YP Address
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It is, especially for the young people.
But I have on my heart dear friends.
A subject that is not only suited for the young people.
But I believe is important for everyone, young or old.
Who was here? And so I trust the young people will bear with me.
If the subject is something.
Let her speaks to the oldest.
As well as those that belong to their age.
The hymn that we have just been singing.
Forgiveness.
Is a glorious theme.
Is really what I have on my heart this afternoon.
And I desire beloved friends to take up this subject in four topics.
First, judicial forgiveness.
Then restorative forgiveness.
And then?
Governmental forgiveness and then administrative.
Forgiveness.
But before developing our subject under these 4 topics.
I'd like to read a verse in the 28th chapter of Proverbs.
Which I believe ties in with.
All the different views of the subject I have on my heart.
Where 28th chapter of the book of Proverbs.
And the 13th 1St is this.
Proverbs, 2813.
He that covereth his sin.
Shall not prosper.
But whoso confesseth and forsaken them shall have mercy.
Now that verse.
Has a solemn warning.
Both for St. and Sinner.
It also has a word.
Of comfort and encouragement.
For anyone.
Who acts upon?
The word before us.
The warning is this, that he that covereth his sins shall not prosper.
That is, if we are trying to cover up anything from God.
Or cover it up from our brethren if it's a matter that concerns them.
Or if it's a young person or a child that's seeking to cover up his naughtiness or his sins from his purse.
There the word death may well speak to your conscience that you will not prosper.
Oh no. You may think you will. You may think that you can get on. You can succeed.
But you can make a success in life. Cover up something that is wrong, but remember God's word. Never urge.
And there's a plain statement that he shall not prosper.
But oh, how lovely the other side of the verse before us. But whoso confesseth and forsakeeth them shall have mercy.
Now, as I said, I had those four ways of bringing our subject before us.
And I'm sure that as we go on that you'll see.
That that mercy applies in every case that comes before us where there is a confession, and not only that, but a forsaking.
Are going on.
After you have confessed in the same sin and failure.
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But a thorough judgment of the whole thing.
No matter how much trouble or trial or sorrow we may have brought upon ourselves, we have a sure promise, and we'll have the mercy of the Lord.
Our intaking of these three points. First, the subject of judicial forgiveness.
There's a verse I'll turn to now in the last chapter of Luke's gospel.
I remember these are the words of the Lord Jesus.
That risen man.
And it's on the resurrection day that he spoke these words. Now I turn to the 46th verse.
And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behold Christ to suffer.
And to rise from the dead the third day, that repentance.
And remission, you know, remission is just the same as forgiveness.
At repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations.
Beginning at Jerusalem.
Well, there was a Commission to the Lord's.
Servants as he went out to carry the good news.
To a world of lost sinners.
And you notice that it's It says that. Thus it behooves Christ.
The sufferer derives from the dead the third day.
Let's get that early in our hearts.
That in order, beloved friends, that we might have forgiveness of our sins.
The Lord Jesus had to suffer.
I know how he suffered. No tongue can tell what he suffered.
Alone there on that shameful cross.
Forsaken of God.
With that low of sin upon.
But there is this also to remember.
Now not only did he suffer, that we might.
Have repentance and remission of sins, but he says that he rose from the dead.
The third day.
So you see.
The forgiveness has to do.
Whether Christ, who suffered for our sins, and who was raised the third day?
So all that, beloved friends, we can go directly to the very one who suffered for those sins and received forgiveness from his blessed lips when the apostle Paul was preaching.
In Antioch and Presidio, as we read in the 13th chapter of Acts, he presented just what the Lord.
Commissioned his disciples to carry. He preached Christ and him crucified. But not only that, dear friends, he told about how he was raised and how He's in glory now and then. If you turn to that 13th of Acts.
After having presented Christ's life.
Death, burial, and resurrection. Here's what he says. 38 Verse Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. And by him all, I believe, are justified from all things.
