. and in redeeming grace. And that is where he rested his
hope at. He said here in verse 7, Let
Israel hope in the Lord, but with the Lord there is mercy,
and with Him is plenteous redemption. And he began to feel this and
see this in himself. That in himself there was iniquity. In and of himself he was guilty. But with the Lord there was mercy
and redemption. And so he lit upon this verse
and his heart began to be filled with joy when he said, There
is forgiveness. There's forgiveness. Are you
a poor sinner this morning? Do you know it? Do you know it?
Then here's such good news for your heart that should cheer
your soul. There is forgiveness. There is
forgiveness. with Him that He may be feared. The church is going to this lost
and dying world, telling it of its danger. You're in danger. That's our message, isn't it?
That's our message. I don't have another message
to this lost world, Shane. I don't. What message could I
have? What comfort can you give this
lost and dying world? We're going to this world and
telling them of the danger they're in because of their sins. And
we're doing it with the hope that the apprehension of this
danger will create in them an interest for forgiveness. We go with a message of judgment. God spared not our first parents. He drove them from the garden
because of one sin. God spared not the angels that
sinned, but cast them out of heaven, never lifted a finger
to redeem them. God spared not the old world,
but brought a flood in upon them. And the Lord is waiting now to
come out of His holy place and punish the inhabitants of this
world because of its sin. And we don't tell this world
that just to scare them. We want to create in them by
the grace of God that apprehension that I need forgiveness. That's what we do. I need forgiveness. I must be forgiven or I must
suffer forever. And it's the heart knowledge
of our sinful selves and the danger that our sin has brought
us into that renders the subject of forgiveness interesting. If
you're a poor sinner, Boy, this is an interesting subject. Secondly,
something else that makes this subject of forgiveness interesting
is this, the consciousness of sins forgiven. Boy, that will
give you an interesting one. A consciousness of sins forgiven. The assurance of being in a state
of pardon. Being in a pardoned state. This
is what peace with God and rejoicing in the Lord is first and foremost
all about. I am a forgiven sinner. The conscience
cannot have peace with God and the heart cannot rejoice in the
Lord if this matter of forgiveness is in serious doubt. How could we feel peace with
God? How could we enjoy our Lord?
If every day we face this verse, if you mark my iniquity, and
we thought he might, and we lived in the thought that if he does,
and I'm afraid he will, could we enjoy God? If that's where
we lived and was in doubt of this forgiveness, why no, we
could not. David made this statement in
Psalms 103. He was worshiping the Lord and he said, Bless the
Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy
name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and
listen to this, and forget not all His benefits, who forgiveth
all thy iniquity. That's why he was blessing the
Lord for. He was a happy man because he was in a state of
forgiveness. There was forgiveness. He had
found out about it. He had believed it. It had been
revealed to his conscience. And he had peace with God. And
he was blessed in the Lord for it. I preached a message one
time on Psalms 32. Blessed are they whose sins are
forgiven. And the word there means happy.
Happy. Shane had it on his truck. I
think happy, happy, happy. One time I preached a message
on happy, happy, happy. Because happy is he whose sins
are forgiven. Happy is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. And Paul quotes that passage
over in Romans chapter 4. And since sometimes definitions
change from Old and New Testament, I thought, does blessed mean
the same thing in Romans 4? So I went over there and looked
it up. And you know it means the same thing. It means happy.
Happy. Happy is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. Happy is the man whose transgressions
are forgiven, and happy is the man whose sins are covered."
He's happy, happy, happy. I was watching some of the ball
games last night, flipping, speeding it through, I had it recorded,
but seeing who won the games, and man, those kids, you talk
about happy. Those kids, when they won those
two ball games, man, they were running and shouting. And I don't
blame them, do you? They're going to play now, Monday
night, for the championship. Man, they're happy. They're happy. But you know, they've got nothing
on any soul that lives in the reality of the forgiveness of
all his sins. Ain't got nothing on poor old
me. I've got arthritis now. My hand's in my back. I can't
hardly dribble a ball. I wouldn't have a bit of use
of being there with those guys trying to play ball or watching
them play. But I'm happy. I'm happy. You know why I'm happy?
