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[0:00] Forgiveness, just to think the word forgiven, forgiven, think of that. There's power in forgiveness, isn't there?

[0:12] ! And power too in unforgiveness. Think of the power of God's forgiveness today. As we go to 1 John 1. God has the power to forgive you all of your sin. Think of that. Think of this great promise, 1 John 1, verse 7.

[0:30] 1 John 1, verse 7. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship, one with another. And the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanseth us from most of our sin. No? Oh, sorry about that. No? All of our sin. Isn't that a blessing? Amen? All of our sin. Isn't that good? All sin. God's forgiveness is full. It's complete.

[0:59] It's fulsome, isn't it? When we know God's forgiveness, it's full. He doesn't hold anything back in his great grace. And his love, his forgiveness is such that it can transform our very lives.

[1:12] And when you think of God's forgiveness, it takes away that barrier, doesn't it, between us and God. And we can know a closeness to God. There's no thing that he holds against you. When you're forgiven, you're fully forgiven.

[1:25] There's great grace. I know just yesterday we were knocking doors and there was a man there. And it sounded like what he was saying as far as his misunderstanding of salvation.

[1:38] It sounded like that he obtained his salvation by works. And that he maintained his salvation by works. Completely wrong.

[1:49] It's grace. It's grace from start to finish. It's grace, God's awesome grace, from start to end. Our salvation is entirely dependent on that.

[2:02] And it's by that that we can have a closeness to God. And God's grace is greater than all our sin, as the song goes. And he offers his great forgiveness to you, to all who seek it.

[2:13] Think of forgiveness. Think of like the prodigal, enfolded in the arms of the father. The prodigal son. He didn't deserve such a welcome, such an embrace.

[2:26] The kisses on his neck. He stank like a pig pen. And God's grace is pictured there in the father's love, isn't it? How can we know God's forgiveness? How can we know it?

[2:37] One thing's for sure. There's no forgiveness without the blood. The blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanseth us from all sin. Think of Hebrews 9.22. There's no forgiveness without the blood, it says.

[2:49] And almost all things are by the law purged or cleansed with blood. Without the shedding of blood is no remission. Without the shedding of blood is no remission. Now, I looked up the word remission in my dictionary.

[3:01] And remission, it means the cancellation of a debt, of a charge, of a penalty. It's like you go into the bank and they say, your debts are wiped out.

[3:12] Wouldn't that be good? No more mortgage. No more payments to make. No more liability. No more threat that they'll take the house off of you. Cancelled.

[3:22] Paid. It's remitted. It's gone. There's remission for you. And when you might owe someone something, no, your debt's paid. It's cleared. I've forgiven you the debt.

[3:33] What a blessing that would be. And that's what he does, isn't it? And without shedding of blood, there's no remission. There's no forgiveness. Blood must be shed. Death must happen so we can have life.

[3:45] That's the grace of God, isn't it? Without the shed blood of Jesus, there's no pardon. You can't have pardon without the blood shed for you. You know, like this well-meaning man, he didn't know that assurance of the blood shed.

[3:58] He didn't know that assurance of his sins forgiven. He didn't know that assurance of free and full forgiveness of a full salvation in the present tense. It says in Hebrews 9.22, Without shedding of blood, there is no remission.

[4:12] And just about everything required the sprinkled blood. We think of the altar. It required the blood. The mercy seat. The priests themselves anointed, weren't they, with blood all over them.

[4:25] The vessels of the tabernacle of the temple. Everything pretty much had that blood to cleanse, to be sprinkled, to be applied.

[4:36] And like at the Passover too. The blood had to be applied, didn't it? And we can go through life without knowing the forgiveness of God, without knowing the blood applied.

[4:48] I urge you today to trust him. Trust him today. And what does forgiveness look like? The thing of forgiveness, it speaks of reconciliation, doesn't it?

[4:58] People coming together that were at war with each other, that were offended, that were holding some grievance or this or that. And there's a restoration that happens.

[5:09] There's a reuniting that happens. It's like the adulterous woman before her Lord. Think of that. She didn't bring anything to credit herself. God just freely, in Christ, gave her forgiveness.

[5:23] He said, go and sin no more. You're free. What a joy it is to truly know that forgiveness of God, that we can be reconciled with him. Think of forgiveness.

[5:34] It repairs hurts, doesn't it? And there's a release from having your sins forgiven. There's power there. Think. If you go to the bank and, well, there's a zero balance on my loan. Then, well, it's gone.

[5:46] It's cancelled. There's remission. And there's power there for us to have our sins forgiven by God, our Lord. There's power in forgiveness. There's power, too, in unforgiveness as well.

[5:58] If you think on the other side of the coin, some might hold on to grudges or anger, resentment. You know, there's some that are just carrying this monkey on their back, aren't they? This chip on their shoulder.

[6:09] And some people carry this heavy burden that weighs them down. Oh, I've never forgiven that person, what they did to me. And it's powerful, isn't it? Unforgiveness is powerful, too. It weighs people down.

[6:21] It just irks them. They've got this constant shadow in their mind. And forgiveness can release all of that, all of those burdens. You know, it's good, in a way, just to let it go when you have a hurt, a burden.

[6:36] And you'll free your own hearts by that. In forgiving others, you can know that inner peace yourself. You can know that release. And so I urge you today, if there's any here today, you've got some burden, you've got some hurt you're holding on to, you're cherishing some thing that you've not forgiven someone, let it go.

[6:55] Be like Christ. Be like our Lord and let it go. Give it to Him. Forgiveness has the power to heal. Not only our hearts, but our relationships, too. When we forgive, we let go of those hurts and resentment.

