Two Types Of Forgiveness (Part 2)

Thanks for tuning in to No Compromise Radio with pastor and author, Dr.

Mike Abendroth. Today on No Compromise Radio, we'll be hearing Pastor Mike open the

Word of God in a recent message he preached at Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts.

Now let's join Pastor Mike in progress as he preaches through the scriptures, verse by verse, with No Compromise.

Psalm 32, how blessed is the man whose transgression is what? Forgiven. That's a blessed man.

For us, we know that's all based on the work of Christ Jesus, who purged our sins and put away our sins.

So what do you do when you sin? You go straight to the Lord. Feel like you want to run? Go straight to the

Lord. He's generous and gracious. Number two, confess your sins. Simple.

Let's read verses three through five. For I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me.

Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.

So let's talk about confession just for a little bit, because that's what our response to the Lord should be when we inevitably sin.

Let me give you some components. I think I have five components of confession. First one is confession includes personal ownership.

By the way, this is anti -cultural. Personal ownership, if you go back to the text, verse three,

I know my transgressions. I acknowledge it.

And what does the text say? And my sin is ever before me. Once Nathan came to David, he couldn't get it out of his mind.

Look this way, before him mentally, those sins. Look this way, sin.

Wake up in the middle of the night thinking about those sins. It was haunting him. And so you say to yourself, I'm a

Christian. I have sins, and I have skeletons, and things that I've done that have been so bad against God. Even as a

Christian, I have done this. I can't get them out of my mind. The rewinding, the slow motion, the hauntingly permanent, seemingly permanent, etched in engraved sin.

Oh, there's hope for you. David just said, I'm just going to own these things. I'm not going to blame anybody.

No excuses. He could have done all kinds of things. You know,

God, I have natural desires that you gave me as a man. You know, that Bathsheba, she shouldn't have taken a bath over there, laid out with the scantily clad like she was.

You know, being a king is stressful. He could have come up with all kinds of things.

I'm only human. I'm not glorified yet.

James 1 says, each one's tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. David said, okay,

I did it. Far from David to say, you know what, two consenting adults do in the privacy of their own home doesn't hurt anyone.

David didn't say, you know, I need a do over. America's pastor, I heard on television say that sometimes

God gives you do overs. David didn't want a do over. He said,

I sinned. It's no blunder. It's no accident. It's no mistake. Nothing came over me. It sounds almost like the thief on the cross.

Luke 23, we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds. No wonder

Moody Monthly said, man calls it an accident. God calls it abomination. Man calls it error.

God calls it enmity. Man calls it a trifle. God calls it a tragedy.

I just agree that I did it. I'm not going to blame syndromes, and I'm not going to blame anything else.

I'm just going to say I did it. Well, the second component of confession is agreeing with God. Personally ownership is personally owning it and then now agreeing with God.

By the way, that is the definition of confession, to agree with. God, I agree with you. I align my mind with you.

I look at it from your perspective. My perspective is, well, I needed to have my needs met. Your perspective is that was no trespassing.

That was someone else's wife. 1 John 1 says if we confess our sins, he's faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins.

Psalm, excuse me, Proverbs 28 is a good proverb regarding this. He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will find what?

Compassion. Don't you want compassion from God and mercy from God? You say, okay, I did it.

Third component of confession is remember you've mainly sinned against God.

Take a look at verse 4. Of course, David sinned against Bathsheba. Of course, he sinned against Joab, Uriah, the nation, but mainly it was against God.

Against, as the New American Standard says, or probably King James as well, against thee and thee only have

I sinned and done what is evil in whose sight? God's sight. Plummer said we never see sin or right until we see it as against God.

Pharaoh and Balaam, Saul and Judas each said, I have sinned. But the returning prodigal said,

I have sinned against heaven and before thee. Fourth component of confession is you're willing to accept

God's chastening hand. He's not judging you eternally, but he's going to chase him.

You take a look at verse 4, the last part of verse 4 in Psalm 51. So you sinned against God and you go to him and you say,

I'm just going to pour out my heart. God, I know you're generous and please forgive me. And I own it and we're confessing.

And however you want to judge me with chastisement as a child, I'll take.