There is forgiveness. And I've obtained it. I've obtained
it. Somebody say, Bruce, you're telling
me that you can live in the assurance of that? I'm telling you, brothers
and sisters, that God has sent His blessed Holy Spirit, the
Spirit of His Son, And He's a sovereign Spirit. And He is able to bear
witness to our conscience that He has forgiven all our sins. If I didn't believe that you
could have the assurance of that, then I'd probably just need to
sit down and be still. But I believe in a sovereign
Spirit. I believe He comes to the heart and He teaches us and
He witnesses to us. And He can remove all doubt.
All of us have our doubts, don't we? But I'm telling you, He can
remove all doubts. He can make you know that He
has cleansed you from all your sins. And I'm telling you, when
He makes you to know that and He gives you assurance of that,
you talk about happy. How would you feel, how would
everybody, how would this mass of people feel this morning if
all of us could go out that door and every one of us left with
a God-given assurance that He had forgiven all our sins? You talk about a happy group. Some of the neighbors be out
on the porch saying, what is the matter with them? Why are
they drinking? Shouldn't be drinking this time of the morning that
much. Happy! Happy! Aren't you happy? Just to think that He's forgiven
all your sin. Oh my goodness, how happy! How
happy! Let me give you some further
proofs that this doctrine of forgiveness is true. Well, you
say, Bruce, it's enough to find it here. in this verse that there's
forgiveness, but let me offer you some more. I need all the
proofs I can find, don't you? If your heart stands in doubt
this morning of this forgiveness, consider these things. Here's
some proof that forgiveness of sins is a true doctrine. It's true. It's taught in God's
Word, and I'm just convinced that the reason some people don't
seek the Lord for it, they just sort of doubt that He's really
a forgiving God. But let me give you some proofs.
The first proof is this. God has sent. God has sent. Now get that. God has sent. His own dear eternal Son unto
this world to secure this pardon for everyone who believes only
for it. The Lord Jesus Christ spent three
and a half years in this world suffering at the hands of man
and suffering at the hands of devils and at last on Calvary's
tree suffering under God's stroke of justice. And he did that for
this reason, that God could be just and justify the ungodly. That God could forgive sin. God cannot forgive sins on any
terms. It has to be on His terms. And
you and I had offended justice. We had broken His law. Now justice
had to be satisfied. The law had to be fulfilled.
And Jesus in the days of His flesh, He did that. He did it. Sin had entered this world by
one man. And it was only by one man that
sin could be atoned for. But not just any man, but the
God-man. The God-man. One who could live
holy and one who could die. One who could fulfill the law
in his living and meet the penalty of the law in his dying. The Lord Jesus stood at His apostles'
feet, held up that cup of wine, and He said, This is My blood
which is shed for many for the remission of their sins. Brothers and sisters, God has
made provision. He took that bread and broke
it and gave it to them and said, this is my body which is broken
for you. Christ died for our sins and
in His death provision was made for a full and free and eternal
and listen, an irreversible pardon. There is forgiveness and here
is proof of it. If someone might say to me, oh
Bruce, I don't know, I just don't know, then look yonder at the
bleeding, groaning, dying Savior and let Him dispel all doubts
about it. What is the cross about? Securing
forgiveness for all of those who would ever believe upon Him.
Here's another proof that this doctrine is true. God's earnestness
in encouraging us to seek this blessing. What are all of these
passages in the Bible that speak of forgiveness about? And there's
all kinds of them. What are they about? Is it not
God encouraging us that there is forgiveness of our sin? Does
the Holy Spirit ever write these words in vain? There is forgiveness
with thee? What is that about? Is it not
to encourage us? Is that true or not? It's true,
isn't it? And the reason He writes these
things is to encourage us and stir us up to seek forgiveness. For thou, O Lord, listen to this,
art good and ready to forgive. Good and ready to forgive. And
He's plenteous in mercy to all of those that call upon Him.
