GOD'S EVERLASTING FORGIVENESS

MARK 2;1-11--[TURN]. VERSE 1 [READ]-After the first tour in Galilee, Jesus is back in the city, which is His Headquarters, for the work in Galilee.

''He was in the house''--phrase means that He was at home, in the home of Peter, now the home of
Jesus.

People spread the rumor--''He is at home; He is indoors.''

Verse 2--[Read]-The house door opened into the street, not into a court, as did larger houses.
The house was packed inside, and there was a jam outside.

Verses 3-4--[Read--Verse 4--They uncovered the roof;
They un-roofed the roof [only time used in The New Testament].
They climbed up a stairway, on the outside, or ladder, to the flat tile roof, and broke up the tiles.

There tiles of lath and plaster, and even slabs of stone, stuck in, for strength, that had to be dug out.
The roofs were a composition of mortar, tar, ashes and sand, spread on the roofs, and rotted hard and grass grew in the crevices.
On the roofs, of The Poor, in the country, grass grew readily, and goats could be seen, on the roof, cropping it.

''They let down the bed''--The Greek Verb means to lower from a higher place, as from a boat.
Each Man had a rope, tied to the corner of the bed [pallet].

Verse 5 [Read]--''Their Faith''--The Faith of The 4 men, and that, of the man, himself.
There is no reason, for excluding his faith.
They all had confidence, in the power and willingness of Jesus to heal this desperate case.

''Forgiven''--his sins had caused the paralysis.

Verse 6--[Read]-- These Scribes [and Pharisees-Luke 5;21] were there, to cause trouble, to pick flaws in Jesus' Teaching and Conduct.

His Popularity and Power had aroused their jealousy.
Their looks gave them away--Jesus knew their thoughts, and perceived their reasoning--no sound had come, but feeling did.

Verse 7--[Read]--''He blasphemes''--This is The Charge in their hearts, which Jesus read, like an open book;
They justify the charge, with the conviction that God Alone, has the power, to forgive sins.

The Greek Word for ''Blasphemy'' means injurious speech, or, slander.

They held, it was blasphemy for Jesus, to assume this Divine Prerogative.
Their logic was correct.
The only one flaw in it, was The Possibility that Jesus had a peculiar relation to God, which justified His Claim.
So the 2 forces clash here, as now, on The Deity of Christ Jesus.

KNOWING FULL WELL THAT He had exercised The Prerogative of God, in forgiving the man's sins, He proceeds to justify His Claim, by healing the man.

Verses 8-10 [read]--The Scribes could have said, either of the alternatives in verse 9.
Jesus could say either with equal effectiveness.
He chose the harder first--the forgiveness which they could not see.

So, He now performs the miracle of healing, which, all could see, that all could know He really had the authority and power, Here and now, on Earth, to forgive sins, without waiting for The Day of Judgment.

Now, There are three aspects to God's Forgiveness of Sinners, whom He has elected to
Salvation;
[1] Everlasting Forgiveness
[2] Restorative Forgiveness
[3] Governmental Forgiveness.

Everlasting Forgiveness occurs at Regeneration.
Restorative Forgiveness is for the continual cleansing of The Believer.
Governmental Forgiveness is for The Children of God, who have sinned, and been restored to
Fellowship.

EPHESIANS 2;1-3--[TURN]. Verse 1--We were spiritually dead.
Verse 2--For a period of Time, We walked after The World System.

''According to the prince of the power of the air''--Satan is pictured Here, as the ruler of devils, and other forces of Evil.
In John 16;11, Jesus called him, ''The Prince of this World.''

''The spirit that now worketh''--Those who deny the existence of A Personal God successively deny the vicious tendencies, the crime waves, in modern men.
The power of the devil, in men's lives, explains the evil at work, ''in the sons of disobedience.''

Verse 3--[Read] ''Among also we all had our conversation''==''We all once lived.''

''Desires''= wishes, will of the flesh, or, of the mind.

''OBJECTS OF WRATH''--This is the condition of every man outside of Christ.
Yet, God intervenes, and He everlastingly forgives those, He elected to Salvation--
Ephesians 2;4-5--[Turn].
It is all of Grace, because All were dead.

