Sermon: Forgiven Forever

Sermon: "Forgiven Forever"

6th in the "Forgiveness: A Close Up" series.
Delivered July 11, 2010 by Rev. John Schmidt.
Sermon Text: 1 John 5:11-13

Click to download & listen to the sermon MP3

[Video]

(This is a true story from one of our members, portrayed by an actor.)

Female voice: Oh, I was so filled with mixed emotions. My head was spinning; my heart was hurting. I had so many unanswered questions, and I was really filled with rage. How could he do this to us? How could he leave us like this? After a marriage of almost 16 years, including three wonderful children, my husband had decided to take his own life. Now I knew he was ill, suffering with depression most of his life, and I knew he was in a lot of inner pain. We all saw it, the anger, the isolation, the blaming. He was trying to get help. He would go to a counselor, sometimes taking his medication, more often than not, using drugs of his own choice.

It was a painful, devastating time, praying for healing every day and also crying out to God for my own struggles to try to keep everything together. In that last year, I was in a support group for wives whose spouses were struggling with various life issues. I was trying to learn to continue to love my husband without spiraling down with him. I was trying to learn to keep things as normal as possible for my children, even when dad wasn't around, when he was angry or absent, or whether he'd choose not to participate in family activities. It was exhausting.

But through it all, I kept so much hope that he would get better and that our marriage would be enriched by going through this, that God could and would heal our deepest hurts. Until that one day when he made his final choice.

Well now what? I was left alone without a husband and my kids without a father. While the grief and trauma of missing him were very raw and all consuming, so was the anger. One night after the kids were in bed, I became really angry when I found a tape recording of ramblings of him blaming everyone and everything for his troubles. I became so enraged, I tore the tape recorder apart with my hands, crying out to God the whole time. And what I couldn't tear apart, I hammered to dust.

Afterwards, I just lay flat on the floor, hands extended to God, the God I knew was still there and full of mercy and grace. I didn't blame God; I blamed my husband. I hated the thought that for the rest of their lives, the kids would not have a dad. At their most important milestones, he would not be there. I wanted to hold on to that blame and anger as I thought about our future and the difficulties that would lie ahead for all of us.

Every time something big happened, fifth grade graduation or a field trip or something around the house, I'd get so angry all over again. I wasn't supposed to be doing this parenting all alone. This anger complicated my grief. It really interfered with the peace that I really longed for myself and my kids.

Finally there was one day I went to the gravesite by myself, and I knew I had to make an active decision. This continued anger was harming me. It wasn't harming my husband. He was in the presence of Jesus. I had no doubt that like the prodigal son, he'd gone home. Now I needed the healing. I needed to forgive. This was one of the most difficult moments of my life, more difficult almost than his death. I needed to admit that I harbored this anger and this rage. I needed to repent and to forgive my husband for leaving us.

I sat there on top of the grass just talking to him, telling him of my struggles, about my fear, being alone, about my blaming. I sobbed. I prayed. Finally I was able to say the words to the air up to heaven, "I forgive you." Then I just sat in the sunshine. I felt the peace surround me. I listened to the birds sing. My heart began to release the hurt and pain.

That anger had taken so much work to maintain! It was freeing to finally let it go. And that was only the beginning of this process of forgiving. I need to tell you the truth and admit that even after several years, I still sometimes resent that I'm alone and that my kids won't have a father there for their important occasions. God has our best in mind, even if I don't know how that will work.

I can't understand that mystery in my life, but I accept that somehow he will redeem. Somehow he'll work his purposes for good. Somehow he'll reclaim the years that the locusts have eaten. Somehow he will bring us a future and a hope. I have his hope again, and I wait on his promises. Out of my mourning, there has come joy.

[End of video]

Forgiveness is a difficult thing. We've been talking about forgiveness for a number of weeks now. We've looked at how God has freely forgiven us. We've taken a look at how important it is for us to understand that love of God so that we can forgive ourselves. We've looked at how important it is for us to forgive other people and perhaps one of the most difficult things ever we're called to do.

One of the most difficult things possible to forgive is suicide. Never get a chance to have that talk that allows you to work it through and to reconcile. It's so final. And some people have felt that it is such a big thing, so final, that not even God could forgive that, even if that person knew Christ. But is that true? Can we lose our forgiveness?