Thou art a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to
anger, and of great kindness, and forsaketh them not." The
man who sees his sin as a trifling thing to be easily put out of
his mind with little concern whether God forgives him or not.
There are people like that, isn't there? Well, my sins are not
that bad. I can put them out of my mind
and not think upon them. He don't need forgiveness. He
don't need any encouragement. But that poor broken-hearted
man who sees something of the exceeding blackness of his sins
and the white holiness of God needs to hear that God is in
earnest when He says, I will forgive. I will forgive. Do you need Him to encourage
you? Don't you sometimes just despair? Dear child of God, you
almost despair about this business of forgiveness. And you know
why you do? Because you see such sin in you.
You see such wretchedness in you. You think, God is so holy. God is so good. I have sinned
so much. Is He even earnest? Is He even
speaking to me when He talks about forgiveness? He is. He
is. Think of this as a proof that
this doctrine of forgiveness is true. Think of the countless
numbers of those who have already been forgiven. I think this is
a true doctrine. I think it's taught in the Scriptures.
I think God is earnest when He confronts us with this business
of forgiveness. And when I read about the great
number of people that He's already forgiven, I wonder how many people
there were before the flood. that the Lord forgave. I bet
you there were countless millions before the flood. After the flood,
when they set up those sacrifices and the children of Israel looked
through those blood sacrifices to the coming of the Messiah
who would atone, how many in the Old Testament, untold millions,
did God forgive their sins? Look at the people when the Lord
Jesus was here. From His own lips He said, Thy
sins, which are many, are forgiven thee. Go thy way, thy sins are
forgiven thee. How many did He say that to?
Take up your bed and walk, your sins are forgiven you. There
were multitudes upon multitudes that He forgave in the day of
His flesh. Look in the book of Acts. Look
at sometimes it said multitudes and a great number were forgiven
of their sins, believed Him. And since the book of Acts, can
you imagine from the close of the New Testament up until now? I tell you no wonder the Bible
says there is a number in heaven that no man can number. And they
were on earth at one time just like you are sitting here this
morning. And you know something? Everybody in heaven is a forgiven
person. Can you imagine how many sins
the Lord has forgiven? This is a true doctrine. And
we could say this, Lord, do unto me as you did to all those other
folks that desired to be forgiven. Forgive my sins like you did
theirs. It's a true doctrine. Here's something else quickly
to think about. Can this subject be abused? Can this doctrine
be abused? Well, it can, can't it? It can. We preach free forgiveness through
Christ for every seeker. And sometimes we preach it so
freely and so truly that people abuse it. But people in this
world will abuse every doctrine. Every truth. Let us do good.
Let us do evil that good may come. And so on. How can this
truth be abused? When it leads men to think that
God will not punish sin. I had a fellow to tell me one
time, he said, all of those that die unforgiven will be annihilated. All of those who die unforgiven
will be annihilated. I had another guy, I heard him
preaching, and he said this, the soul is too precious not
to be saved. And as he preached, I realized
what he was saying is nobody is going to be lost. The soul
is too precious. If we're looking at free forgiveness
of sins and it leads us to think that there is no punishment for
sin, then we jump to conclusion. Secondly, when it encourages
us to hope for forgiveness in ways contrary to the Word of
God. I tell you, I love to preach
forgiveness of sin, and I can preach it to the most ungodly
wretch in the world. But it's only through one person.
It's only through the standard that the Word of God has set
forth that He'll forgive sins by, always by the cross. Always through the work of the
person of Jesus Christ. And if a man are seeking forgiveness
of sins in any other way, but through Him and His blood, they'll
never obtain it. They may say, well, God's merciful.
I've heard He's merciful. Therefore, He'll forgive my sin.
Not on that standard. Sin has to be punished. It was
punished at the cross. Only at the cross. It can be
abused when men seek and hope in forgiveness of sin apart from
repentance and belief. I had a young lady tell me one
time, she said, all you fellows are preaching a false gospel.