Jesus' Blood is The Foundation of that forgiveness--Ephesians 1;7--[Turn].

David, a child of God, cried to The Lord, for Restorative Forgiveness, recognizing that, None can stand, in The Presence of The Lord, if God marks iniquities--
Psalm 130;3-4--''If thou, LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand/ But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.''

But Sin is not necessarily done with, when it is confessed, and when the sinner is restoratively
forgiven.
David yielded to his flesh, when he committed Sin, with Bathsheba, and had Uriah killed;
thus, he experienced Governmental Forgiveness.
The Sword never departed from his house--
2 Samuel 12;10--''Now, therefore, the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife.''

Just so, even though Christ's Blood cleanses from all Sin, if One sows to his flesh, he shall reap Corruption--
Galatians 6;8a--''For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption;'' ''Corruption''--Nature writes in One's Body, The Penalty of Sin.

The Lord Jesus has the power to forgive Sin. In Mark 2;5, He told the palsied man, ''Thy sins be forgiven Thee.''
In Verses 6-7, The Scribes knew, that God Alone, could forgive Sin, but didn't recognize Christ's Deity.
It is beautifully appropriate, that the designation, ''Son of Man'' is used in Verse 10--
Verse 10--''The Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins.''
The Saviour has has power to forgive sin, not only as The Son of God, but as The Son of Man,
Who came, to be The Surety of The Elect.

The Eternal Son of God assumed a human nature, and was given the title, ''Son of Man.''
He was more than ''A'' Son of Man--He was ''THE Son of Man.''

Acts 5;31--''Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a prince and a saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.''

Jesus Christ does NOT set the sinner free, by a simple exercise of His own authority.
That would violate obligations of Law and Demands of Justice, and Holiness.
The LORD Jesus paid the penalty for sin.
He fulfilled The Law, and satisfied Justice double, or, twice--
Isaiah 40;2--''Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and say unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned; for she hath received of the LORD double for all her sins.''
Let's contrast this with the lost--Revelation 18;1-6--[Turn].
It's either double forgiveness, or, double punishment.

In Mark 2;7, The Scribes accused The Lord of blasphemy, because they did not recognize that He is The Eternal Son of God.
But because, Jesus Christ is The Only Mediator between God and Man, HE WAS NOT
BLASPHEMOUS.
Ha He not been Divine, their accusations, would have been true.

To help men make the equation between The Man, Jesus Christ, and The Godhead, Christ performed a miracle, to prove He was The God-Man.

JOHN 20;23--''Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them, and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.''
The Lord Jesus spake this, to His Disciples, BEFORE The Holy Spirit came, in His Abiding Presence on Pentecost.

NOW, PLEASE PAY CLOSE ATTENTION.
The Disciples WERE NOT GIVEN the Power, to effectually, or, to authoritatively remit sins;
THEY COULD ONLY DECLARATIVELY REMIT THEM.

NO MAN, HAS EVER HAD THE POWER, TO EFFECTIVELY, OR TO AUTHORITATIVELY PARDON SIN. . .
GOD, ALONE, CAN DO THAT. . .

Under The Law, The Priest ONLY PRONOUNCED A Cleansed Leper Clean.
The Priest was God's Representative on Earth, to declare that God had cleansed The Leper.

Likewise, NEW TESTAMENT MINISTERS, ONLY PRONOUNCE, THAT A PENITENT
BELIEVER'S SINS, HAVE BEEN FORGIVEN, BY THE SOVEREIGN GOD.

DIVINE FORGIVENESS IS THE ETERNAL, IMMUTABLE PLAN OF GOD.
It IS NOT an act of excited sympathy.
Man's Forgiveness is generally excited by sympathy for The Offender.

DIVINE FORGIVENESS IS IRREVERSIBLE, WITHOUT LIMITATION.
Every Sin, A Christian shall commit is abundantly pardoned by The Lord.
In Contrast--Man's Forgiveness is limited;
It is not an irreversible plan.

DIVINE FORGIVENESS OCCURS WITHIN A BELIEVER--Grace works a change, in his heart.
Man's Forgiveness, however, is outside an offender.

When God forgives, He forgets the forgiven one's sin.
Forgetfulness with Man, is a defect.
With God, It is an attribute.