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From which she could not be justified by the law. Moses, you know that was a company.
There in that synodog at Antioch and Presidio, who had never heard the gospel until that day when Paul.
And Barnabas went into the synagogue and.
Paul proclaims the message, and having presented Christ, he says all that believe in him.
Whosoever through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins.
There's a verse that I will comment on a little later.
In the.
The first chapter of one John and the ninth verse.
Where you read this that if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.
And to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Now that verse could be applied in different ways.
In a certain way it could be applied to a lost Sinner.
It can be applied, especially, as I trust, we shall see.
To an erring child of God. Or it may have to do with the governmental ways of God.
But one might inquire, how can?
A lost Sinner confess all his sins in order to get saved.
Well, I quite understand.
That that would simply be an impossibility, because who can remember all their sins?
I don't suppose any of us remember 9/10 of our sins.
Maybe only 99% of our sins and yet you hear people talking about.
Confessing all their sins and getting saved well.
It may be just a lack of proper expression or maybe a lack of instruction.
But I believe, beloved friends, that when it's a question of.
A poor lost Sinner confessing his sins.
It's just what brother Oscar Myers was giving the children on Sunday or yesterday morning.
And speaking on that poor thief that hung by the Savior's side, what does that man say? He said to the other. He says we indeed, justly.
Or we receive the due reward of our deeds.
Or else we can make that kind of a confession of our sins.
And the one that makes that kind of a confession? Beloved friends get saved just as quickly.
As a thief on the cross, and so perfectly saying, so fully forgiven, that he went that very day from that cross where he was dying for his sins in the paradise of God, to be a companion for all eternity of God's beloved Son.
So full and so wonderful and so amazing is the forgiveness.
That a Sinner receives when he comes humbly and owns.
There is nothing. What a poor, lost and guilty Sinner, very much like that woman that washed the feet of Jesus with her tears in the House of Simon the Pharisee.
The Lord said to that woman her sins, which are many.
Are all her given?
And why was it the Lord was able to say that to this troublesome? Well, he tells the reason.
Thy faith, thy faith has saved thee. Go in peace. Who could say your sins weren't forgiven? Could Simon?
Oh no.
You know what kind of a character she was that made no difference now.
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All sins that brought her to the feet of Jesus were forgiven. And the reason they were forgiven? The beloved friends.
Is the same reason that everyone here who is trusting in the Savior knows the forgiveness of his sins?
Because she came as a poor, lost Sinner and an accepted Christ as her Savior, the one who was able and willing to forgive the loss. And so if there should be one here this afternoon.
Who has never confessed to the Lord their lost condition, has never owned that they were a lost Sinner.
All beloved friends.
Let not this meeting go by without coming in that way. Like that woman, like that thief.
And then you will have that in your soul that will give you.
Such peace such assures that you can go on your way knowing that the whole sin question is settled for time and eternity.
But as I said, there was.
Another line of.
Forgiveness, which we called restorative forgiveness.
So we'll turn to the First Epistle of John.
The First Epistle of John and before I read the verse I have already quoted in the.
In the first chapter we look at a verse.
In the second chapter.
The 12Th verse. First John chapter 2.
And verse 12 I write unto you, little children.
Because your sins are forgiven you or His name's sake. Well, I said at the beginning that I was not just confining my talk to the young people.
Or the children either. So when we say little children, it really.
Should read children because whether you are 80 years old or whether you are five years old, if you are trusting in the Lord Jesus, you are in the same family. The little child that just confessed the Lord yesterday.
And that old patriarch of a brother are just as much children of God, one just as much as the other.
And what a grand thing to know, beloved friends.
And it's Christian truth, that.
Every child of God should know.
That your sins are all forgiven.
And that that's the kind of forgiveness we have been talking about and which we call judicial forgiveness.
And what I mean by judicial forgiveness is this, that is forgiveness before.
God is a judge.
So.