So you are justified when you speak and blameless when you do judge. God, you're not the wrong one.

I'm the wrong one. Any sentence you give me, I know that it's from a loving father and a good father.

It's for my own good. And then the last component of confession, understanding the true depth of your sin.

See it in verse 5. Brought forth in iniquity and in sin, my mother conceived me.

It wasn't a slip up. It just didn't come over someone. Problems deep, the problems ingrained, the problem goes back to Adam.

So when you sin, what do you do? You call out to God who's merciful and gracious for forgiveness. You confess your sin.

And then found in verses 6 through 12, number three. You rely on God for restoration.

You take God at his word. You believe his promises that if he forgives, he forgives. You're confident that he restores the penitent sinner.

Let's take a look at these verses. You're going to see David do something here. David's going to say, you know, God, you said if I ask for forgiveness and I come to you, you'll forgive me and I don't even have to feel forgiven.

I'll just take your word for it. When you sin against God, you're going to trust that God will forgive. And that's what

David does here. He says in verse 6, behold, you delight in truth and the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.

You're going to restore me, God, and truth. And I know it's all of you. And then he starts praying a lot of prayers for restoration.

Matter of fact, there's 12 of them, 12 steps, the biblical 12 steps, right?

There's 12 of these. And every one of these is, God, do something and I know it's going to be true. And so you say,

I've sinned against God and God, forgive me. And I agree with you that I've done the wrong thing. And now,

God, I'm going to take you at your word. Because if you say I'm cleansed, I'm cleansed. Oh, I don't really feel forgiven.

Well, no, this is going to show you that David knew that when God does a work of forgiveness, he really does a work of forgiveness.

You could probably divide these up into 12, just like I could. We'll just go through these quickly. First one is, purify me with hyssop.

This is language of a song, language of poems, language of a psalm, songs.

And he just says this figure, purge me with hyssop and I will be clean. Because if God, if you cleanse me,

I will be clean. What do they use hyssop for, by the way? All kinds of things, like cleansing lepers, ceremonially in Leviticus 14.

A great Puritan said, God, if you shout, you will unsin me.

God, unsin me. There's no half measure with God here. Number two, wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.

Because God, if you do that, I know on the inside, yeah, positionally I'm whiter than snow because I have Christ righteousness.

But now you're going to clean me on the inside from this awful, dirty sin. I'll be whiter than snow.

I was walking in the orchard yesterday with my dog and my dog, she's mainly white.

She has some black spots and then her head is black and brown. But if you looked at her and you had to pick one color, you'd say white.

Well, do you know what? Yesterday I figured out about my dog. Compared to the snow, she's yellow.

She has like some kind of polar bear look, you know, when the polar bear's hairs are hollow and they have the stuff in there.

She just looks, she's white compared to brown. But compared to the snow, she's yellow.

She's not pure as I thought. Look at this though.

Wash me and I'll be not as white as snow. I'll be whiter than snow.

I know I sin. I know you sin. God knows you sin.

And we realize, do you know what? When we sin, we go straight to God. Number three, make me hear joy and gladness.

Do you see that in verse 58, excuse me, in chapter 51 verse 8? The built -in consequences of bad feelings and horrible conscience and the dour, suppressed, melancholic attitudes of we're caught in sin and we haven't been restored to our

Father yet in heaven. David said, I want to hear that joy and gladness again.

Number four, mend me, or as the ESV says in verse 8, let the bones that you have broken rejoice.

He didn't break his bones for real, but certainly shepherds back in those days, if there was a wayward sheep and the sheep would always run off, what would the shepherd do?

Break the sheep's leg, carry the sheep over his head for a long time, get to know that sheep. The sheep's leg would mend and then that sheep would be so close to the shepherd, it would never run away.

Number five, hide my sins for good. Look at verse 9, hide your face from my sins. God, when you look at me, don't see that sin.

If you think about your worst sins, God, when you see me, is that what you think about? When my name, of course, this is all language, it's not true because God doesn't have to think in terms like this, but if we were somehow thinking,

God, when my name comes up in a Trinitarian conversation, is that what you think of?

You think of that sin? David said, don't think of that sin. Hide your face from my sins.

