Positional & Experiential Forgiveness (03/30/2003)

Psalm 32, and while you're turning there, let me review a few things that we've learned in recent days about Thanksgiving.

Do we have a little squeal, or is that this?

Oh, I think it's these lights. Oh, my ears are getting better,

I can hear that. We've talked about several aspects of forgiveness.

One is that imputation must come first, and imputation is an accounting term, which means

God takes our sins and iniquities and transgressions and places them in the body of Jesus Christ on the tree.

And then he takes Jesus' perfection and righteousness and goodness and that about him which pleases the

Father, and he places that within us at the moment of our faith in Jesus Christ.

And so it's an accounting term, it says if he takes our sins out of our account, places it in Jesus' account, and takes his goodness and righteousness and places that in our account.

And so God sees us righteous. He sees us clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

This comes first. And then this allows God's justice to cohabit his mercy.

A lot of people don't understand mercy, but mercy can't just be. Mercy is made possible by this imputation process.

God's forgiveness is actually the removal of sin from the sinner, we've talked about that.

It gives a psychological benefit. If a Christian really understands God's word on this issue, he understands that his standing in his position before God is as a forgiven one, and that his sins have been literally removed from his life.

And this creates a consecrating effect to those who understand it. If you understand that you are forgiven, then you will tend to live as a forgiven one.

We also studied the fact that God's forgiveness has its roots in agape love. Agape love is

God's kind of love that depends on the lover, not the object of the love.

In other words, God does not love us because of who we are and what we do. He loves us because of who he is.

His love stems forth from him, his own self, his own being. It is not dependent upon our actions.

That's agape love. The next thing we learned is that forgiveness is necessary because of the weakness and temporal nature of man, and we learned that his forgiveness and mercy are eternal, which gives us just one of many reasons for believing in eternal security.

And then we learned that his forgiveness is based upon his covenant. Now, I want to go to one other place in the scriptures before we leave this topic of forgiveness.

We've already looked at some of the things that David wrote about in the Old Testament. He seemed to have a

New Testament understanding of forgiveness, not an Old Testament understanding, because the predominant

Old Testament understanding of forgiveness is a covering of sin, and the animal sacrifices did just that.

They covered the sins and they rolled them forward again and again year after year until the cross, and that is the correct

Old Testament understanding. But it's just that David walked with God so closely and loved

God so dearly and sinned so grievously and was forgiven so greatly that he understood forgiveness better than most.

So I want to take us to one other passage that the Holy Spirit has inspired David to write about forgiveness.

Turn to Psalm 31 and verse 1, and you'll see that this passage begins with everything we've studied about forgiveness, the positional aspect of it, the fact that there is a sin in which forgiveness is taught about in the

Bible in a positional way, which means we can't change it. Once we're born again, we stand forgiven.

God has removed our sins as far as the east is from the west. And he starts with that truth, verses 1 and 2, and then he moves, in verse 3, he begins to move into what we call experiential forgiveness, which means you come down in time where we're living here on the planet in time, and we do have times even though we're forgiven when we sin again, don't we?

And when that happens, the thing that we find hard to believe is that from God's viewpoint in the heavenlies, that sin is already forgiven as well.

It's as if that sin had been removed from us before we even did the sin from God's viewpoint.

But from our own viewpoint, from a psychological viewpoint, as we think of sin, we can hardly see it that way.

Only way we know it's that way is because God revealed it in the Bible. The only way we would know that our sins, all of them, all of our sins from the day we're born to the day we die, have already been removed is because God revealed that to us in the

Bible. It doesn't make natural sense to us. That's why a natural man cannot understand the things of God.

Natural man thinks that things should be done fairly and that we should do good works and then

God should reward us and we'd be forgiven on the basis of the good that we do. The problem is that's not the gospel.

The very nature of the gospel, which means good news, is that that's not the way it is.

Because if that were the way it is, every one of us in this room would lose our salvation. Probably within the same day we gained it.

So the very good news is that that's not the way it works. It's not based on our good works.

It's not based even on anything we do from believing to repenting to doing good works.

It's not based on any of that. You'll read books all over the Christian bookstores about how you get saved.

What do you have to do? Some of them will list one thing. They'll say just believe. Some of them will list two. They'll say we've got to believe and repent.

They'll say the old time Baptists included repent. Well you might as well go and say well then you've got to believe, repent and be baptized.

And then you might as well take the Church of Christ approach. Say well you've got to believe, repent, be baptized. You've got to be baptized in Church of Christ water.

