“My Sins Are Gone!” – FBC Morning Light (4/1/2024)

Resurrection Sunday and the Cross of Christ

Well, good Monday morning to you. I hope you had a wonderful day yesterday. Resurrection Sunday, celebrating the resurrection of Jesus from the tomb. What a great weekend, right? To reflect upon the cross and what Jesus accomplished for us in his death on the cross, the burial, and then yesterday the resurrection from the tomb.

I hope you had a great day yesterday worshiping the Lord together, worshiping our risen Savior. I trust that today gets off to a good start, your week gets off to a good start today, and doing so in the Word.

Guilt, Sin, and the Need for Forgiveness

Today in our Bible reading plan, we're reading 1 Samuel chapters 12 through 14. There's a passage in chapter 12 that, when I read about it, I thought of a couple stories that I heard of recently. One of them was a young man who, in his late teen years, had a girlfriend.

He wasn't a believer at the time, and he and his girlfriend got hot and heavy, and next thing you know, she's pregnant. She then left him, broke up with him, and moved away. He said, I have no idea where she is, I have no idea where my child is, I haven't heard from him since.

He, for years, dealt with the guilt of what he had done in that sin. The second is a similar story, but from a woman's perspective. In her youth, she was quite loose and profligate, had multiple partners, and as a result of those relationships, in one of those relationships, she ended up getting pregnant, and she chose to have an abortion.

She, again, spent years dealing with the guilt of that, and trying to manage that guilt in just various ways, and was never successful in doing so. Both of these individuals were not successful in doing so until they came to Christ, and until they dealt with the reality of their sin.

Israel's Demand for a King and Their Repentance

Where that ties in to the passage in 1 Samuel that I want to look at is what happens in chapter 22. Just as a little bit of background, you remember the Israelites, they got looking around, and they looked at all the other nations, and all the other nations had kings.

They didn't have a king, and so they came to Samuel and said, give us a king. We want a king. They were not happy with a theocracy, having God as their king. They wanted their own king, like all the other nations, and so they insisted upon it.

Samuel went to God about it. God said, give them what they ask for, and God led Samuel to the choice of Saul as a king. Then they're going to suffer some consequences for that behavior, for that rebellion against God.

But here's the point. In verse 19 of chapter 12, 1 Samuel 12, I think I mistakenly earlier said 1 Samuel 22. Anyway, 1 Samuel 12, in verse 19, all the people said to Samuel, pray for your servants to the Lord your God that we may not die.

Why would they say that? Because they have an overwhelming sense of guilt. Here's why. They say, for we have added to all our sins the evil of asking a king for ourselves. So they acknowledge the sin that they have committed, and they are repentant for that sin.

They're asking for forgiveness of that sin, and what's the result? What's the outcome of that? Samuel says to the people, do not fear. You have done all this wickedness, yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart.

What's Samuel saying? Yes, you have committed great wickedness. It's right that you acknowledge that. But then he says, from here on out, don't fail to serve the Lord. Don't turn aside from following the Lord.

Move forward from here. He goes on to say, do not turn aside, for then you would go after empty things which cannot profit or deliver. They are nothing. But then he says this, for the Lord will not forsake his people for his great namesake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you his people.

God's Grace to Move Forward After Confession

Alright, so listen. Has the Lord made you one of his people? By his grace has he saved you, redeemed you from your sin, made you his child? Alright, then here's the thing. If you have sinned, and you know you have sinned, and you have taken that sin before the Lord, and you have confessed it, you have acknowledged it, just as these Israelites did when they say, we have added to all our sins this evil.

If you have come before the Lord and you said, I have added to my sins this evil, then the Lord says, fear not. Fear not. That sin is dealt with. That sin is taken care of. Now, get up and move forward.

Get up and move forward. Move forward with the determination that from here on out, I'm not going to turn aside from following the Lord. The Lord has made me one of his people. I, therefore, will follow him.

Circling back to those two individuals, both of those people came to that understanding, and to that freedom from the guilt and the shame of their sin. The young man ended up becoming a minister, becoming a pastor, and very effective.

The young woman, well, she too came to faith in Christ and ended up prospering in her Christian life, because both were able to see the thoroughness of God's gracious forgiveness, and that he does not forsake those whom he has called to himself.

Complete Forgiveness in Christ

I hope that encourages you today, and realize that our God is a God who forgives even great iniquity. Father, today we do thank you for forgiveness, and that it is complete, and that once sin is confessed and forsaken, we can indeed move forward walking with you.

May we do so, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, listen, have a great Monday. May your week get off to a wonderful start. God bless.