For us, as Christians, God the Father hid his face from the Son, so he'd never have to hide his face.

Number six, blot out my iniquities. Blot them all out, get rid of them. Blood everywhere, now make it pure white.

He keeps going, he just, so many of these. This one might be my favorite.

Number seven, renew me, create in me a clean heart.

Oh, God. Now, there's a word for create that means out of nothing, and there's a word that means in the

Hebrew for create that means out of something that already existed. So, in Genesis chapter one, God makes things by divine fiat, out of nothing.

That's the word here. God, do a miracle of creation in my heart, create in me a clean heart.

God alone is a subject for this verb. God, you're going to have to do it. Forgiveness, in a sense, is a divine miracle.

You can assuage yourself with alcohol, too much alcohol, too much whatever, and fill your mind with all kinds of hedonistic explorations.

But if you want your conscience cleansed, it has to be created by God and God alone.

Number eight, renew a steadfast spirit within me. NAS says, and ESV says, renew a right spirit within me.

I just want to be new. Sin is part of my nature. Just make me new. He goes on, number nine, do not cast me away from your presence.

Don't leave me in my sin. I want to be close. Number 10, I'd still like to serve you.

Now, this is a controversial one for no reason at all. Verse 11, and do not take your Holy Spirit from me.

Say, well, see, there it is. You had your salvation, and now David thinks he's going to lose his salvation.

You can lose your salvation by murder and by lying and by coveting and by adultery. First of all, you can't lose what

God gains. And second of all, think like you're a Jew from the Old Testament. What do you mean, take not your

Holy Spirit from me? What kind of language is that in the Old Testament? It's very simple. David does not want to be like Saul.

First Samuel 16, now the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit of the

Lord terrorized him. Think about the Old Testament. Samson had a special job to do, and the spirit of God came on him to do the job.

Saul had a special job to do. The spirit of God came on him for the job. David had a special job to do.

The spirit of God came upon him. And now David's saying, I still want to serve you. Don't take off that special enabling work that your spirit of God does through me.

I still want to serve you. Number 11, give me joy.

Restore to me the joy of your salvation. Remember when you first got saved?

Remember when you first realized that God chose you and eternity passed? The son died for you? You can't lose your salvation that you get to go to heaven?

Yes, you. And remember how happy you were? You couldn't think to yourself even, how could other people not believe this?

God granted you repentance. He granted you faith. And remember those days when you first were saved? David said,

I want those days back. I want it back. I want that joy.

And then he says, lastly, give me a heart of obedience. Sustain me or uphold me with a willing spirit.

I want to obey you, God. I'm weak, but I want to obey. And then the rest of the psalm is

David's worship. After you've been forgiven and after you rehearse the promises of God, then it's time to worship again and look at David.

Listen to David through verses 13 through 19. Then I'll teach transgressors your way and sinners will return to you.

I want to teach people about you. I'll teach the Bible. Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation.

And my tongue will sing aloud your righteousness. I want to sing and praise and worship you.

That's what I want to do. I'm forgiven. I'm cleansed. Dad forgave me after I knocked the car into the side of the garage.

And he said, you ever do it again, you get the knuckle sandwich. But now I still love you, son. I'm not saying knuckle sandwich is used of God.

You might find it in the message perversion, but not here. But you get my point. Verse 15,

O Lord, open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise. A great

God who forgives. For you will not delight in sacrifice, for I would give it. Think how many things

David could sacrifice. You will not be pleased with the burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart.

O God, you will not despise me. Do good to Zion in your good pleasure.

Build up the walls of Jerusalem. Then will you delight in right sacrifices and burn offerings and hold burnt offerings.

Then bowls will be offered on your altar. Christian friends, we're realists, aren't we?

We sin. So to say, you know, we don't really want to talk about sin because everybody knows you're a sinner and it turns people off.

They vote with their feet. They don't want to think about themselves that way. We, on the other hand, are realists and we know we do sin.

And we have been granted by God the one who forgives sins, both judicially and parentally.

And so we go to God and say, please forgive me. Yes, God, I agree with you. Two comments in closing.

One, if you're not a Christian today, there's hope for you.