And then you have to do good works and then you have to tithe and have church attendance. Where do you stop this nonsense?

You see when you look at salvation from the human viewpoint, there's a great heresy that can come in into believing that you took some part in your own salvation.

Baptists have been proud for years to say oh no, no, no we don't believe in that stuff. We just believe in salvation by faith.

I looked for God, found Him and believed and He saved me. But I didn't do any works. So that means you just think you're more faithful than the other guy.

You see? You see? That doesn't work. Salvation began before the world began.

Salvation began before the universe was created. Salvation began, I believe, even before the great decree.

Although maybe I'm theologically incorrect there. But the reason I say that is because I say that the great decree was there for us, not for God.

God knows we can only think in time. We can't try it for a moment. Try to think of a situation where there is no time.

Where nothing causes anything else. You couldn't move your hand from here to here because that demands time.

You can't have space and distance because if you cross a distance it takes time. We can't think outside of time.

But God is there. And if you go back before the great decree which is when

Jesus came out from the Father and sat across from the Father, if you will, and the two of them made plans for time, even before that the

Father knew you. He knew his own. And the word know in the

Bible carries with it the connotation of a loving, intimate knowledge of you. Before the foundation of the world you were chosen.

And really the choosing was at the great decree which is for our benefit to try to understand it in time.

Actually there was never a choosing because God always knew you as his own.

Now we can't understand that and I understand we can't understand it. But the Bible has revealed it to us.

And so positional forgiveness is based upon the fact that you are

God's child. Charlotte was dealing with one of our children this week and asked a question about sin.

And if you sinned, if you belong to the Lord and you sinned, would you then go to hell if you died? She said, well let me ask you this.

I'm your mommy and if I told you not to do something and you went and did it and I brought you in and I spanked you, would that mean you're not my child anymore?

And they said, no, I'm still your child. So positional forgiveness is where we begin.

But then we move into dealing with forgiveness of sin in time. From a psychological human point of view, we cannot live as God lives.

It's impossible for us to think as if we're not bound by time. So even though all of the sins that we would commit in an entire life have already been dealt with on the cross, the

Bible says in 1 Peter they were in Christ on the cross, on the tree. Your sins were in his body on the tree.

God has dealt with it outside of time. From his viewpoint, it's dealt with, it's done, it's finished. That's why when

Jesus was on the cross right before he gave up the ghost physically, he said, it is finished.

We must start there, but then we move into dealing with it in time. What happens when we sin as a born again believer?

We may fully understand that our sins have been removed, but do we not have a psychological need to come to our father as a little child would and to get right with him?

We have that need. We have to be careful lest we think that the coming to him is what makes it right.

It's not. It's what Jesus did on the cross that day that made it right. But what happens is our hearts just yearn to come and confess sin.

Even our little children understand that. So there is this idea of experiential forgiveness we'll talk about.

We'll see it in this passage. Now look at Psalm 31 .1 and see clearly that he begins with the positional forgiveness.

A psalm of David Moschiel, that's not his last name.

It says, Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.

Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.

Am I in the right place? Didn't I say 32 verse 1? Or did

I say verse 2? It's 32 verse 1.

I suppose if you stick around for this year you will finally see me in reading glasses.

I'm getting there. So I have to have this entirely memorized because I can't see a thing on this page.

Psalm 32 verse 1. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.

Notice the word is, present tense. It means already forgiven, already covered.

You see how that's positional? That's from God's viewpoint. Blessed is the man unto whom the

Lord imputeth not iniquity. Do you see how he brings in these accounting terms? And whose spirit there is no guile.

This word means deceit or treachery. Notice that in this beginning David mentions sin in its threefold definition as we've discussed already.

You have transgression mentioned, which means a revolt. A revolt against God's judgment.

You see sin mentioned, which means to miss the mark. To fall short of the glory of God.

You see iniquity mentioned, which means perversity or evil.

And you see that he says transgressions are forgiven. Now that's interesting because the

Hebrew word for forgiven here is nasal, which means to lift. And sins are covered, kasal, which means literally to cover.

And iniquities are not imputed. Which means they're accounted for.

I think God has us covered, don't you? He has this sin problem taken care of.

And David begins this whole discussion on the basis of positional forgiveness.

We are forgiven because we stand forgiven because God has not imputed the very sins we have done to us.

Who is he imputing the sins to? Jesus Christ, our Savior.

That's why he's called our Savior. He has saved us from our own sins.

