Word of Salvation – Vol. 24 No. 44 – July 1978

 

The Celebration Of Forgiveness

 

Sermon by Rev. J. Goris, Th.Grad. on Revelation 1:5b-6

Scripture reading: Micah 7:14-20, Matthew 18:23-35, Revelation 1:1-8

Psalter Hymnal: 120; 45:1-3; 55:1-3; 322; 488

 

Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ,

What is the New Testament picture of a Christian?

Is it like this?

“A person who has seen the awfulness of sin but who stands helpless and defeated before it. One who loves the Lord, but who has no power to put his love into action. One who believes in forgiveness and daily asks for it, but who remains burdened with a sense of guilt. One whose Christianity could be typified in the well- known words, ‘Wretched man that I am’.”

Or is it like this?

“A person who knows that where sin abounded, grace, however, super-abounded; who rejoices in his forgiveness and knows the peace of God. One who knows that sin is still present in his life, but who also knows that the power of the new life in the Spirit is stronger than the ‘old man’. One who, in fact, has become useful to God.”

Which of these two resembles the picture of the Biblical Christian most of all? Well?

Isn’t the conservative, evangelical Christian often looking at himself in a rather negative way? Professor Anthony Hoekema wrote a book on this subject that is worth our notice.

One of the key-factors in our understanding of the “new creature in Christ” (2Cor.2:17) is found in our grasp of forgiveness.

Let us busy ourselves with this subject in this service. And let us do that by looking at the marvellous song of praise offered to the living Christ in that first chapter of the book of Revelation: “To Him Who loves us, and released us from our sins by His blood, and He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father; to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.”

That’s something, isn’t it?

That’s worth celebrating!

So, we consider, THE CELEBRATION OF FORGIVENESS,

and we do so under the headings:

1. Forgiveness in our experience;

2. Forgiveness and joy;

3. Forgiveness and worth;

4. Forgiveness and celebration.

1. FORGIVENESS IN OUR EXPERIENCE

Before we start building on the truths of this tremendous verse, we should first do a little excavation work.

How come we so often meet with a negative, defeatist view of ourselves as Christians? Have we really understood our forgiveness?

We can test that by the well-known case of which Jesus speaks in Matthew 18:21-35. The servant who has been forgiven that enormous debt of 10,000 talents (at least $10 million in our currency!), seems to have been impressed only slightly.

How could he possibly have acted the way he did to his fellow-servant who owed him a mere 100 denarii (18 cents)?

Don’t be too quick in condemning this unforgiving servant. What have you understood of forgiveness? Remember that grudge against your fellow-Christian? How many years ago was it that he did you wrong? Or how long did you wait before you spoke again to your wife after that biting remark?

Yet, all that time you faithfully prayed “…and forgive us our trespasses, as WE forgive them who trespass against US”.

How little the reality of God’s forgiveness has penetrated our lives!

Forgiveness, of course, is related to our sins.

Our failure in realising the true wonder of forgiveness often depends on our view of sin. There are two extremes that we tend to go for: on the one hand, we over-stress sin at the expense of grace. For instance, we can dwell on our sins so much that we only see our shortcomings. And our guilt becomes even greater when we can put very few ‘good works’ next to it. We look inwardly and we see nothing but blackness. We can make it still worse by believing we haven’t humbled ourselves yet sufficiently.

To such people we must say, true, we can’t think too lightly of sin, the deceitfulness of sin is great. But…. have you never read “where sin abounded, grace abounded ALL THE MORE… (Rom. 5:20)?

Ah, what wonderful truth!

Thank God I don’t have to stop half-way in that verse!

Sang Charles Wesley:
    “Plenteous grace with Thee is found,
      Grace to COVER ALL my sin.”

Now, to come to the other extreme in our view of sin, there is the under-stressing of sin. We can say ‘Pardon me’ to God with the same ease as we say it to our fellow-men. We can regard it as quite natural that God should forgive our sins, as if it were His ‘job’. A superficial view of sin creates a superficial view of forgiveness.

The Bible brings out a beautiful balance. Look at Psalm 32 for instance:
   “How blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven,  
      whose sin is covered!
    When I kept silent about my sin,
       my body wasted away through my groaning all day long.” (vss 1 & 3).

Or take Psalm 130:
    “Out of the depths I have cried to Thee, O LORD.
       Lord, hear my voice!…
     If Thou shouldst mark iniquities,
       O Lord, who could stand?
     But there is forgiveness with Thee,
       that Thou mayest be feared.” (vss 1-4).