Those sins of every believer are all forgiven.
Before a holy and a righteous God, they'll never come up against us again.
So that as John tells us in the 4th chapter of his epistles.
That we have might have boldness in the Day of Judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world.
Oh yes, instead of the judgment day filling the heart with terror as we think of our sins and failure, we have boldness. Or a man that's caught stealing and is brought up for trial. He hasn't very much boldness as he hears the witnesses.
Who is guilt has it? Oh no, he has no boldness at all. Beloved friends, we have boldness and view of our awful day of judgment, when the guilty Sinner will quake before the one who is there, the judge in righteousness.
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Now we'll turn to the ninth verse of the first chapter, if we confess our sins.
He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
I've already stated that in a certain way we might apply this to.
The unsaved.
But I have it specially on my heart, beloved.
To apply it especially.
To God's dear children.
Now I know there many lads a day that seem to think they can straighten everything out in their Christian life and testimony.
By kneeling at their bed at night and before they close their eyes and sleep to ask the Lord to pardon and forgive all their sins.
In fact, you have doubtless known people and heard a prayer like this.
Even when the give thanks for the food on the table, it will say.
And pardon and forgive us our sins, and save us in heaven at last.
That's a popular prayer.
Spread all over Christmas.
Well, if you're making that prayer.
You're just asking God to give you something that He's already told you. You have. He tells you, as we've already read in the second chapter and 12Th verse, that our sins are forgiven.
On all, beloved.
It isn't in keeping with our.
Position as a child of God.
To be a daily asking the Lord to forgive all our sins.
But what we are instructed to do is this.
He says if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Well, As for God's children, and you know all the very fact, beloved.
That we are children of God gives us confidence.
In God is our Father, just like a little child.
He has been naughty. He's done something his parents told him not to do.
And he runs with his open arms to his father and says, Daddy, I did what you told me not to.
Why does he run to his daddy?
Is he because he's afraid that his daddy is going to throw him out the door and disown him?
Not at all the reason he runs into his father's arms.
Is because he knows his father's heart and he knows his father loves him.
So you see, it's not a matter of getting right with God.
It's a matter of getting right with God our Father. Because remember this, beloved.
That while the sin of a believer breaks his communion, it will never, never break his relationship any more than in the human family.
The relationship.
Of children to parents can ever be changed.
They are your children by birth and thank God that everyone.
Who knows? The Lord is a child of God by new birth, born into His blessed family.
And so that knowing that.
Why we run to get restored in our souls. Because we'll have.
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Sin, the sin of a child of God.
Does definitely break our communion.
The relationship is so strong you know that nothing can ever.
Rob us of our place in Christ. He tells us that He gives us eternal life. He tells us we can never perish. No man can ever pluck us out of his hand or the Father's hand.
But when there is the tie of communion, even a foolish thought can break our communion.
A very delicate thing.
But isn't it?
Isn't that precious, beloved?
That we can be so fully restored in our souls.
That no matter how far we may have strayed away from the Lord.
Or how badly we may have sinned and failed.
That we can be so fully restored.
That we can be happy enjoying the Lord.
And the fellowship of his beloved people.
One thinks this moment of David, you know, David committed two of the greatest sins, and he thought he had covered it up so that it would never be known. Very rudely he got rid of.
Of Uriah Hittite.
But as we said before, that he that covereth his sins shall not prosper.
And God brought it to light, and everything you know is someday to be brought into the light.
Glory of His presence, who used to hide it from Him.
You know, the world just goes on.
In the path of deceit.
The more the man of the world can cover up and deceive.
While greater, his chances are to make a success in the world.
But that will never do for those who are following the Lord.
After the apostle John has brought us into the wonderful.
The wonderful.
Fellowship of God's children. Fellowship with a father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.
Marvelously beloved, the very fellowship of God, the Father of heaven itself is the portion of God's children down here. But as soon as He has brought us into that fellowship, then he says, And this is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you that God is light.
