Hi, how can I help?
In this message, I want to share with you about the joy that comes into our lives as a result of receiving God’s forgiveness. One of the major contributing factors to many of life’s problems and anxieties is guilt and shame from not dealing with them properly.
Freedom from guilt and condemnation will produce an overwhelming sense of joy in your live.
Psalms 32:1-7 Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. 2Blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. 3When I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long. 4For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my vitality was turned into the drought of summer. Selah. 5I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,” And You forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah 6For this cause everyone who is godly shall pray to You In a time when You may be found; surely in a flood of great waters they shall not come near him. 7You are my hiding place; You shall preserve me from trouble; You shall surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah
On the other hand a person whose sin is covered and forgiven by God experiences a great joy and blessedness from the Father.
Psalms 51:8-12 Make me hear joy and gladness, that the bones You have broken may rejoice. 9Hide Your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. 10Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. 11Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. 12Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit.
Psalms 16:11 You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
Forgiveness provides freedom from guilt, enables a person to walk in right relationship with God and man, and is the means for restoring a relationship that has been clouded by sin.[1]
In order to really understand how to receive God’s forgiveness it is important for us to have a firm understanding of God’s ability to do so. If we understand His ability to forgive us then we can receive it through faith as faith comes through hearing and hearing through God’s Word.[2]
Psalms 30:5 For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for life; Weeping may endure for a night, But joy comes in the morning.
We need to have an understanding that God really delights in forgiving us of our sins and has great mercy towards us.
Psalms 103:11-12 For as the heavens are high above the earth, So great is His mercy toward those who fear Him; 12As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.
Isaiah 61:10 I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, My soul shall be joyful in my God; For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, As a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
Romans 5:6-9 For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 7For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. 8But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.
Romans 8:1-2 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. 2For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
When John the Baptist saw Jesus coming to be baptized, he said to the crowd, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”[3]
1 Peter 1:18-19 knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, 19but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.
Hebrews 9:11-15 But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. 12Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. 13For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, 14how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? 15And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.
Hebrews 2:14-18 Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, 15and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. 16For indeed He does not give aid to angels, but He does give aid to the seed of Abraham. 17Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 18For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.
Now that we understand God’s ability to forgive our sins through the shed blood of Jesus Christ, all we have do do is simply receive His forgiveness.
As we do our hearts and souls will be filled with an overwhelming presence of His joy. And we will know the joy that comes through forgiveness.
As we purpose to walk in Him and have fellowship with one another, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin.
1 John 1:5-10 This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. 6If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. 8If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.
Receiving His Forgiveness involves the following:
My prayer is that we would all continually walk in the forgiveness that Jesus has gained for us and know the joy of the Lord that comes as a result; and that we would be continually released from any guilt and shame that came about as a result of the sin we formerly walked in.
Evang. Gabriel O Richard