Well, it is with that testing of forgiveness in our experience that we must look at our text.

2. FORGIVENESS AND JOY

“He loves us and released us from our sins.”

We have been released out of our sins!

Our sins held us prisoners. We were up to our ears in debt, and our debt was increasing, every day. It was a hopeless situation. The burden of our sins held us down.

Can anyone live like that? (Or haven’t you discovered yet that sin does that to you? And that feeling of frustration of missing the mark, and disappointing yourself, and others, and most of all your God! We hope you have felt that.)

Well, take courage! There is One Who has released us from our sins: Jesus Christ! He has liberated us to live. And at what cost? “By His blood”. He paid for our liberation with the price of His life. We can get so used to that, that we cease to be amazed. He was under no obligation to us at all. We did not even want Him. If He had not persisted in making us see what we were headed for, we would still not want Him. We would still reject the costliest sacrifice of all time!

Grace is really “the greatest gift for the least deserving”.

And all that because “HE LOVES US”. That drove Him to do it all, nothing else.

Now, isn’t that a reason to celebrate? And doesn’t celebration mean JOY?

Forgiveness and joy go together.

Note how David puts it in the 51st Psalm:
  “Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
   Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
   Make me to hear joy and gladness,
   Let the bones which Thou hast broken rejoice.” (vss 7 & 8).

And again, in that same Psalm, “Restore to me the joy of Thy salvation.” (vs 12)

The Bible is full of it. The Prophet Micah rises to great heights of joy in the closing words of his book:
   “Who is a God like Thee,
     Who pardons iniquity?
     Yes, Thou wilt cast all our sins
        into the depths of the sea.” (vss 18 & 19)

Hear Isaiah in chapter 44:22-23…
   “I have wiped out your transgressions as a thick cloud,
     and your sins like a heavy mist.
    Return to me for I have redeemed you.
    Shout for joy, O heavens,
      for the Lord has done it!
    Shout joyfully you lower parts of the earth;
    Break forth into a shout of joy, you mountains,
      O forest and every tree in it;
     for the Lord has redeemed Jacob
      and in Israel He shows forth His glory.”

And what about the Apostle Paul, in Romans 8:1? “There is therefore now no condemnation for them who are in Christ Jesus.”

And YOU, can YOU join in with those many others, and sing: “To Him Who loves us, and has released us from our sins by His blood…. To Him be the glory!”

CAN YOU? But it doesn’t stop there. There is more yet! There is…

3. FORGIVENESS AND WORTH

“He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father.”

You see, He doesn’t stop at forgiving us. He appoints us to the highest service possible: kings, priests!

So often we have a negative picture of our Christianity: we are good-for-nothings, we still feel guilty and worthless! But we are not worthless! HE made us kings and priests. What worth!

It is true, we are UNWORTHY of all that honour that God heaps upon us, we don’t deserve it, but we are not without worth NOW.

Shame on us if we think we are USELESS!

Then we haven’t understood much of our salvation.

KINGS (think of that!)… ruling with Christ, or are we serving a lost cause?

PRIESTS (think of that!)… privileged to come into the presence of a holy God, pleading for the needs of this world, presenting ourselves to God for WHOLEHEARTED service.

God has the greatest use for us. His forgiveness is so complete that He restores us to a a place of honour. You see it expressed beautifully in the case of the Prodigal Son. He is received back, there is a new robe for him, shoes for his feet, a ring on his finger, and the fatted calf to celebrate it!

And so, WE MUST celebrate.

4. FORGIVENESS AND CELEBRATION

“To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen”

There is good reason for that. God deserves the praise for that great salvation. And do we praise Him by saying that we are still ‘miserable sinners’? That would imply that God did a poor job in saving us. We are sinners still, but redeemed sinners, forgiven sinners, justified sinners, sanctified sinners, and children of God, heirs with Jesus Christ, His brothers, kings and priests!

“To Him be the glory.”

Surely that is not just singing your psalms and hymns to Him.

It is to boast a little less about your knowledge of the Bible when it doesn’t square much with your life.

It is to boast a little more about the fact that He is everything to you.

It is to give credit where credit is due, and that is to Him Who loves you and has released you.

It is to show that you can love your brother who is so unkind to you at times.

To Him be the glory, that is, to show that you have understood something of ALL that He has done for you.

And that, we hope, does not leave you cold!

Amen!