FORGIVENESS

THF SUNDAY SERMONS

7TH AUGUST, 2022

 

SERMON

SERMON TITLE:                Forgiveness

SERMON TEXT:                  Luke 11:10 – 12

PREACHER:             Reverend Ebenezer Olawuyi

 

MESSAGE

Those of you who did a little Mathematics know that there are always different factors, there is the constant k and other variables, but the constant remains the same. God is the constant k, He doesn’t change but other variables can come. You and things around you are the variables. These can change but God does not change, He remains the same from years to years (Ps. 102:25 – 27). God remains the same from generations to generations and from eternity to eternity, that is why He is God. He is not the variable factor, He is the constant factor (James 1:17). His Word remains the same and does not lose power (Isa. 40:6, Ps. 12:6). His Word is faithful. He is faithful to Himself, His Word and to us (Ps. 89:34). If anything changes, don’t even think about God because He doesn’t change. It is you, you are the variable factor, so, find out what happened and why it didn’t work. This morning, I want to summarize what God has put in my heart for some time and that I have been sharing with you in the Devotional for two to three days now.

When a person comes to the knowledge of God, he gets born again. The sin that the person has committed which God requires him to confess is not the sin of fornication, lies, theft, etc. Can you confess all your sins? No. When you come to the knowledge of the Lord, the sin He is asking you to confess is not lies, theft or so on. Because of our religious background and inclinations, some sins still affect us. We need to follow the Bible and live the Bible faith, not religion. In John 16:8 – 9, while talking about the coming of the Holy Ghost, Jesus says that He will not leave us comfortless but will send the Holy Ghost and when He comes, what will He do? “He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me;….” The Holy Ghost convicts the sinner not because he has committed fornication, lied or stolen; the sin of the sinner is that he has not believed that Jesus is Lord. He has not accepted the Lordship of Jesus in his life. At that point, Jesus was not yet Lord and master in his life, he was still serving another master – the Devil and that is why he was doing all that he was doing. The Devil is a liar, thief, fornicator, etc. and that is why the sinner does so also. So, the Holy Ghost convicts the sinner of the sin of not believing that Jesus is Lord. So, stop telling the sinner to confess his fornication and lies.

Paul tried to establish this in Romans 10:8 – 9, “…that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” This is the simple salvation prayer. Believe that Jesus is Lord, once you make that declaration, you change your Lordship from Satan to Jesus and Satan does not rule over you anymore. Confess it, “Jesus, you are the Lord, God raised you from the dead and I believe it” – you are saved. Before Jesus died, He preached forgiveness but the difference between when Jesus died and rose up from the dead was that the people before he died only received forgiveness but never became new creations. John the Baptist preached to them and Jesus also did but they only received forgiveness, they didn’t become new creations. That gap between those who were here before Jesus died and those who came up after Jesus died is a big one. Redemption was not brought into play until after Jesus died and rose from the dead. We were not new creations, it was after Jesus died that we became new creations and could understand what redemption means. So, when an armed robber comes and say, “Jesus, I believe that you are the Lord and that God raised you from the dead, I believe you died for my sins and God raised you for my justification. I believe it in my heart and confess you as the Lord”. Like a joke, you may still be looking at that man with his old life but at that moment, he became a new creation. It is a miracle that the world cannot understand, that is why 2 Cor. 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” It’s not as simple as the way you read it, the word “Behold” there is an exclamation – “Wow! Old things have become new. Fornicators, idolaters, etc. have become new.” It is a surprise, an exclamation. That’s what John also tried to explain in 1 John 3:1. It’s a wonder. When a person receives Christ as Lord and Saviour, you become new before the Lord, completely new. Your sins are forgiven and blotted out. No matter what you have done, before God, you have become a brand new creation. You are not reformed nor rebranded, you are a completely new creation. You must see yourself that way, God has forgiven you of your past, don’t live in that guilt any longer. If you have truly believed it, know it, God has forgiven you.

What about the believer who has actually accepted that Jesus has forgiven him but after he has accepted, falls into sin and everyday he comes into a meeting, he confesses the sins he committed last year (the devil puts that thought in his heart – can you remember you committed abortion? Can you remember what you did the other day? And so, every time he keeps on confessing.)? Everyday, you confess the sins of last year, two, three, four years and you keep on repeating it. You know, it’s so amazing, sometimes, it looks religiously nice when you make that confession but the problem is that it erodes your faith and confidence in the Lord. That was the problem of the old covenant, the blood of bulls and goats could not completely remove the sin, rather they kept on going back. There was a consciousness of sin before the Lord. If you live in consciousness of sin, you can never pray the prayer of faith (Heb. 10:22). Any time you come to the presence of God and you don’t come with the assurance that you are clean and holy, your prayers cannot go anywhere, you are just wasting time. You must come with assurance; this issue of remembrance puts doubt and fear inside of you and God does not want you to come into His presence with fear (Rom. 8:15).