God never compares His Forgiveness with Human Forgiveness.
Scriptures state instead, that He puts The Forgiven Person's Sin, BEHIND His Back, as far as the east is from the west, and cats The Sin into the depths of the sea--
Psalm 103;12--''As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.

Isaiah 38;17--''Behold, for peace I had great bitterness; but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption; for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.''

Micah 7;19--''He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.''
Divine Forgiveness so far excels Human Forgiveness, that no human analogy, can illustrate it.

Now, Get This Truth; THE NON-REMEMBRANCE OF SIN IMPLIES FORGIVENESS--
Hebrews 8;12--''For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.''
God's Forgiveness is so complete, that He describes it, as not remembering The Forgiven Man's Sin, iniquities, and transgressions.

With God, Forgiveness is tantamount to forgetting A Person's Sins.
He does not store remembrance of it, in His Mind;
He does not think over The Sins of His People.
Their iniquity is removed, and The Righteous Judge has no judicial memory of it.

Man, however, exercises his memory, to meditate on it, and to lay up in his mind.
He may have almost forgotten a certain thing, but then, some incident occurs, and it recalls the event to his mind.

Now Get This Truth; DIVINE FORGIVENESS SIGNIFIES THAT, GOD WILL NEVER SEEK ANY FURTHER ATONEMENT--
Hebrews 10;18--''Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.''
God will never again punish what He has already punished.
What He has forgotten, CANNOT BE REMEMBERED.

Those, WHO DO NOT HOLD to The Biblical Theology, say, that any father would forgive his child.
That statement is based upon a misunderstood and mis-appreciated concept of The Fatherhood Of God and The Brotherhood of Man.
2 Flaws are apparent in this Liberal View;
First of all, GOD IS NOT The Father of all sinning, wicked Rebels--
John 8;44--'' Ye are of your father, the devil.''
Second, GOD IS MORE THAN The Creative father of Individuals.
A Private Being may forgive private wrong, irrespective of The Settlement of Judgment.

However, God is The Great Public Governor of The Universe.
Sin against His Government cannot be forgiven, APART FROM SACRIFICE.

Now Get This Truth; FORGIVENESS DOES NOT INDICATE REMISSION OF PUNISHMENT.
Jesus Christ was punished, in the place, of those elected in Him.
He became Surety for those, The Father gave Him, in The Covenant of Redemption.

Every recipient of Grace knows that GOD'S FORGIVENESS IS THAT, OF RECONCILIATION.

Now, Listen, to This;
THE BIBLE DOES NOT SAY, that God forgives, because He is Loving and Merciful.
The Scriptures testify, that He is Faithful, and Just, and He forgives, on that basis--I John 1;9--[Quote].
God's Justice must be satisfied, and it is satisfied, in The Person of The Lord Jesus Christ.

You see, GOD FORGIVES IN LOVE, BECAUSE HE PARDONS IN JUSTICE.
Gracious Forgiveness harmonizes with The Wrath of The Sovereign.

Sin must be punished, and God's Wrath, must be poured out.
Jesus Christ was made an offering for sin.
He stood in the place of sinners, bearing their justice punishment.

Gracious Forgiveness harmonizes with The Love of The Holy Father.
Since Justice was satisfied in Christ's Sacrifice, Love can be extended to God's Chosen Ones, and
Mercy can operate, to bring them to Christ.

The Greek Verb for Forgiveness signifies A Sending Forth, or, A Sending Away.
The Greek Noun indicates Dismissal, or Release.

Divine Forgiveness enables the believer to know, with full assurance of Faith, that his sins are forgiven.

The Grace of God reigns, and The Riches of Grace are seen in Divine Forgiveness.
It is absolutely perfect.
The Following make it so;
[1] The Repentant Sinner is fully forgiven.
[2] He is freely forgiven.
[3] He is everlastingly forgiven.
[4] The Forgiveness extends to all, for whom Christ died.
[5] Forgiveness is by faith.
[6] It is irreversible.


Now, Get this; A SINNER WHO KNOWS, HE IS EVERLASTINGLY FORGIVEN WILL AVOID ANTINOMINISM-HE WANTS TO PLEASE GOD-NOT HIMSELF.

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