He has delivered us from our own sins. He has taken our sins upon himself because he was able and we were not able to pay that price and still live with God forever.

Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity and in whose spirit there is no guile.

The New Testament speaks of dispositional forgiveness in many places.

Keep your hand there in Psalm 32 and look at Ephesians chapter 1 just for a moment. As the

New Testament is the antitype to the types that are given in the

Old Testament, David almost cheated when he wrote some of his psalms because he gave us the

New Testament view of forgiveness before its time. But we see it borne out again and again in the

New Testament. And it is not spoken of in the New Testament as it is elsewhere in the

Old Testament because once again in the Old Testament it was a covering. But in the New Testament it is a removal of sin from the sinner.

Look at Ephesians chapter 1. I want to read a little portion of this because found in this one little passage, you will see the positional forgiveness of God nailed down so clearly.

There are probably ten points in this, any one of which would prove it. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus.

Ephesians 1 .1 is written to born again people. It is written to the elect, not to the whole world.

To the saints which are at Ephesus and to the faithful in Christ Jesus. Grace be to you and peace from God our

Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.

Take any one of these sentences, any one of these phrases and preach a whole message on it.

He has blessed us, we didn't bless ourselves, we didn't save ourselves. He has blessed us with all spiritual blessings and the definition of a blessing is that it is in Christ.

I believe there are no blessings outside of Christ, certainly not for God's children.

I don't know that others have blessings in the true sense of the word. They do have rain that falls on their crops and so forth and I guess we would call that a gift from God.

But these blessings are in Christ. These blessings are for the believer. Verse 4, according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world.

That we should be holy and without blame before him. In love having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his own will.

It was he who wanted to save, not we. We responded to that great love, yes.

And there came a moment in our time, in our life, when we did love the Lord and we did want to be saved.

But it was after he initiated the whole thing. As a matter of fact, this says it was initiated before the world began.

Having been predestinated unto the adoption of children. Do you realize that this takes into account the

Abrahamic covenant? You were predestinated as a

Gentile to be placed into the Abrahamic covenant. The wonderful thing about the Abrahamic covenant, it was made with Abraham before Abraham was a

Jew. He was a Gentile when this covenant was made to him. And we are a part of it.

We are placed into it. When we are placed into Christ at the moment of our salvation.

So it alludes to the Abrahamic covenant in verse 5. Verse 6, to the praise of the glory of his grace gives the whole purpose for your salvation.

Perhaps not the whole purpose, but the main purpose. The main purpose of your salvation is to the praise of the glory of God's grace.

For all eternity, all that is created by God will look at us who deserve hell.

And will see that we are in heaven and they will then look to God's grace. God's grace means unmerited favor.

He saved us when we didn't deserve it. And his grace will be glorified and lifted up and praised because of the saved ones.

That's us. To the praise of the glory of his grace wherein he hath made us accepted unto in the beloved.

God made us accepted. We were not acceptable, but God made us accepted in Christ. In whom we have redemption through his blood.

He bought us with a price and he set us free from the slave market of sin.

That's what redemption means and it's because of his blood which is the price that was paid. In whom we have redemption through his blood.

The forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace.

Unmerited favor, undeserved by us. But coming from his rich grace, our forgiveness of sins is tied in and is inseparable from this idea of redemption in the blood.

You see how it all goes back to Jesus? That's why we say forgiveness is positional.

It's something we have because of our position in Christ. Not because of anything we've done.

Wherein he hath abounded toward us all wisdom and prudence in Christ.

Having made known unto us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself.

You see that this all comes out from God. Salvation is of God, not of man.

That in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together and one all things in Christ.

That's why the Bible says in John 3 .16 that Jesus died for the world.

It includes not just the elect but also the cosmos. The entire created order of things as God created his universe in order.

In the dispensation of the fullness of times he might bring together and one all things in Christ.

Both which are in heaven and which are in earth. Even in him. In whom also we have obtained an inheritance.

Now your forgiveness has to be positional. If it's true that you already have an inheritance in heaven with your name on it and you're not there yet.

No one else can have your inheritance. Because it's your inheritance. So we have obtained an inheritance.

Why? Because we have been predestinated according to the purpose of him.

Not even our own purpose. If we went by our purpose ladies and gentlemen I submit again we would lose our salvation.

Because our own selfish desires would get in the way. But God has never placed that burden upon man.

Salvation is fully and totally of God. And we were predestinated according to the purpose of him.

Who worketh all things you see he is sovereign. That includes the little details that we discussed in Sunday school.