And in him is no darkness at all.
Honourable Lord, we have been brought into the light of His presence.
Where nothing can be hidden from his eye? Or should it be hidden from the eye of our?
Brethren, if it concerns the glory of Christ.
I was reading a track about.
A servant of the Lord who went into a saloon and was giving away some tracks.
And there is a.
Ungodly wicked man there, and seeing this Christian he took advantage to.
Remind him of David being one of God's chosen people.
And what a terrible sin that he committed. He told it in in a very.
Wretched, disgusting way.
Thus a servant of Christ turned to him. He says, you know about David's sin.
But he said, Did you ever read David's confession of his sin?
Well, he had to admit he never had, so he told him. He says you go back home and you read the 51St Psalm.
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And there you will find.
How this?
Man who sinned God doesn't cover up, nor he doesn't cover up, in his words, the sins of his people.
Might think a man that was so beloved and so much used as David that God would have covered that up, but he didn't.
He brought it right out into the light.
But all they love it when you read that.
51St Psalm where David cries out against.
Speaking to the Lord against thee, and the only have I sinned and committed this wickedness, and he says, Purge me with hesitant I shall be clean, wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
All their heart broken.
Penitent cries.
Of a true child of God, beloved, that just tells us what?
True restoration of soul for a child of God really is.
Well, David, as we are told.
Was a man after God's own heart? Why do you think that a man like David?
Who was guilty of such sin?
Was spoken of in that way. I think the reason is this is because that David was always willing to confess his sins.
When he had sinned when Nathan the prophet came to David, you know, and he said thou art the man David says I have sinned and then when he numbered the the people in disobedience to the word of God and thus remember, friends, that as long as he was carrying out his.
His ambitions, his self will. There was no.
Forms of conscience, but after all over and he had his own way.
Then his heart smiled and he went to the Prophet.
And I'll just read what he says in the.
I think it's the 24th chapter of Second Samuel.
24th chapter of Two Samuel.
So it's the 23rd chapter.
Oh, I was looking in for Simon.
That's the reason I wasn't finding it.
Looking in the wrong place.
It's the 24th chapter and the 10th verse.
Second, Samuel and David's heart smote him after he had numbered the people. And David said unto the Lord, I have sinned greatly, and that I have done. And now I beseech the old Lord, Take away the iniquity of thy servant, for I have done very foolishly. Well, he goes on to say, when he saw the people being.
Stricken down with a plague.
And when the Angel appeared with a drawn sword to destroy Jerusalem.
He says I have sinned. As for thee sheep, what have they done?
Nor trying to defend himself, nor saying that the children of Israel were not a disobedient people. It was nothing but thorough self judgment. Beloved. Self judgment is what leads to repentance and restoration of soul. And as we said before.
That's why I believe that David is called a man after God's own heart.
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And anyone of God's dear children can occupy the same place of favor with him if there is glad willingness.
To humble oneself and make full confession.
We think again, Peter, you know how he denied the Lord?
And how fairly the Lord restore dear Peter, so much so that he could commit to Peter's care the lamb and the sheep of his pasture. He says, feed my lambs, feed my sheep. But I want to tell you this, beloved.
And before the Lord so thoroughly.
Restored, Peter.
He had gone down to the very root of Peter's failure. Perhaps you notice when we read that verse in first John 1:00 and 9:00, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all iniquity. You see, there's forgiveness and there's cleansing. I believe that that is where you go to the root of the matter.
Sometimes you always, sorry, judge ourselves, yet go back to the old habit or the old ways. The trouble is, the route hasn't been judged. There's something there that has never been really judged in God's presence.
I believe in Peter's case. What is the root of Peter's whole course and failure was his self-confidence. Oh you know Peter said the night of the Lord's betrayal. He says though all men shall forsake thee, yet will not I all Peter says I love the Lord so much.
That John even were to forsake the Lord, I wouldn't forsake him.