About 38 years ago, I went to talk to the pastor. I've only gone to talk to the pastor a very few times because I find it intimidating to set an appointment and go and have this meeting. But I really needed to at this point because I was a young Christian, and I had a pressing theological question. I became a Christian out of a sub-Christian/non-Christian background, and when I gave myself to Christ, a war began inside of me. There were things that were running through my head that were ugly and dishonoring to God, and I couldn't stop it.

I can remember some days I would drive to work, and I would park because I was a few minutes early, and I would just cry in my Volkswagen, hunched over the steering wheel because the battle was so terrible, and I just didn't know what to do. And I was really afraid that I had done something that had allowed or had caused God to put me in a place where I could not be forgiven anymore.

And so I went to the pastor, and I can still remember the conversation with Reverend Tap, and I remember his common sense approach. He said, "John, the fact that you're here and so concerned about being forgiven is to me one of the most encouraging signs of the Holy Spirit at work in your life. So take heart, and remember you cannot lose your forgiveness."

We're continuing a series on forgiveness, and today we're asking the question, "Is forgiveness really forever?" And this is a struggle because in human relationships, forgiveness is so hard to hold on to. We just heard a testimony about how freeing forgiveness was, and yet there was that moment when we heard that she has to struggle again. Every time there is a new get together, an event that the children are at, normally she would have been there together with her husband, it comes up again.

And that's the way it is for all of us. Some of us might have forgiven someone, but then they might do something that opens old wounds. And not only do we have to forgive them for a new thing they've done, but we have to forgive them for the thing we've already forgiven them for because it all comes rushing up again. And so since we experience this in human relationships, we're afraid that that's the way it is with God because in human circles, forgiveness is not eternal. It's a constant struggle.

But the kind of forgiveness we're talking about today is God's forgiveness, and God's forgiveness is not limited. God's forgiveness is complete. It is free. It is unlimited. It is an eternal forgiveness that's an act of eternal love. So we're going to look at this issue of how God forgives us forever.

One of the things that God wants us to know is that in Christ, we are eternally forgiven. You are eternally forgiven. There are all kinds of places in the Bible that deal with that, sometimes whole chapters. And one of those chapters that deals with this whole thing of what it means to be a Christian, to be a child of God, to be in Christ, to be forgiven forever, is 1 John, chapter 5. The whole chapter talks about what it means to be a child of God, and we're going to focus on one verse in this chapter.

It's 1 John, chapter 5, and we're going to look at verse 13. It's on page 1120 of your Bibles. It's one of the letters that's way at the end of the New Testament. This is the verse.

"I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life."

"I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life."

Let's pray: Lord, continue to open our eyes and hearts to your Word today. In Jesus' name, Amen.

If you have your own Bibles with you, you might want to circle the word "know." You might want to circle the words "eternal life" and draw a line between them because what John is telling us here is that he wants us to know this thing. He wants us to know that we have eternal life. Now in the Bible there are all kinds of words for "know" just like there are in English. And some of those words have to do with knowing trivial things. Some of those words are the equivalent of our phrase "short-term memory."

But this word has to do with knowing something in your heart, to know something for certain, to know something in such a way that you're not going to forget it, to know something of incredible importance. And so God says, "I want you to know this in this sort of way. In this certain, unchanging, unforgettable way, know this." And then it says that you have eternal life. I want you to know this.

Now even the word "eternal life" we have to think about for a moment because usually when we hear the term in English, we think of the quantity of life that it's going to go on and on. And that's encompassed in this term. But the Greek words that are behind this also talk about the quality of life. Life of the ages. Life that has to do with significance. A life that matters. A life of peace. A life of joy. A life that enjoys things that belong to a bigger and better time, lived out in us now. A life of all that God wants to do in us. I want you to know, not forget, know in your heart that you have this life of joy and significance that matters and will never end.

Understanding that we are forgiven forever is key to being able to experience the life God has for you. And the reality is there are some people in church today, and I've spoken to some after the last service, who are unsure about their forgiveness. You're afraid. Have I lost it? Did I really have it in the first place? Well today I want to bring this topic out into the open, and I want us to talk about it.

Now theologically this issue is often called "eternal security." In the Presbyterian tradition, we usually call this the "perseverance of the saints." That's the term we prefer to use. Now let me tell you. There are some moments that it's absolutely wonderful to be a Presbyterian. This is one of those times, folks. There are times I'm embarrassed to be a Presbyterian. Be honest. But when we talk about perseverance of the saints, when we talk about God's incredible, sovereign, absolutely unassailable power to keep safe those who he touches, we're on good ground.