Say, well, I've sinned so much. I don't think God could ever forgive me. If you knew what I have done in my life, you'd agree with me that God never let me in heaven.

God's too holy for that. I could never go. But remember,

God is generous and gracious. And if you come to the Lord Jesus Christ by faith, trusting only in the risen

Savior who died for sinners like you, you shall have eternal life. You can be forgiven.

God's grace is greater than your sin, in other words. There's hope for heinous people because if Jesus dies for your sins, you don't have to pay for any of your sins.

Point number two, and this is my final exhortation. Since Christian, you have been forgiven much.

How ought you to treat other people? Are you a good forgiver?

Do you like to forgive? James Coulter said, the unforgiving spirit is the number one killer of spiritual life.

Because to be most like God, you forgive. If God is known for forgiveness, if the cross epitomizes forgiveness, then we ought to be, you ought to be a forgiving person.

Leon Morris said, we can always think of some good reason why in any particular case we need not to forgive.

But that is always an error. So I wonder about you. I wonder if you have somebody in your life, maybe a few people in your life or many, but you haven't forgiven.

Lloyd -Jones says, I say to the glory of God in an utter humility that whenever I see myself before God, I realize even something of what my blessed

Lord has done for me. Then I am ready to forgive anybody, anything. C .S.

Lewis said, everyone thinks forgiveness is a lovely idea until he has something to forgive. I never could figure out why

Grandma Evie, I've told the story before, Kim's grandmother, seemed to have a thousand and one friends, ever increasing.

And my grandparents, both sets, basically had none. Now I figured it out that Grandma Evie, by the grace of God, was a

Christian and she forgave and so she kept friendships. Because certainly those people sinned against her and she sinned against those people.

But they were forgiven sins and they kept friendships. And my grandparents on both sides were not

Christians. And so when I was 12 and I had 50 friends, I couldn't really figure out why Grandma and Grandpa had no friends.

And they had no friends, as I look back now, is because they were bitter people who couldn't forgive. And you know, for us as a church, if you're around here long enough, you will be sinned against and you will sin against other people.

And then how do you respond? If God so graced you, ought you not to grace other people?

Say, well, you don't really know what that person did. I don't need to know because I know what

Jesus did. This is a big deal, beloved. Listen to words you've all memorized.

Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors and do not lead us into temptation but deliver us from evil.

Next word. For if you forgive men for their transgressions, your heavenly father will also forgive you.

If you do not forgive men, then your father will not forgive your transgressions. In other words,

Christian people forgive. Ephesians 4, be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.

And you know what? This is a tough thing. You have to really watch it. Listen to Jesus.

Be on your guard. What would you be on your guard about? Listen, if Jesus says you be on your guard, that means if you're not careful, you're like lulled into some lethargic stupor or something.

Be on your guard. If your brother sins, rebuke him. If he repents, forgive him.

If he sins against you seven times a day and returns to you seven times saying, I repent, forgive him.

And the apostle said to the Lord what you're probably thinking right now, increase our faith, because it's hard.

That's why it's a supernatural thing. I read a long passage of scripture at the beginning of the sermon.

This isn't such a long passage of scripture, but it's words from our Lord that will resonate for people who have even memorized it.

Lord, how often will my brother sin against me and I still forgive as many as seven times?

Jesus said, I do not say to you seven times, but 70 times seven. Therefore, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants.

When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him 10 ,000 talents, an unpayable debt.

He said he could not pay. His master ordered him to be sold with his wife, his children, all he had in payment to be made.

So the servant fell on his knees, employing him, have patience with me and I will pay you everything. And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt.

But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him 100 denarii, three months pay, seizing him, began to choke him, saying, pay what you owe.

So his fellow servant fell down and plead with him, have patience with me and I will pay you. He refused and went, put him in prison until he should pay the debt.

When his fellow servants saw that this had taken place, they were greatly distressed and they went and reported it to their master.

The master summoned him and said, you wicked servant, wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me.

And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant as I had mercy on you? In his anger, his master delivered him to the jailers until he should pay all his debt.

So also my heavenly father will do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother from.

We're located on Route 110 in West Boylston, Massachusetts. You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org

or by phone at 508 -835 -3400. The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.