The reason for this is that some people want to work their forgiveness. No! You cannot pay for your forgiveness, He paid it all; forgiveness is a gift of grace. Remember the woman that was caught in the very act of adultery and they brought stones, saying, “We caught her in the very act”. They all took stones to stone her and Jesus bent down. By the time He rose up, He said anyone who doesn’t have any sin should take the first stone and throw it, all of them started looking at one another and they went away. Jesus looked at that woman and said, “Woman, where are those who accuse you?” She said, “I cannot find them.” He proclaimed something to her which gave her the power to live above sin. If you don’t have this, you cannot overcome sin. You’ve got to get this, if you don’t get it, you cannot prevail over sin. What is it? The gift of no condemnation. You must know that there is no condemnation for you, this alone is enough to empower you to come before the presence of God for more grace but as long as you still feel condemned before the presence of God, you can’t receive grace to overcome sin.

Forgiveness is a gift, you can’t earn it. Romans 8:1 – 3 says, “There is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death, for what the law (rules and regulations) could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh… that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” Now, no condemnation, you are free. The Bible says that woman, that great sinner came to Jesus and broke the alabaster box of costly ointment, anointed Jesus’ feet and used her hair to clean it. The Pharisees around Jesus said if He had been a righteous man, He would have known that she was a sinner. They did not understand that a sinner can become a saint.

Friends, listen to this. You cannot overcome sin when you still live a life of condemnation. The power to go and sin no more gives you grace to live above sin. He told that woman, “Go and sin no more”, but before He said it to that woman, He said, “I have not condemned you”. You must have the gift of no condemnation before you live above sin. You can’t claim to live above sin without the gift of condemnation. You are still condemning yourself and living in guilt? You cannot overcome that sin. That was the problem of the people of old, the consciousness of sin kept them in bondage (Heb. 10:1 – 4 ). That picture comes to your mind again, the Devil says to you, “You remember last year, you  stole that phone…” I hope you know that if you steal a phone, you have to return it. You can’t take somebody’s husband and say, “God has forgiven me”, you need to do restitution, like Zacchaeus said, “Everything I have taken, I will return it”. Don’t hold on to it.

There is forgiveness, God is a gift to you. As long as you still keep remembering the sins, you cannot have boldness to pray. God wants us to pray a prayer of faith and to come to Him with the full assurance of faith, not with condemnation. “I have been forgiven, not because of what I have done but because he paid the price of my forgiveness” (1 Cor. 15:17). You’ve got to proclaim that Satan can’t condemn you, that’s what gives you the assurance to be able to pray. Sometimes, some people say, “Declare three days of fasting and prayer to ask for forgiveness”, that is unscriptural and unbiblical. Some people do it religiously – “God, forgive me all my sins”, sweating on it for one hour. The next day again, “God forgive me”. If it is the same God I am preaching about, it’s not the same God you are calling or you are living under guilt and self-condemnation. When you genuinely repent… and the interesting thing about Christianity is that you don’t need to get home before you ask for forgiveness. We are children of God and have a monitor inside of us, that is, the inner witness. Every child of God has a monitor, a conscience that is alive. If you have exaggerated, immediately you know it inside of you that you have said what you are not supposed to say. If you have lied, you have a monitor inside of you and immediately you know it. If you have touched what you are not supposed to touch, immediately, you know it, your conscience is alive. Anytime you go wrong and goof, immediately you know it. You don’t need to get to Church before you ask for forgiveness, what if you died on the way? Immediately, just tell God, “Daddy, I am sorry. I hurt you, please forgive me. I am sorry, I receive my forgiveness in Jesus name.” That’s okay! Believe it. God wants you to acknowledge your sins and ask for forgiveness, after it, you are forgiven.

Why do you remember what God has forgiven (Isa. 45)? If your judge who has the power to condemn you say, “I release you”, why do you condemn yourself? Don’t play religion, play Christianity, that’s the Word of God (Ps. 103:12). Can I tell you? If you have genuinely asked for forgiveness at any time, maybe the time you gave your life to Christ, when you committed that sin or the sin you committed before you came here this morning, God cannot even remember. It’s amazing. So, don’t let the Devil talk you out of your blessing. Believe God and pray with the assurance that God heard you.