The blades of grass that are blowing when you leave the building today are moved by the finger of Jesus Christ.

It is not left out there and just says well wonder what will happen today. I started it all let's just see where it ends.

That's not God. That's not our God. That's the God unfortunately of the modern church.

The church that preaches that man is at the center of everything. And we come to church to learn how to be successful.

And we come to church to learn this and learn that. And that God is a genie in a bottle that we rub the bottle he comes out and then we pray.

And then we get what we want because we just speak it. Name it and claim it. That's the great doctrine of the modern church.

But I don't find this in Ephesians chapter 1. What I find in Ephesians chapter 1 and the

God inspired word of God is that. In whom also we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of him.

Not us him who worketh all things after the counsel of his.

Not ours but his will. That we should be to the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ.

In whom he also trusted after that you heard the word of truth the gospel of your salvation.

In whom also after that you believed you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.

Another reason forgiveness is positional. At the moment of your salvation at the moment in time that you were forgiven.

Now outside of time with God you were already forgiven as of the day of the cross. Jesus finished the work and your salvation was completed.

But in time from your perspective you received this at the moment of salvation.

And at that moment when you received the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior. The Holy Spirit of God came inside of you and your body became the temple of the living

God. And the Holy Spirit is sealed within you as earnest money in the purchase of a house.

The earnest money is already placed within you. The purchase price has already been fully paid.

And the Holy Spirit is placed within you until the redemption of the purchase possession found in verse 14.

And to the praise of his glory that's the rapture. That's when your body in fact is redeemed.

Total redemption of the purchase price. But the Holy Spirit is placed within you even now today as a seal.

He is sealed within you as a seal of God's promise. As a seal of the total salvation that you have received.

The total forgiveness that you already have. The total removal of sin from the sinner.

And a right standing before a holy God is seen throughout

Ephesians chapter 1. Other places, many places, Ephesians chapter 4 verse 32.

You can turn the pages quickly enough. I want you to notice that the Bible says, And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.

Ladies and gentlemen do you see how this is positional? Long before we discuss experiential forgiveness we need to understand positional.

It's positional because God forgives you not for your sake. But for Jesus Christ's sake.

God the Father sees you as righteous for Jesus' sake.

God the Father sees you as Jesus when he looks at you.

Because he has imputed the righteousness of Christ into you. Like the little black lady said at church that time when she said,

I'm all dressed up in Jesus. It's a great description of how God sees us.

For Christ's sake he hath forgiven us. Colossians 1 .14 says, In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.

It's tied in with the purchase price. And that price has already been paid ladies and gentlemen in full.

You can't add one thing to it. In Colossians chapter 2 verse 13, And you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened.

That means hath he brought to life together with him. Do you understand that this quickening took place the day

Jesus was resurrected from the grave. Almost 2 ,000 years ago. When he burst forth from that grave you were in him.

And your life, this quickening took place because of that. The same power that brought him forth from the grave is what saved your soul and gave you life.

And gives you life today. We are quickened together with him. And look how forgiveness is tied in with this.

Having forgiven you all trespasses. How many is all?

Past, present, future. Every sin you will ever do is already forgiven.

Why is it positional? Because you've already been quickened in Christ. First John 2, 12.

I write unto you little children because your sins are forgiven. It doesn't say will be, shall be.

It says they are forgiven you for his name's sake.

You can read John 17 which was a prayer of Jesus Christ to the Father. And you'll see all about the fact that you are a love gift from the

Father to Jesus. And he said of all of those whom you have given me

I shall lose nothing. It shall all be raised up at the resurrection.

Forgiveness is a done thing. It is a finished work of Christ.

It is a removal of all the sin of an entire life span from the believer.

Romans chapter 8 begins with no condemnation and ends with no separation.

Romans 8, 1. There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.

Romans chapter 8 ends with verse 32. He that spared not his own son but delivered him up for us all.

How shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?

It's God that justifies. Who is he that condemns? It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us.

And then you go to the end of that chapter and you see no separation from God.

Nothing can separate us from the love of God. Now we see how

David when he says, Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity and in whose spirit there is no guile.

David foresees all of these beautiful passages in the New Testament. He understands the concept already.

Now back in Psalm 32 we studied verses 1 and 2.

We then saw in the New Testament how clearly David saw forgiveness.

In fact he was almost teaching New Testament doctrine of forgiveness.

He was teaching the New Testament doctrine of forgiveness when he uses this word imputed. And then only after he clearly shows the positional state of forgiveness he moves into our experience.

