Too many today just claim forgiveness and are told that if they confess their sins, they are forgiven. So thousands upon thousands pray every night and ask for forgiveness for “all they have done wrong” still tomorrow night they pray that same prayer all over! That is not forgiveness – that is not that at all! You will notice when Scripture uses forgiveness it always or many times speaks about the blood, as in Hebrews 9:22, it states that without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness! Why? Because God does not merely forgives someone because he is sorry or because he asks forgiveness! God forgives on the grounds of substitution, someone else had to pay the price or you yourself must pay the price!
Now we can definitely know something about the blood of Christ and forgiveness. The blood not merely covers like the Old Testament offers, but it cleanseth from all unrighteousness! It deals with sin; it never leaves sin undealt with! How do you know your sins are forgiven? How do you know? IF IT HAS BEEN DEALT WITH, if it has been cleansed! You know your sins are forgiven if you have been FREED from that sin! It is impossible that Christ blood can forgive sin and still leaves it undealt with! It is impossible that the Blood of Christ have been applied and sin has not been purged! The forgiveness of sins – “Áöåóéí ôùí áÌ”ìáñôéùí” - the taking away of sins; all the power, guilt, and infection of sin.
Sorrow that did not result in true repentance does not bring forgiveness. We must distinguish in what many deem as sorrow today. We read in 2 Corinthians 7:10-11:
“For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death. For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter.”
Look at the result of true sorrow for sin:
what carefulness it wrought in you (you become careful in how you live and for the things that you do)
what clearing of yourselves (come into the open with hidden practices, love the light and walk in open-facednes!)
what indignation (have a righteous anger and resentment against self and sin)
what fear (it brings the true fear of God into the heart, to abandon evil and to follow truth)
what vehement desire (to please God in all things and to glorify Him)
what zeal (for God and His honour)
what revenge (make everything right that stands between you and God, hate the sin you once loved and love the God you once hated)
“In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter.” This is what it comes down to; to APPROVE YOURSELF TO BE CLEAR IN THIS MATTER OF GODLY SORROW, Did you approve yourself in this matter of forgiveness?
Repentance is not confessing one’s sin at some time in their lives. Repentance is not feeling sorry about something that you have done. It is not even tears. There is a great misconception today about repentance and what it really is.
Some people have “FEELINGS OF REGRET” for something’s that they have done. Feelings of regret are usually things that one has done to himself and then afterwards regret that they have done that specific thing. Repentance is not this feeling of regret. Some may regret that they have lived in a certain way, but because that “thing” has destroyed their lives, they have deep regret for the way they have lived. This type of feeling or regret may cause someone to re evaluate their lives; it is nonetheless not true repentance at all! Someone may stop smoking because they have seen the effects of smoking on their health and now they are quitting that lifestyle, but this is not true repentance because it lacks the very basic element in which true repentance consist.
Then there is “FEELINGS OF REMORSE” over things that some have done to others. Remorse is usually something that someone has done to someone else. Remorse may bring reconciliation between man and man, but not with God. It doesn’t have the element of true repentance.
Every true repentance or conversion has a unique feature: it is THAT FEELING THAT YOU HAVE DONE TOWARDS GOD! It is not mere regret and remorse because of sin and its consequences but it is remorse and SORROW TOWARDS GOD – it is Godly Sorrow!
“That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us” Acts 17:27
As soon as this dimension comes, then it becomes “Godly sorrow” or sorrow towards God that LEADS to repentance that can never again be repented from!
Regret and remorse does not necessarily lead to repentance.
The reason why people repent or are sorrowful makes a world of difference.
We are told in Scripture that Cain has regretted bitterly for what he has brought upon his own life, but he never repented, because he had no Godly sorrow! Many like Cain do have regrets, but it does not cause them to turn from evil and return to God’s Will and Way in Christ! They regret an affair with another woman and the pain and trouble they have cause on themselves and those whom they love, but never because they offended God or any of the seven things mentioned above.
Esau had also remorse but he never find Godly sorrow and repentance towards God!
“Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. 17 For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.” Heb 12:16-17
“Repent ye therefore, and be converted that your sins may be blotted out.” Acts 3:19
“Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the LORD. 15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; … And Joshua said unto the people, Ye cannot serve the LORD: for he is an holy God; he is a jealous God; HE WILL NOT FORGIVE YOUR TRANSGRESSIONS NOR YOUR SINS. 20 If ye forsake the LORD, and serve strange gods, then he will turn and do you hurt, and consume you, after that he hath done you good” Joshua 24:14-20
If someone doesn’t see his sin as “against God” that he has sinned, HE IS NOT A CANDIDATE FOR CONVERSION NOR FOR FORGIVENESS.
Being sorry for sin is not forgiveness or repentance.
“If there is no desire to walk away from sin, the person is not really making a true commitment to the Saviour… If God is drawing someone to him, He would also be drawing the person away from his sin.” Mark Cahill
In Proverbs 28 is laid a very strong case for how anyone can find mercy before God! You need to see that confession AND forsaking the sin that is confessed doesn’t automatically bring forgiveness, but it brings any man who do confess his sins and who do FORSAKE them TO A PLACE WHERE HE FINDS MERCY BEFORE GOD – that is HE FINDS A PLACE WHERE GOD CAN DEAL WITH HIM AND WITH HIS SINS IN MERCY (in Christ!)! It is when the guilty condemned sinner CRY “MIGHTELY” OUT TO GOD FOR MERCY AND TURN IN HEART (SORROW TOWARDS GOD) AND COME ON THE GROUNDS OF CHRIST OWN BLOOD then that sinner FIND mercy before God and on the grounds of his repentance and the SHED BLOOD of CHRIST he is dealt with and his sins even if it were many shall be taken away so that he is washed and cleansed from his guilt!
ANY ONE THAT MAKES ANY CLAIM ON FORGIVENESS BUT STILL LIVE AND CONTINUE IN THE SAME SINS AND REBELLION DOES NOT KNOW OR HAVE RECEIVED FORGIVENESS! Today’s forgiveness leaves man in his sin with the hope that his sin is forgiven and that he will not face a Holy God on Judgment Day. This is not Biblical and every man that have this forgiveness will perish on the day of wrath, he’s hope will fail.
TRUE CONFESSION OF SINS THAT BRINGS FORGIVENESS OF SINS INVOLVES:
It is not general confession but specific confession of sin
Real confession is not to say “I am sorry!” – That is not true confession. True confession is to SAY “I HAVE SINNED – I HAVE LOST MY TEMPER, FORGIVE ME!” It is not I am sorry, or being sorry!
True confession is to clear oneself, to put right the things that are not right, to forsake every wrong, to come into the light
TO RENOUNCE sin and sins! It is to GIVE IT UP and that BY RENOUNCING – that is to say – “I renounce this thing, I abhor it, I am finished with…”
To come on the ground of the shed blood of Christ to beg for mercy
HOW THEN WILL ONE KNOW IF THEIR SINS ARE FORGIVEN AND DEALT WITH?
This is how you will know:
“In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace…” Eph 1:7
“Whosoever committed sin transgressed also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law. 5 And YE KNOW THAT HE WAS MANIFESTED TO TAKE AWAY OUR SINS; and in him is no sin. 6 Whosoever abides in him sinneth not: WHOSOEVER SINNETH HATH NOT SEEN HIM, NEITHER KNOWN HIM.” 1 John 3:4-6
WHERE THE BLOOD FORGIVES THERE IT PURGES AND WHERE IT PURGES THERE WAS FORGIVENESS!
If you still live in the same sins you lived in yesterday and the day before and the month before and the year before then your sins are not forgiven, because where the blood is applied sin loses its hold and grip. How do you know your sins are forgiven? You have been redeemed through His blood = THIS IS WHAT TRUE FORGIVENESS OF SIN is all about! He that continues and sin and claim forgiveness is deceiving their own selves, the evidence is against them!
“In whom we have redemption through his blood … the forgiveness of sins…” Col 1:14
How do you know that thousands that say they are forgiven is not forgiven? Because they are still living in their sin! Can someone that say he is washed in the blood of Christ still live and continue in sin as a way of life? NEVER! Is the blood of Christ powerless to save from sin and cleanse from sin?
The evidence that your sins are forgiven is that you no longer live and walk in that sin you use to walk. Don’t fool yourself into a blind faith without works to show for it!
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