There is a conviction here that has been... That has grown out of the Bible study over the years that we can touch. As Presbyterians here at Central, one of the things that we stand for is that the Bible is our standard. We always go back to the Bible for what we understand about Christian life. But we also believe that over the history of the Church, other believers have understood Scripture in ways that help us to understand Scripture. In other words, we don't throw away all of Church history. We let people from 1,000 years ago or 1,700 years ago speak into our faith through various creeds and confessions.

It begins with the Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed that we use sometimes in worship, and it still goes on today. One of those times that the believers got together that said something that we feel is definitive and helpful to us is in the 1640's in England. A hundred and twenty-one Puritan pastors gathered to provide the basic documents for the Reformation of the Church of England. And they came up with something that we call the Westminster Confession of Faith. It's something that Presbyterians have used now for 370+ years in interpreting their faith.

And so I want to take out one spot in the Westminster Confession and look at it. There are spots in it that are very dated, aren't very helpful. There are other spots that speak to us even today. This is one of those spots. Now the words are a little bit old fashioned, but I'll try to linger on it for a moment so that we can understand it together. So let's bring it up on the screen. "Of the Perseverance of the Saints," there is the term there that we use.

Of the Perseverance of the Saints
"They whom God hath accepted in his Beloved, effectually called, and sanctified by his Spirit, can neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace, but shall certainly persevere therein to the end, and be eternally saved."

Now let me linger on that for a moment. It begins with the fact that God is working first. God has accepted in his Beloved. And then it says,

"Effectually called, and sanctified by his Spirit... "

Now one of the things that we're saying here is that it's not... We're not talking about every single person who kind of casually raises their hand at some meeting and says, "Oh yeah. I'll join Jesus."

There are people who make a very short-lived, hard-to-understand decision. It never changes their life. They never think about Jesus again. This is not talking about that. I don't know exactly how to handle that. But even Jesus talks about the fact that the Word goes out sometimes and doesn't seem to take effect. These are people who have been effectually called and sanctified by the Spirit, people who have actually begun to follow Jesus. So this is who it's talking about. Not perfect people, but people whose decision to step into Christ has actually led them to begin to follow him however poorly.

Okay? So those people can neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace but shall certainly persevere to the end. Now in this and the next paragraph we're looking at, there are 26 Bible references that come up about the things that they're saying here. And if you want all 26, e-mail me, and I'll send them to you. (This list is included at the bottom of this transcript) This is serious Bible study that's behind this and because there is this complexity in Scripture about this.

Well anyway, let's go to the next point.

"This perseverance of the saints depends not upon their own free will, but upon the immutability of the decree of election, flowing from the free and unchangeable love of God the Father; upon the efficacy of the merit and intercession of Jesus Christ, the abiding of the Spirit, and of the seed of God within them, and the nature of the covenant of grace: from all which ariseth also the certainty and infallibility thereof."

Now let's go back to the prior page, and let's look at it again. Try to actually say it in English, okay? The perseverance of the saints does not depend on our capacity to be strong. Whether it's in a tough time, whether it's in a face of temptation, it doesn't depend on us but upon the unchanging character of the fact that God has made a commitment. And that commitment flows from the free and unchangeable love of God that just he lavishes on us. And that Jesus Christ has died and his death has resulted in the fact that he has conquered everything that stands against us.

He is now resurrected and a priest on our behalf and in the very presence of God, and what he does now as priest works. It's effective. Then on the next sheet it talks about the abiding of the Spirit. The Spirit is now in us, and the Spirit of God is powerful. So Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all committed, the triune God, to us persevering, us lasting to the end, us being able to receive the goodness that God has given. So that's where our certainty rests in the character of God and not in us.

Okay, what's another way of thinking about this? One of the ways of thinking about this is the fact that in Christ, God has sealed us into a future by putting us in Christ. Since we're talking about being safe, I figure today we'd use a little safe here. This little fire safe. Brinks Home Security here, okay? Now, I have a picture here of Andy Gathman. Okay?

Now the reason I'm using Andy is last week at the Christian Life Conference, Andy was certified as being a real Christian by Dale Bruner, one of the professors at Fuller Theological Seminary. They talked, and Dale said in front of everybody, "Oh it was so great to meet Andy. He is a real Christian!" So, okay. We have a real Christian. Fuller certified, okay?

