Receiving God's Forgiveness

When the Spirit of God convicts you of sin. His entire purpose and entire motive is redemptive. When Satan comes and accuses you, perhaps, of the same sin. The purpose of Satan is to destroy you. Welcome to a new as we begin a new Revelation chapter 12, Satan is called the accuser of the brethren you accuses us of breaking God's law and the difficult truth is that we have guilty as charged. Satan doesn't have the last word nurse Dr. RC Sproul from his series guilt and forgiveness. Continue now with our brief study of the relationship between guilt and forgiveness. You recall that at the beginning of this series so I labored the point that there is an important difference between guilt and guilt feelings in the distinction that we made at that point was the difference between that which is objective and that which is subjective, namely guilt itself is objective and it is determined by a real analysis of what we have done with respect to law. When a person transgresses a law then that person incurs guilt and wears concern mostly here. However, with the transgression of the law of God and any time we break the law of God. We incur objective guilt, we may reject the guilt.

We may deny the guilt. We may seek to excuse the guilt but the reality is that we have the guilt and the guilt feelings may or may not correspond proportionately to the objective guilt and I would say that in most cases, not all cases they do not correspond proportionately because as painful as guilt feelings may be, and we've all experienced the rigors of unsettling guilt feelings, I don't think any of us have ever ever felt guilt in direct proportion to the actual guilt that we have before God, and I think that's one of the mercies of God that he protects us from having to feel the full weight of the guilt that we actually have. But now we want to turn her attention away from guilt to the relationship between forgiveness and feelings of forgiveness, because just as we distinguish between the objective and subjective aspects of guilt so likewise there are also objective and subjective aspects of forgiveness.

First of all, forgiveness itself is objective. If you recall I said the only QR I know of for real guilt is real forgiveness based upon real repentance and real faith, but we may have real and true forgiveness and being in a state before God. Where in his judgment. We have been forgiven, but we still don't feel forgiven and we may feel forgiven when we are not forgiven, and so that makes it very, very sticky, doesn't it, because we want to know. All we really forgiven and we tend to trust our feelings to tell us what state we are in, in the presence of God.

Somebody said to me before our class today. RC I have a friend who says that she lives her Christian life. On the basis of experience and she said what you think of that and I said I think that's a very dangerous thing, because it's like saying, I determined truth by my subjective responses and feelings to and I said to that person.

I said I would much rather that you try to live your Christian life on the basis of Scripture because that is objective truth that transcends the immediacy of your own experience.

I remember many years ago. Going to see a minister to tell him about a struggle I was having with guilt and I went into his office told him what my problem was and he opened the Bible for me to the first epistle of John chapter 1 and he asked me to read this passage out loud and he pointed to verse eight of chapter 1 of first John and so I read it it says this. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. We just pause there from. I said that one of the customary ways that we deal with guilt is to deny it or to seek to excuse it by some process of rationalization here. John is speaking to that scenario when he says if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. We all have sin and therefore we all have contracted guilt and if we deny that we are engaged in perhaps the worst kind of deception, namely self-deception, but when I read that passage, the minister said that's not your problem because you just told me why you came here you came to tell me that you had problem with sin, then he had me read the next verse. If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Finish reading that and he said, what does that mean I said well I know that means ever that 100 times and he said have you confess your sins I said yes but I still feel guilty. He said okay but he somehow about reading first John 19 for me and I looked at him with a puzzled look at that's right ready so I know that I want to read it again so I pick up the Bible and I said okay if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness and finish reading it. I looked at him.

He looked at me and he said so what else in ice will again I thought I told you I understand this passage you have read this passage and I've confess my sin. But I still feel guilty and he said okay will than this time let me have you read first John 19 then he made me read it again. I ended up reading it five or six times and finally got my attention and he said RC hears what the truth of God declares if a B will necessarily follow.

God has promised that if you confess your sins, he will forgive you of your sins and cleanse you of your unrighteousness. Now you don't believe that your forgiven because you don't feel forgiven. He said what are you trusting your feelings, your experience with the truth of God, and I got the message and I remembered it years later when I was in the pastorate and I had a similar experience another human being, came to me just like I going to my pastor was a woman and she told me that she was guilty of a particular sentencing was plagued with this guilty conscience, and so I had her read first. She read it and she said oh I have confess this. She said I have asked God to forgive me of this sin hundred times and I still feel guilty.

What can I do and I said well let me ask you to do something else and she said when I said I think you need to get on your knees and ask God to forgive you again, and she really got frustrated. She said, look, you're supposed to be a theologian, I expected something a little more profound than this kind of advice from you. She said I've already told you that I have confess the sin to God and asked him to forgive me 100 times and I said I'm not asking you to confess that sin to God. I want you confess a difference in she said was that I said I want you to confess your sin of arrogance, arrogance, what you mean arrogance. I've been the most humble person in the world out for dating my breasts. The numbered ball on my face begging God to forgive me 100 times and I said what does God say that if you confess he will forget it. I said so, how many times you have to confess that sin before God. If you confess it once truly repent of it truly confess it before God what is God's able to sizzle, forgive it.

But that wasn't good enough for you. You had to go a second time and say to God run that by me again. I don't really trust your sincerity. I don't really believe God that you mean what you say when you promise that you will forgive me. Or maybe what you're thinking is the free remission of sin's but God offers humbly penitent people may be good enough for gross sinners but not for you.

You're sitting there thinking it can't be this easy. Let other people wallow in mercy and wallow in grace. I have more dignity than that I want to do something to make up for but you can't make forth your debtor can't pay your debts. All you can do is cry unto God. Lord, be merciful to me a sinner and take God at his word and live not by your feelings, but by his truth.