Look at verse 3, Psalm 32 verse 3. When I kept silence.

Now David's already made the point. I'm a saved man. I'm a delivered man. I am a man who positionally

I'm already forgiven. God does not impute my sins to me. David knows that fact.

He knows that doctrinal truth. But there's still a need to proceed further into this passage.

Because we live in time. Because our minds think sequentially. Our mind, when we sin, when we go out, if we went out and we sin tomorrow.

We're not instantly going to think outside of time. And think well all of this is gone already.

Because we just did the sin. It's impossible for us to think that way at that moment. And we need to have a mental way to deal with sin psychologically.

And look at verse 3. When I kept silence. David is saying when I sinned.

And then I kept silent about it. I did not bring it before the Lord. I tried to hide it in fact.

Look what happened to it. When I kept silence. My bones waxed old.

Old through my roaring all the day long. For night. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me.

My moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Selah.

Now. This does not take away positional forgiveness.

But it is a part of our existence with God. And you might look at it this way.

And I think Charlotte and Ben covered it so well this week. He said mommy if I disobey

God as a child of God. Will I go to hell? She said well let me ask you this.

If you disobey me. Will you stop being my child? You see forgiveness has two aspects.

And it's taught that way in the Bible. It has the aspect of the father and child relationship.

From the point of view of our position in the family. What you do.

Whether it's a good deed or a bad deed. Does not change your position in the family. All that changes is your fellowship in the family.

Now she might have added this. I'm sure she didn't. But she might have said well Ben. If you disobey me.

Are you still my son? He says yes. And she said but you might get a whooping. And before you get that spanking.

Do you think we're going to be laughing and playing together? No. If I'm home.

If dad's home. They get sent to the study. They may sit in there four or five minutes. That's the hard part. And while they're sitting in there.

Our fellowship is broken. But you know what? They're still my children. And I love them. Obviously just as much.

And my heart's breaking more than theirs. That I have to spank them. And none of us ever believed that.

When our parents told us that. But we expect our children to believe it. Because it's true. But what is it that restores the fellowship?

The spanking. And then the confession. Or better yet.

The confession first. And then the spanking. Doesn't really matter to me which way it happens. It's going to happen.

And the confession's going to come. And you know what? With our father, the same is true. Sometimes it comes first.

And we even avoid a spanking. Sometimes we just keep silent like David does here.

And when we do, our bones begin to roar. We're not at peace on the inside.

We're in turmoil. And that turmoil grows and grows. And it grows each day that we go without confessing this particular sin.

And then sometimes the Lord spanks us just like we spank our children. But it's a whole lot of different ways he can do it.

And then we come to our senses. Like the prodigal son did this morning.

His name was Paul, by the way. Isn't that right? And we come to our senses.

And then we confess. What is confession? It is an agreement with the father that we have sinned.

That what we did was wrong. An agreement with our heart and mind. Now notice that when

David was in a point of silence, he refused to confess his sin. Doesn't mean that his sin's not already removed from him.

He's already spoken about that in verses 1 and 2. But what it does mean is it's on his mind.

And it is staying there and weighing upon him because he has crossed the fellowship in time.

Fellowship happens in time and space with us. And he's broken that fellowship. And when he was in this state of denial, he had physical and emotional distress continually.

And then it says, For day and night thy hand was heavy on me. So God's hand will be heavy upon the saint who has sinned and not confessed it.

And that hand will get heavier and heavier until the point of coming to our senses and confessing.

And then he mentioned a spiritual thirst. He says, My moisture is turned into drought. Like the drought of summer.

He is spiritually in a desert because his fellowship with God is not right.

And he knows it deep down inside. And he may be putting it off and trying to hide it. Not want to deal with the

Lord. Not want to talk about it. How many of you when you were children and you did something you absolutely knew your parents told you not to do, how many of you wanted to run right up to dad and tell him about it?

Dad, I agree with you I shouldn't have broken that window with the baseball. I should have not even been playing baseball there just like you told me not to.

And I'm in full agreement with you. Smile at him. No, you don't do that. What do you do? You run, try to hide that ball, go in the house, pick up the pieces of glass and sweep them under the carpet?

I sound like I know what I'm talking about, don't I? I remember one time

I went in the bathroom and snuck in there and got the scissors out and gave myself a good haircut. Well, I didn't run out and tell my dad,

You know, you were right the other day when you told me to stay away from those scissors. I didn't even have to confess.