Now whenever Andy made the decision as a child, as an adult, doesn't matter, he made a decision to take his place in Christ and not depend on who he was but to depend on Christ. At that moment, God sealed him in Christ. The old has passed away; all things have become new.

Now when Andy got included in there, he didn't do anything to earn it. When we made that same decision ourselves, we didn't do anything to earn it. We can't earn our way to heaven. We can't earn forgiveness. We can't seal ourselves. But God sent Jesus Christ in our place to take a penalty upon himself to conquer our spiritual enemies, and then resurrected and in power, we are now included in him and sealed for an eternal future.

Now when we make that decision, John the apostle wants us to know that we are eternally secure. "I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life." Now just because though we are sealed in Christ and have placed our lives in Christ, it doesn't mean that we're perfect. In other words, if I open this up again and looked at the picture, it hasn't miraculously become more handsome. Okay? Same Andy. Same us. Getting better.

But our safety doesn't depend on how much and how fast that change happens. But sin does affect our lives deeply. So we don't want to treat sin lightly because what it does, sin has enormous consequences because it destroys the everyday fellowship that we have with God. It doesn't take away the eternal relationship. It doesn't take us out of the safe, but it does damage the fellowship that we can enjoy with God. We can be in Christ and still feel distant from God. That's the way it works. Sin will do that to you. And so God calls on us to confess our sin as a way of restoring that fellowship.

So the same book of 1 John is very concerned about confession as well. So in the first chapter of the book of 1 John, they have these words. The ninth verse. First John, chapter 1, verse 9.

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."

Comes up often in our worship these words. Sin has consequences. But we can deal with the consequences of that in our relationship with God through confession.

What does it mean to confess? First of all, it means agreeing with God that it's bad. We agree with God that it's destructive toward his purposes in our lives and that it harms our relationship with him. That's number one.

Number two is that it means we take responsibility for our actions. We stop blaming other people. "Oh God, you know I got angry, but man, I was provoked. Look at them!" That's not what we're talking about in confession. You accept responsibility. So when we agree that it's bad and accept responsibility for it, we're confessing in the biblical sense. And then we say, "God, then I want to now continue to walk with you." God uses that to help your relationship grow.

Many of us are married. This coming December Debbie and I will be married for 35 years, and Debbie is a saint to have lived with me so long. Okay? When we got married, we began this committed relationship by making a commitment in front of God and in front of the assembled people at our marriage. We exchanged our vows. We exchanged our rings. And as much as humans can, we knew then that the relationship was secure.

Now across those 35 years, I've messed up. There have been times I've messed up badly enough that the fellowship inside of our marriage has been harmed. But the relationship still exists. The marriage was still there. Now this is an imperfect analogy because we know that because of human frailty, even marriages don't always last. We know that. It's another thing that we need forgiveness from God about. And God does forgive us. But it is imperfectly a picture of the reality of what happens to us perfectly with God.

God is in a relationship with us, and nothing we can do can take away that relationship, even when the fellowship is harmed. In Christ, there is no divorce. There is no loss of salvation. There is no eternal separation. In Christ, we're safe. And God wants you to know that because God wants you to enjoy your life in Christ. Joy is a major word in the Scriptures. He doesn't want to take everything away. He wants to give lavishly, deeply, spiritual things and even some material things. But part of being able to enjoy that is understanding this issue of forgiveness.

So if you walk out of here today knowing you're safe and secure as God's child, you'll be able to sleep more peacefully, enjoy life more fully, share your faith more boldly, forgive yourself more easily, forgive others more quickly. And when you mess up, and you will, you have this incredible privilege of confession. You get up. You dust yourself off and say, "Okay, God, I was bad. I accept responsibility for that, and I want to now turn and obey you more."

Since we only looked at one verse, I want us to end by thinking about that verse together. And we're going to use an ancient tradition called "lectio divina" where I'm going to put this verse up on the screen, and I'm going to read it to you two times, leaving a little time of silence. And just let's end this by you thinking about this verse and letting God speak to you. What part of it does God really want to speak into your heart today? Let's end by just opening our hearts to what God wants to say.

"I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life."

"I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life."

Heavenly Father, I thank you that in Christ I am safe and secure for eternity. God, I thank you for forgiving me completely, freely, and eternally. Help me to confess my sins daily so that I can maintain a clear relationship with you. I want to live obediently as your child. So God today I'm recommitting my life to you. And we pray all of this together in Jesus' name, Amen.

Citation List:

This is the list of scripture citations mentioned in the sermon.

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