Well, when the Lord probes Peter, as he does at the lake of the gallery, he says to him these words, he says, Simon son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these?
That was his most Well, do you, Peter? Are you still going to boast as you did?
That night of my betrayal, what does Peter say? He says, Lord, thou knowest all things.
Thou knowest that I love thee just as much as Peter says, Lord, if there's any love in my heart at all, I know the others can't see it. You're the only one that can see it. So now he got down to the root of his trouble. And then the Lord, you see, could Commission Peter to the care of the flock, and he could also encourage Peter that though he had denied him the day.
When he would go with him.
To prison and to death, for he would have his hands stretched forth and been nailed to a cross.
Well beloved, the Lord is so gracious, so willing to forgive and to restore if there is real self judgment and confession in His presence.
Well, now I mentioned another kind of forgiveness.
And that we called governmental forgiveness.
And I last year returned to a verse in the 6th chapter of Matthew.
The 14th verse.
For if we forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
But if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your father forgive your trespasses.
You see there's a condition in that verse if if we do so and so we'll get forgiveness if we don't, we don't get forgiveness when our beloved we have seen definitely that could not be judicial forgiveness. That's not a matter that effects our going to heaven, but it does affect.
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Our sojourn as we go through this world.
For you know, God is a holy God, and he must.
He must chasten his children. In fact, it tells us there is no son whom the Father chasing us not.
Let's courage every son whom he received. We're all subject to that scourge. I was speaking about David's true and wonderful restoration. But if you read in that 12Th chapter of Second Samuel, well, you'll get that account. You'll find that Nathan the prophet said to David.
He says the sword shall never depart from my house.
And yet he was forgiven. But there is.
The governmental side and as far as the government of God was concerned.
David was never forgiven until he left this world because.
Never departed from his house. Let me turn you to another scripture in the book of James. We touched on it this morning.
We'll see a little more about it.
We saw by this morning about the prayer of faith the 15th 1St. So save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up, and if ye have committed sins, they shall be forgiven.
It doesn't say that the sickness is always occasioned by some sin, but it might be.
And perhaps that's the reason some of God's children are not cured.
Of some disease, because that sin governmentally isn't forgiven.
Now I'll turn you to another scripture in the 11 Chapter, one Corinthians, and if you'll remember in that chapter where we have the Lord's Supper.
We find that those Corinthians were going on in a most disorderly way, making gluttons and getting drunk when they came together to celebrate the Lord's Supper.
Knowing how low God's children can get if they're not watchful.
Well, here is what I wanted to bring out in this chapter.
27th verse.
Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily, they shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.
That self examination is very important to love it and it shouldn't be something that characterizes us continually.
During the week, so that when we come to remember the Lord there is nothing on our conscience condemning us.
As we sit down in the presence of that one whose death is set forth.
By the emblems on the table.
Well, let's read a little farther. For he that he did have found drinketh unworthily, now unworthily there is in an unworthy manner.
They were, as we said, getting drunk, behaving most.
On a very wretched way.
Unworthily eateth and drinketh. Now that word should be.
Judgment.
Unto himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you.
And many asleep, or if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the law that we should not be condemned to the world.
Well, that verse, that last verse I read, makes it very plain that it couldn't mean the final eternal judgment of the loss, because the very fact that He judges us is. So we won't have to face that judgment at the great White Throne, but if we would judge ourselves.
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Instead of allowing some evil to go on in our lives unjudged if we judged ourselves.
God right with the Lord and restored in our souls.
God wouldn't have to.
Go on in his discipline upon us. And in this case in Corinth, you see, God's hand was so heavy.
On those Corinthians.
That some of their number had died. In fact, many sleep.
God just simply took those disobedient naughty children away by death, and some, many were sick among them too.
All that, friends, has to do with the governmental dealings of God.
And so there there is that forgiveness, so that in the case you see of one not forgiving his brother.
