Cool Things We Can Count On from God’s Word
#4 – The Guarantee of Forgiveness
1 John 1:9
Introduction
Just a warning: you’re not going to beat the Baptists to Steak and Buffet today. But I think you’ll find that our time today will be a blessing to you.
In the movie, “Hook,” Robin Williams plays Peter Pan, who had left Neverland and had grown up to be a corporate attorney.
He is completely focused on his job, and ends up neglecting his son over and over.
There is a line that he quotes from time to time in the beginning of the movie that sets the stage for the attitude of his son.
When he promises to be at his son’s baseball game, he says, “My word is my bond,” meaning that if he makes a promise, it can be counted on.
Unfortunately, he doesn’t keep his word to his son, and it almost leads to disaster.
One thing I’ve noticed over my 40+ years is that a written guarantee is generally more powerful than a spoken one, especially when it comes to things like business dealings.
In court, a written guarantee is a contract that has to be abided by.
But if there is no written proof about the guarantee, then the court may say that the guarantee never really existed, at least in legal terms.
“But Judge! He guaranteed that this leisure suit would attract women to me, and it hasn’t worked!”
The Bible is God’s written guarantee. I’ve said it every week since this series started, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t say it again: when God says something, it’s a done deal.
He cannot lie and will never change the terms of the deal. He’s true to His Word every time in every circumstance.
Today we’re going to look at another great guarantee of His – the guarantee of forgiveness.
I think one of the greatest differences between Christianity and other religions is that while others offer the idea that sin can be outweighed by good deeds, Christianity says that our sins can be totally wiped away and not counted against us.
They are taken away and blotted out from the record.
Believers in Jesus have access to that awesome forgiveness.
The whole idea of forgiveness can be a bit tricky, because we’re not always sure who can really be forgiven or if we have been forgiven in our own past.
Some people live in guilt over something they’ve done in the past, and even though they’ve confessed it to God and asked for forgiveness, they don’t feel like they’ve been forgiven and so they live under a burden of guilt and shame.
Some live in guilt over some sin that they’re convinced God could never forgive – it’s just too big, and there’s no way God could bring Himself to forgive it.
Some think that what they’ve done is no big deal, and so it doesn’t need forgiving. Everybody’s doing it, or I didn’t get caught, so there’s nothing to forgive.
The only problem with that is that if God calls it sin, then it’s sin – no matter what you think about it. God’s definition is the only one that counts!
It’s that whole, “God made the world so He makes the rules” thingy.
And then there are those who have sinned and don’t even know it. They’ve broken a law of God and they have no idea that they’ve done it. I’ll be talking about that in a bit.
But I want to assure all you that no matter what your situation, God offers you complete and total forgiveness. He guarantees it.
Our passage for today is 1 John 1:9 –
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
In last week’s message I gave a definition of sin that went sort of like this: the deliberate disobeying of a known law of God. You know what God’s Word says about something and you go against it, either doing something you know you shouldn’t do or not doing something you know you should do, according to God’s Word.
And I said that if a person is living a life that is marked by being full of the Spirit, we can go for long lengths of time without deliberate sin.
Today I want to expand that definition a bit.
Basically I want to include not just the known disobedience, but also the unknown disobediences.
In other words, it is possible to break God’s laws and not know it. And when we become aware of it, we need to deal with it.
In the Old Testament laws God said that if a person unknowingly commits a sin, he is still guilty. And when he found out, he needed to offer the sacrifice or the make the right restitution.
There are times when I have sinned against someone and I didn’t know it at the time. But I was still guilty. And when it came to my attention, I had an obligation to do all I could to make it right.
So my definition of sin for today can be boiled down to this: whatever goes against the Word of God, whether we know it or not at the time. Got it?
The point of this passage here is that we have access to God’s continued forgiving work in our lives as we continue to grow in our relationship with Christ.
Let’s look a bit more closely at a couple concepts in this verse: confession and forgiveness.
Confession simply means that you’re agreeing with God that what you’ve done is sin.
He already knows you’ve done it. So it’s not like you’re coming to God saying, “Okay God, here’s what I did,” and God’s like, “No way! I had no idea! Say it isn’t so!”
He knows. But He wants to hear from you that YOU know it’s sin.
And He wants you to confess it to Him. I grew up Catholic, and I was told that if I confessed to the priest, then the priest would forgive me on God’s behalf.
But God says we need to confess it to Him directly.
See, I can tell you about God’s forgiveness, but I can’t forgive you for God. He does that Himself.
And He does! Isn’t that great?
Now God forgiving doesn’t mean that you don’t need to ask forgiveness of someone else if you’ve hurt or sinned against them. You still need to do that.
That’s another message for another time. But as far as God’s concerned, it’s gone.