Isaiah 1:18 – “‘Come now, and let us reason together,” says the Lord, “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” Can you see? There is no sin that God cannot forgive, if you can just say you are sincerely sorry. He forgives, releases you and you are free. If I tell you that you are holy and you say, you are still working towards holiness and are not holy; when God says you are free why are you still condemning yourself? Why are you playing religion? (2 Cor. 5:21) He called you righteous, why then are you calling yourself unrighteous. Some people think it’s too big to call themselves saints, righteous and holy, why are you living under religious cloak? God says you are righteous but you want to achieve something before you are righteous? God sees you before He declared you that way. If you have been perfect before He declared you righteous, then the grace would have been in vain. He called you and he has given you grace on a daily basis to live righteously. In the process, you may fall, rise, fall and rise, but He trains you to be perfect and be who you should be, there is grace on you. So, don’t live under that condemnation, you are what God says you are. Say, “I am what God says I am. Satan you can’t talk me out of my blessing. I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, there is no condemnation for me because I am now in Christ Jesus. I am justified, forgiven, my sins are no longer with me. I am a Child of God! Hallelujah!”

Every day, say it that you are justified, forgiven, righteous, holy and a child of God. When you say these things, it gives you boldness to be able to pray. You can come and say, “Father, this thing belongs to me, I need it”, but when you come with guilt, you kneel down and just remember what you did last year, you suddenly become weary. The prayer does not go above your head and God does not answer the prayer that is not of faith. Some people say God is punishing them for the sins they committed three years ago; they are sick and instead of praying for their healing, the Devil is condemning them that God is punishing them with sickness. That’s why they cannot pray for healing because they feel condemned. They say, maybe that is what will kill them because it seems God has not forgiven them. When you are sick, pray with boldness, don’t let the devil cheat you (James 5:15). Why do you want to allow the devil to destroy you? Some people cannot pray confidently because they think God is punishing them.

God won’t punish you or kill you because of the sin you have confessed, except you have not confessed it and are still living in that sin, such can bring sickness, death and weakness (1 Cor. 11:30). Those who have not confessed their sins and are not genuine can open the door for the Devil to do these to them. I am preaching Bible faith, not religious faith, believe the Word of God. Psalms 107:17 – 20 say, “Fools, because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, were afflicted. Their soul abhorred all manner of food, and they drew near to the gates of death. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them out of their distresses. He sent His word and healed them and delivered them from their destructions.” Do you know what brought them to that situation that they could not even eat, drawing near to the gate of death? But when they repented and cried to God for Mercy, the Bible says, the Lord sent His Word and it healed them. Don’t let the devil talk you out of your favour and healing. No matter what you have done, tell God you are sorry and genuinely repent, don’t go back to it again and once you do that, turn to the Devil and say, “Satan, you don’t have the right to hold me, I have been forgiven and justified, get behind me”, he will listen and get behind you, but if you keep claiming it is because of your sin that things are hard for you and your business is going down, you are just allowing the devil to cheat you.

Live with this understanding. You are new before the Lord, so pray the prayer of faith. We are children of God, we are marked out and special before him. We are royal priesthood, holy nation, His own special people. We are not ordinary, we are precious, honored and loved, so loved to the extent that God gives people for our lives. You are not ordinary, the mark of the Lord Jesus is upon you, know who you are. Hallelujah!

Prayer

• I receive the gift of no condemnation in the name of Jesus. I refuse to condemn myself because You have forgiven me.
• I refuse to work for my forgiveness. I receive it in the name of Jesus.
• Begin to rebuke every guilt, condemnation and attempt of the enemy to hold you down.
• I want you to declare who you are before the Lord. Say it after me: “I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. I have been forgiven and justified. I am a child of God, precious in His sight, honoured, loved, blood-washed, righteous, blessed, heaven-bound, not a sinner, no longer under condemnation in the name of Jesus.”
• Tell Satan to get behind you from today. Say, “By the word of my mouth, I judge you Satan, you cannot condemn me, you cannot accuse me again.”
• Say it after me: “Father, I receive your grace to walk in the light as you are in the light in the name of Jesus. Sin will no longer have dominion over me. I am no longer under the law, I receive grace to do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I receive your enablement, grace and help in the name of Jesus.”

If you are yet to receive Jesus as your Lord and Saviour and receive forgiveness from God, put your left hand on your chest and say, “Lord Jesus, I receive you into my life and accept you as my Lord and Saviour. I believe you are God and you died for my sins, I am saved. In Jesus Name I prayed.”