Well, he doesn't get governmental forgiveness from the Lord when he forgives. Why? Then the matter is cleared up and the Lord doesn't have to go on dealing with him as he had before. Take the case of a man that was 38 years at the at the pool of Bethesda.
Know the Lord healed him, and then he meets him, and he says, go and sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon thee.
A worse thing come upon me. So that shows that those 38 years.
Of suffering and weakness was the result of some failure in his life.
And let's not forget this, beloved, it's a so solemn word. But whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap, that word can be given both to St. and Sinner.
What we saw, someday we'll have to reap what we've sold. And God isn't mocked. We're not going to be able to say to God someday, well, you made a mistake. I went ahead and took my own course and I got by. My old friend. God is more he that soars to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption.
But remember this too, this is the positive fact that he that saw the Spirit shall have the Spirit wreath through life ever last. All the gain there is, beloved.
In walking in obedience to the Word of God, following the Lord, you'll reap an eternity of reward, of gain that will compensate for anything that you might deny yourself, that has a tendency even to lead you away from Christ and into the simple ways of this lost world.
Now there is one.
Subject.
Yet, And that's what I call administrative forgiveness.
And to give a thought on that, I'll ask you to turn to the 20th chapter of John.
I remember beloved the.
There were ten of the Lord's apostles together in an upper room, and Jesus appears in the midst and shows them his hands and his feet.
And says, Peace be unto you.
And then he says in the 23rd verse, Whosoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them, and whosoever sins ye retain, they are retained.
No.
The enemy has taken advantage of that to give the idea that.
Certain men are still commissioned to forgive sins. That's all wrong. This was to the Lord's apostles.
And he did give them authority, but no one else has ever possessed.
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By having time to go into this subject, but I'll just remind you of what the apostle says.
In the second chapter of.
2nd Corinthians, he says, To whom ye forgive anything I forgive also.
While the assembly forgave and the apostle forgave, what? We have no apostles, so we have no one with that authority today, but we do have, beloved, that administrative forgiveness that is connected with the Assembly of God.
I just show you how that.
The Lord commissioned.
Peter as one of his disciples.
In the 16th of Matthew he tells Peter, Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
And in the 18th chapter where we get the second mention of the church.
In the New Testament.
You get this, tell it to the Church, and then you get in the 18 first. Whatsoever he shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven.
And whatsoever ye shall loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven.
That is the same authority the Lord committed to an apostle. He commits to the to the Church, and the Church may be composed of two or three gathered to His blessed name. Remember that gathered two hills.
Name because what is done is done in the authority.
Name Well, I see our time is up, beloved as much that.
You can.
Follow up when these connections.
Which will be most wholesome and healthy for your soul?
But let's just get this firmly fixed.
In our hearts and consciences.
That verse that I started out with.
That.
That he that covereth his sin shall not prosper, but he that confesseth and forsaken them shall find mercy. Or it's a dangerous thing, beloved, to be trying to cover up. It's the way of the world, it's the way of the transgressors, it's the way of the ungodly. And as we are speaking along the line.
Of administrative forgiveness, that which has to do.
With binding and losing in the assembly. Just remember this beloved.
That.
To merely cover things up and smooth things over.
So that there will be no appearance of.
What has taken place is not God's way. And remember this too, that the man who is restored in the second chapter of Second Corinthians, that man that was about to be overcome with much sorrow. Just remember this, that his sorrow was because of his sin, wasn't because he'd been far away and wanted to get back.
It was because of his sin. And I'll tell your beloved, when there is that real sorrow, heart over sin and failure, you can be sure of this, that there will be, just as there was in car.
A clear evidence that there has been repentance.
And a real work of God in the soul.
We will sing the.
Last him next to the appendix.
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241 was passed in ore that dreadful pain.
When forth the light blood flow that washed our sins from every state and paid the debt we owe.
Four hours far standard that.
Dreams.
Our God and Father.