[7:08] We release that anger, that bitterness. And we can find God's grace. We can find God's grace ourselves and be forgiven. And we can walk in that grace with others and forgive them as well.

[7:20] Think of our Lord. Forgive them, for they know not what they do. They didn't deserve any of that. And it's likewise for us, isn't it? It's grace that gives us such blessing.

[7:31] And we can find God's grace. We can walk in it towards others, too. Walk in that grace. Like Joseph. Think of the story of Joseph reconciled with his brothers. They really did him wrong.

[7:43] They hurt him. They forsook him. And yet, Joseph reconciled with them. He reached out and he loved them. And everything was behind them.

[7:55] And there's power in forgiveness today. Forgiveness releases that burden that we can have and frees our hearts. And we read Matthew 26 as we come around the Lord's table. It tells us how the Lord speaks to his disciples there.

[8:10] In Matthew 26, 28, it reads, For this is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many, for the remission of sins. There's that word again.

[8:22] For debts cancelled, paid, no charge held against me, no penalty. Everything's paid. Everything's removed, forgiven, forgotten. Our debt is forgiven.

[8:34] You can know that today by faith. Your debt can be cancelled. You can have a clear account that God holds nothing against you. And when you think of, really, the mercy of God, it's so astounding, isn't it?

[8:49] Astonishing, really. And I'm just going to turn to Psalm 103, just for one closing scripture. And think of it that God holds nothing against you when you're forgiven.

[9:01] And even though we are the guilty party, we're like the ones there that were crucifying him. Father, forgive them. If we had been there in that day, who knows?

[9:12] We could have been in that crowd mocking him, scorning him, tearing his beard. We could have been in that crowd cursing him and mocking him and saying, Crucify him.

[9:23] Crucify him. We could have been one of the soldiers nailing his hands and feet. We could have been one of the soldiers whipping his back and hurting him, bruising him, lifting the cross as it jolted in the ground.

[9:37] And then mocking him even more. We could have been one of the mockers. And he says, Father, forgive them. Father, forgive them. Even if we were such a one.

[9:48] Even if we were one of the soldiers that pierced his side. Even if we were one of the soldiers that crowned his head with that spiky, thorny crown. Father, forgive them.

[9:58] He loves you so. He loves you so this morning. And our debt is forgiven even though we are the guilty party. And he is the one offended. He deserves justice.

[10:10] He deserves such that we deserve punishment from him. That he should say condemned, guilty. Yet he says pardoned. You're set free.

[10:20] And we think of the grace of God. It's right through the word of God. Peter denied our Lord three times. Yet he was forgiven. We think of Paul. Virtually a Christian killer.

[10:32] I can't imagine what it would have been like when Paul got saved. And as he went to Damascus to kill the Christians and persecute them. But then he starts preaching Jesus.

[10:45] He's got turned around on that road. He still went the same way. But he was turned around on the inside. Wasn't he? And he became a different man. But imagine if Paul had walked in. You know. If we were the first century Christians.

[10:56] And we knew this man. He was a man who was a hater. And a violent man towards our brothers and sisters.

[11:07] Maybe we would have brothers and sisters that Paul would have dragged away to their death. Maybe we would have had brothers and sisters that Paul would have imprisoned and persecuted and taken their property and hurt them violently.

[11:22] Paul walks in the door. And you think. Oh. That's that man. That's the man. He's hurt the church. And done such damage. And he's hurt my friends.

[11:34] And my brothers and sisters have been hurt by him. And imagine the forgiveness that I've had to show to Paul. That yeah. No. He's a different man now. He's not the same Paul. He's not Saul.

[11:45] He's Paul now. He's a different man. And so God's forgiveness. It transforms lives such that Paul could be so transformed. There's a new covenant here. Many lives are burdened by guilt.

[11:57] They're heavy laden. They've never let go of the guilt. They've never known the pardon of God. Friends you can know freedom from guilt today. If you are such a one. You might say. Preacher I don't know.

[12:08] I've never trusted Jesus as my saviour. I've never known that forgiveness for my sin. I've never known that pardon. That remission. My sin's cancelled and taken away and forgiven.

[12:19] You can know it this morning by God's grace. God's forgiveness is extended to you. And what's more you can live it out too. You can know it on the inside. And you can live it out in your shoe leather. As you walk you walk with him in grace.

[12:32] And there's power in forgiveness this morning. So it's by the shed blood of Calvary's cross. And that's what we want to think about. We can know pardon from all of our guilt and shame. There's power in unforgiveness too.

[12:44] Let it go. There's power in unforgiveness. It's destructive power. There's power that's going to hurt you. There's power that's going to cripple you. Power that damages people. And holds them captive.

[12:55] Rather than holding on to bitterness and grudges and hurts. Having an unforgiving spirit. Give it to God. Give it to the Lord today. Know his forgiveness and extend it to others too.

[13:05] Let it go. And we can know that joy of forgiveness this morning. We can be a people walking in the grace of God. Psalm 103 verses 11 through 12. It says, For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.

[13:25] As high as the heaven is above the earth. You can't touch it. It's so high. I know I was in the Sunday school this morning and Ryder was trying to touch the decorations hanging from the ceiling and he was jumping up and he just couldn't touch some of them.

[13:40] And it's as high as the heaven. It's above the earth. So high. So great is his mercy, it says, toward them that fear him. And as far as the east, it's from the west. Again, you can't quantify that, can you?

[13:53]  So far, so far, hath he removed, removed, our transgressions from us.