My hair confessed for me. And then I got a whooping and then

I figured out what the whooping was for and then I hugged him around the neck and said, I love you, daddy. And he said, I know it, but you can't cut your hair with the scissors anymore.

But you know what? As soon as that spanking was over, we played together. Fellowship was restored.

So we see, when we see this physical, emotional distress, God's heavy hand there and the spiritual thirst, you know what it leads to?

It leads to verse five. Look at it. At that point, David says, then I acknowledged my sin.

What a beautiful definition of confession. I acknowledged to God that my sin was sin.

And mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the

Lord. And thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.

Now, he's already said in verse two that that sin was not even placed to his charge. But in his heart, in his mind, he felt the need to have it removed again, even though it's really already been removed.

So you see a difference between position and experience. We know the truth that our sins are separated from us as far as the east is from the west.

We know that's true. But in our experience, when we sin at this moment, we think that sin is still there.

And so, therefore, we must be led to confess it for our own sakes. And let me ask you this.

Is the spanking really for the father's sake or for the child's sake? The child's.

Is confession really for the father's sake? No, he does not need your confession to remove your sins. What if you died right quick without confessing it?

Would you go to hell? Of course not. It can't remove you from the family. So it's for our sakes.

So, as David acknowledges his sin, he then has the sense in his heart of understanding

God has forgiven the iniquity of his sin, which means he knows that now God and he have restored fellowship.

Confession, an acknowledgment of sin, an acknowledgment of the fact that we missed the mark. Covering of iniquity or perversity.

A removal of transgression or rebellion. All of this should be done by godly people.

And David tells us how it should be done. Look at verse 6. It should be done immediately.

For this, that means hereby, shall everyone that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found.

Isn't that a peculiar verse? What does it mean? Well, it means if you go on as a Christian with unconfessed sin for long periods of time, the enemy,

Satan, will come to you, the accuser of the brethren will come to you and say you're too dirty to pray. And you'll begin to believe him because that's the opposite of believing

God. And therefore, you will continue to postpone this and postpone it and that weight inside your bones and that heavy hand of God will be stronger and stronger and stronger.

And so therefore, David exhorts those who are godly to pray to God in a time when he may be found.

Surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him. In other words, confess the sin before tribulation hits.

Before the whipping is the best time to confess it. So we'll stop there for this morning.

There are a few other verses in this passage we'll deal with one more time and we'll be through with this topic of forgiveness.

But do you see how David moves so easily from verses 1 and 2 which is positional forgiveness, our sins are taken care of by the death of Jesus Christ into verse 3 where he says, well, in time as I commit a sin, how do

I deal with it? I must realize that I need to restore my own mind, my own fellowship with the

Father by agreeing with him that I have sinned. Naming the sins specifically.

Don't ever come to the Lord and just say, Lord, forgive me of my many sins. That won't do this. You need to ask the

Holy Spirit to bring to your conscious mind sins that have gone unconfessed in the past days and weeks.

And as he brings the sins you've done to your mind clearly, you need to name them. And it's not a fun thing to do.

It's not fun for a child. It's not fun for adults when we come to the Father and have to name the wickedness we have done to him and say,

I did this and I know it's guilty. Forgive me. But you know what it's worth?

It's worth that restored fellowship and that restored power for service and ministry and the things

God is using you for in this life. And you're made to be a clean vessel in your own heart and mind.

It's just like Jesus washing your feet. Peter said, well, then wash my whole body. He said, no, you don't need to have your whole body washed.

You're already clean. That's positional forgiveness. But I'm going to wash your feet from the world dirt that's on it.

That's experiential forgiveness. It's both right there. And we need both every day.

Let's stand and have prayer together. Father, we thank you for the beautiful truths of forgiveness.

They are not truths that can be immediately understood by the brand new Christian because they go to the depths of eternity and come from there to us.

And the scope of your forgiveness is both in eternity and a place where there is no time all the way to here where we are in time.

And you've given us the way that both are dealt with by our Lord Jesus Christ on our behalf.

And by the Holy Spirit as he moves our hearts to confess sins that we've committed and to have that fellowship restored.

Father, thank you for the truths you've given us. Help us to apply these in a day -to -day basis.

We ask you to be with us as we fellowship together for a few moments. We ask you to bless the meal we're about to have.

We ask you to bless the service that we're going to have at 4 o 'clock with the

Brown family. May your hand be there to comfort their hearts.

May you give us the right words to say, each of us, as we try to comfort their hearts.

And we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. We'll have

Roger's address up here in about five minutes for you. Amen.