Your feelings are subjective FM his word is objective. It is true and God says I forgive you, you are forgiven.

No matter how you feel and to refuse that forgiveness is an act of arrogance over to calm down and listen to that explanation she fight like.the message this is that I see season I have been unwilling to forgive myself and unwilling to believe the word of God because of my feelings in a civil there's another aspect that enters in Cindy believe in Satan. She said well yes I think so. Again, I know that were living in a time in a culture that has an almost totally secular worldview that has no room for supernatural being that the Scripture takes Satan very seriously and the image that we get of Satan in the New Testament is of one who goes about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he can devour now that image of the lion in biblical imagery is that of a ferocious beast whose strengths far transcends our own and he's on the prowl know Christians tend to think that the work of Satan in their lives is focused or concentrated chiefly on being the tempter because we meet Satan first in the form of the serpent in the garden of Eden as he brings the temptation before Eve. We see them again in the wilderness experience when Christ undergoes his testing period of 40 days, when Satan appears to him and seeks to seduce him with temptation. But what we need to understand as Christians is that the primary work of Satan in the life of the Christian is not temptation, though indeed he does that that's not his chief work. His name means slanderer and his favorite pastime is to be the accuser of the people of God and so he comes to the Christian he comes to the person who knows that the only way that person can stand before God is by resting in grace and on the finished work of Christ and on finding security in God's word of forgiveness and Satan comes like he came before Joshua the high priest in the book of Zechariah calling attention to our dirty garments and accuses us of our sins wisely do that. Why would Satan invest so much time and energy in accusing people who have been forgiven of their sins to paralyze us to rob us of our freedom to take away from us. Our joy and our delight in the free grace of God and this is a sticky thing because God the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin where Satan, the evil spirit accuses us of sin and it may be the same sin, and so how do you know when you are being distressed or disturbed with feelings of guilt, whether the author of that distress is the spirit of God or the enemy.

One way is this. When the Holy Spirit convicts people of sin. He does that to bring us to repentance. And that's not the final goal, but to bring us to reconciliation with God to forgiveness to healing and the cleansing. In other words, when the spirit of God convicts you of sin. His entire purpose and entire motive is redemptive. When Satan comes in accuses you perhaps have the same sin. The purpose of Satan is to destroy you. That's why Paul says in Romans, who shall lay any charge to God's elect its Christ to justify who has died for the ungodly.

And then he goes on to be rhapsodic and safe, who shall separate us from the love of Christ life nor death, nor powers, nor principalities, or things to come.

More things about this.

I want tribulations, life, death, whatever. Nothing can separate us from the love that we have in Christ Jesus.

And so the only way to silence the accuser is to confess our sins before God and believe the word of God, even as Jesus did in the temptation he sent away.

Satan by rejecting his advances with the truth of God. The Bible says, resist him, and he will flee from you. Will the power of resistance that we have is the truth of God. How can you better resist the accusation of a guilty conscience than to say wait a minute, Satan. I have confess that sin and God has forgiven me of that sin and if we resist him in that way. Now we see the roaring lion running down the street with his tail between his legs again. It's a thin line and it takes wisdom and it takes persistence and it takes being saturated in your soul with the truth of God to be able to discern the difference and to be able to walk because we're like David we say to got out. Lord, if thou shouldest mark iniquities who would stand. I couldn't stand. You couldn't stand and the only support system we have for standing for walking for running is the forgiveness that God gives us in Christ.

And so again, what we need is real forgiveness. If the feelings of forgiveness come with it. That's a bonus that we can't live on the basis of our feelings. The gospel is not addressed to's sensuous spirituality but to trust in the objective truth is not Jersey scroll wrapping up his series guilt and forgiveness and mercy will return in just a moment with a final thought, and I hope you'll stay with us as we heard today, many Christians receive God's forgiveness. They have a hard time believing that there forgiven full forgiveness is a reality for those who are in Christ as we wrap up the series today you can see the value of working through this topic in in great depth. Being free of guilt is a critical aspect of the Christian life.

If you have missed any of the series, we be happy to send you the two CD set. Contact us today with your donation of any amount to look at your ministries. Just go to Renewing Your Mind.org or call us at 800-435-4343, we will include a copy of Dr. Sproles booklet titled what can I do with my guilt, he addresses the difference between true and false guilt feelings. So again request the audio series is titled guilt and forgiveness along with a booklet when you call us at 800-435-4343 web address again is Renewing Your Mind.org would like to let you know that you can also find helpful resources when you download the free Ligonier app. There are literally thousands of articles, videos, and devotionals waiting for you there. So if you let us know is like having a theological library right there in your pocket you can get started.

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The simple conclusion to our study today is this, if God forgives you but 11 you are forgiven. That's an objective state of affairs that maybe your friends won't forgive you. Maybe your wife or your husband won't forgive you. Maybe your society won't forgive you. Maybe the government won't forgive you but if God has forgiven you.

You are forgiven. Now remember that when you are forgiven. Forgiveness does not mean that you were never guilty. You can't have forgiveness without real guilt, so forgiveness does not deny the reality of the guilt but rather it releases us from the punishment that we justly deserve from our guilt and we are restored to a healthy and loving relationship with God.

That is the beautiful good news of the gospel and the truth should motivate us to know everything we can know about a God who is that merciful and kind. And that's where Scripture comes. We hope you will be with us tomorrow here on Renewing Your Mind as mercy teaches us how to study the Bible