Forgiveness means that your sin is stricken from the record. It carries the idea of canceling a debt or dismissing the charges against you.
It’s a legal idea that whatever you had against you – whether you owed money or had done something to land you in court or jail – is now gone.
And folks, we’ll never fully understand the power of that idea until we meet Jesus face to face and learn just what forgiveness is and what it cost Him.
The truth of God’s forgiveness is throughout all of Scripture, but let me just read you two passages from the Old Testament:
Psalm 103:8-13 –
The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.
9 He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; 10 he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; 12 as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
Globe – you can only go south so far before you start heading north. But you can west forever, circling the globe, and never go east. That’s how far God separates your sins from you.
Micah 7:18-19 –
18 Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy.
19 You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.
God loves to forgive. And He loves for people to accept that forgiveness.
There’s a great song by Morgan Cryar. It’s called, “What Sin?” and describes the attitude of God toward confessed sin and the benefits we can get from it.
I’ve printed the lyrics in a bulletin insert, and I’d ask that you read along as the song is played.
And I want you to just contemplate the great truth that’s in this song.
(Song)
Folks, here is the bottom-line truth I want you to take home with you today:
If it’s confessed, it’s forgiven.
It’s a guarantee from God Himself. The question is whether or not you’ve experienced it or realize it.
There are two actions that people need to take in regard to this great guarantee of forgiveness:
1. Accept that forgiveness for yourself.
I’m not a psychic, but I’ll bet there are some in here today who need to accept that forgiveness from God for yourself.
If you’re a person who lives under feelings of guilt and shame of a past sin that you have confessed to Him already, then I want to tell you that if it’s confessed, it’s forgiven.
One of the great truths of God is that He is true to His Word regardless of our feelings.
Guilt and shame have their place – they’re meant to bring us to the place of confession and repentance. But after the sin is forgiven, we can rest in God’s guarantee and move on.
For others, it could be that the Holy Spirit has brought something to light that you didn’t know was sin or just didn’t think that it was a big deal, but now your heart is heavy.
Confess it to God, and accept His forgiveness for yourself.
A friend of mine reminded me once that as real as a sin might be, God’s forgiveness is just as real. And folks, that’s real good news.
If it’s confessed, it’s forgiven. Period. End of story.
But there’s another action that I think we don’t here enough about. Once you’ve received forgiveness for your sins, you need to…
2. Extend forgiveness to others.
After giving us the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus says that if we are forgiven, then we are obligated to forgive others who have sinned against us.
In the parable of the unmerciful servant, Jesus tells about a guy who had owed his master a bajillion bucks and couldn’t pay it. So the master had mercy and forgave the debt.
Then the servant finds another servant who owes him a few bucks and has him thrown into debtors prison until he could pay.
Well, the master finds out about this and has the unmerciful servant hauled before him. Here’s what happens:
Matthew 18:32-35 –
32 "Then the master called the servant in. ’You wicked servant,’ he said, ’I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33 Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ 34 In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.
35 "This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart."
If you have been forgiven, you have no business withholding forgiveness from someone else.
That’s not me speaking – that’s Jesus speaking. You’ve been forgiven of so much. You need to pass it on to others who have sinned against you.
Invitation:
This passage is directed at those who have already taken Christ.
Those who have not come to Christ to gain entrance into heaven don’t have this forgiveness.
It doesn’t matter how sorry you are – if you are not in Christ, you don’t have heaven, and you don’t have forgiveness.
So I want to give you the opportunity to get that squared away.
If you want the guarantee of heaven and the forgiveness that brings, then you can invite Christ to give that to you right now.
You can pray in your heart this prayer: (prayer)
If you’ve done that, then you can walk out of here knowing that you have been made a child of God, forgiven of your sins to this point, and guaranteed a home in heaven.
But before we go, I want to address any here who have felt the Holy Spirit tugging at their hearts to confess something to God.
In a moment, we’re going to close, and we’re going to change the chorus at the end. We’re going to sing, “White as Snow.”
I’m going to open the altar, and if you want, you can come up here and just speak to God.
You don’t have to tell me what’s going on. God knows and He just wants to hear it from you!
Or maybe you’ve been withholding forgiveness from someone, and God’s telling you to forgive that person.
They don’t deserve it. But neither do you. In any case, if you want to come up to the altar, you are welcome to do that. You don’t have to come up here to do your business with God, but if you come up here, I’ll pray with you and if you want to talk about it more after the service is over, we can do that.
The words to the chorus are printed on the other side of the lyrics to the song that was played for us a moment ago, so pull that back out as Lowell and the ladies come to lead us in this chorus.
And as we’re singing, you feel free to come up to the altar.
After the song is done, you’re dismissed, but if there are people at the altar, I will be staying up here to pray with them, okay?
Let’s pray.
