Forgiven - Updated Article

 

I have been working on a couple other projects that are rather intense and not finished. This is an article I wrote years ago and updated a couple times. The most recent update was this month. It is a subject that is good to repeat because we are so needy of God's forgiveness and also so tempted to doubt that He has given it.

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1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Psalm 51:7 ...wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Isaiah 1:18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

Simple Confession and Godlike Forgiveness

In 2 Samuel chapter 11 we read the ugly story of David's sin. The sweet psalmist, prophet, and king who was called a man after God's own heart by the Lord Himself (1 Sam. 13:14) proved what Jeremiah, the wise prophet, later declared. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? Jeremiah 17:9 Not only did David descend to the folly of adultery, but he followed it up with murder.

God sent Nathan, the faithful prophet who loved David, to tell the king to his face that he was wicked. The parable was given. The king condemned himself in judging the selfish rich man worthy of death. Nathan spoke the judgment of the Lord clearly, Thou art the man...Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the LORD, to do evil in his sight? thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon. 2 Samuel 12:7 and 9. He then continues to describe the consequences that this sin will bring upon David and his family.

What follows would hardly qualify as a great revival among most professing Bible believers and Baptists. The Bible does not tell us that David went up to the altar to weep and pray. He did not even fall on his face before God and Nathan and beg for mercy. Instead we are told in 2 Samuel 12:13, And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the LORD. And Nathan said unto David, The LORD also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die.

The simplicity of it is almost shocking to minds that have been nurtured in the idea that only with great wrestlings, tears, and lamentations can we gain forgiveness from God. Yet, there it stands. Direct, plain, and with no frills. David said "I have sinned against the LORD," and immediately God not only put away his sin, but delivered him and Bathsheba both from the death penalty (see Lev. 20:10). Dear friends in Jesus, if we can grasp this thought what liberty in Christ we might enjoy!

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Evening Song - Yes, I Know

1 John 1:7-9 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 all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 

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The Thousand Word Project - September Sunset

 

Psalm 113:3 From the rising of the sun unto the going

down of the same the LORD'S name is to be praised.

Evening Song - The Lily of the Valley

John 15:12-16 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. 

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Texas Memories - September Storm

Psalm 148:8 Fire, and hail; snow, and vapour; stormy wind fulfilling his word: 

Nahum 1:3 The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: the LORD hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. 

The Nameless Seeker - A Poem by Annie Johnson Flint

The Nameless Seeker

We are not told his name—this “rich young ruler”
Who sought the Lord that day;
We only know that he had great possessions
And that—he went away.

He went away—from joy and peace and power;
From love unguessed, untold;
From that eternal life that he was seeking,
Back to his paltry gold.

Back to the weary discontent that brought him
First to the Saviour’s side,
With heart that hungered still and soul that thirsted,
Unblest, unsatisfied; 

So deaf he could not hear the call to service
That all the world should bless,
So blind he could not see the great possessions
He bartered for the less.

He went away; he kept his earthly treasures,
But oh, at what a cost!
Afraid to take the cross and lose his riches—
And God and heaven were lost.

So for the tinsel bonds that held and drew him
What honor he let slip—
Comrade of John and Paul, and friend of Jesus—
What glorious fellowship!

For they who left their all to follow Jesus
Have found a deathless fame;
On His immortal scroll of saints and martyrs
God wrote each name.

We should have read his there—the rich young ruler—
If he had stayed that day;
Nameless—though Jesus loved him—ever nameless
Because—he went away.

by Annie Johnson Flint

Mark 10:21-23  Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me. And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possessions. And Jesus looked round about, and saith unto his disciples, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!