And I said, how so? Because she said, you're preaching
a conditional gospel. Because you tell the men if they
don't repent, they'll perish. If they don't believe, they cannot
be saved. I said, well, if that's a false gospel, I'm guilty. Because
I do not preach a salvation apart from repentance. We do not preach
forgiveness of sins apart from a heart faith in Jesus Christ
the Lord. Through this man is preached
unto you the forgiveness of sins, and by him all that believe are
justified." They abuse it this way by delaying
it until their deathbed. Somebody said, well, if there's
forgiveness, I'm just going to wait until I get ready to die.
Then I'll seek it. You may not find it. Well, the
thief on the cross did. One of them did. The other didn't.
And death may come suddenly. And if a man is hoping to find
forgiveness on his deathbed, then he's looking at forgiveness
the wrong way. Now is the day of salvation.
Now is the accepted time. And those abuse it who expect
to find forgiveness in another world, when they fail to obtain
it in this one. Now. In this world. Now in this
life. In conclusion, think of this.
There is forgiveness. Shouldn't this encourage the
broken hearted? This should really encourage
the broken hearted. This is why we have to set it
forth so freely. Set it forth with God's heart
yearning and longing to forgive every broken hearted sinner.
Because they're the ones that stand in doubt of it. It's the poor broken hearted
that see their sins the most and what they deserve. Listen
this morning, dear broken hearted soul. Thy sins be forgiven thee. Thy sins be forgiven thee. This
should comfort those who have believed through grace and believed
in grace. I tried to put my sins away all
through my teenage years. And you talk about frustrated
and guilt. I carried it all. And I still
do that sometimes. And when I've sinned, instead
of going to the Lord and freely confessing it, I don't feel like
going to the Lord now. Well, why? Because I'm guilty. I've sinned. Isn't that the time
to go? Don't delay. Go while you're
guilty. If you turn to, you're better.
It doesn't matter how much, brothers
and sisters, we grow in grace and in knowledge. Forgiveness
must be free, and it must be daily, and God has made provision
for such forgiveness. If you're guilty, go. If you
feel you need, go. When? Whenever you need it. I
go daily myself. I'll go daily. This subject demands
our admiration. It demands our praise. It demands
our love and reverence and heart worship of God. Were the whole realm of nature
mine, that were a present far too small, love so amazing, so
divine, demands my soul, my life, my all. And such forgiveness calls upon
us to imitate it. Doesn't it? Be ye kind, tenderhearted,
forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven
you. Imitate God in this forgiveness. Nobody has sinned against me
like I've sinned against the Lord. I've given people cause
to sin against me. I've never had any cause to sin
against the Lord. People's sins against me are
like molehills compared to the mountain of my sins against God. How could I refuse to forgive
any of their sins against me, even one, since God has forgiven
so many of my sins? Oh, we should imitate Him, shouldn't
we? I was telling somebody the other day, We hold these bad
thoughts against one another. Satan gets in there and he's
the accuser of the brother. I told somebody the other day
that you can't hold a grudge against somebody if you pray
for them. If you aggravate somebody, start
praying for them. I'm telling you that's one of
the best ways to remove it. Pour out your heart into the
Lord. Mention their name. Tell the Lord. Tell Him. Oh,
forgiveness. Isn't that a wonderful concept?
That's a wonderful word. The Lord forgiving us, us forgiving
one another. I'll never forgive myself. I've
done things against the Lord. It's not about self-forgiveness.
When the Lord forgives you, that's it. That's enough. I was watching
a little show. Sometimes I flick through the
TV and find some of these little religious shows and some of them
are so ridiculous If it wasn't so serious, it would be laughable
by us. They had Peter in prison. And he was talking to this guard,
telling him the whole story about Christ and about Judas. And he said, what happened to
Judas? He said, well, he went out and
hanged himself. He said, why would he hang himself? Why would
he hang himself? And Peter said, well, Christ
forgave him. But he couldn't forgive himself. Christ forgave him. But he couldn't
forgive himself. This ain't about self-forgiveness.
This ain't about our egos. This ain't about self-esteem.
This is about God whom we've sinned against forgiving our
sins. And that will humble you in the
dust and make you think less of yourself than you've ever
thought and look out of yourself to Him and glory in Him.