All right, I hope that everybody has these papers here, these papers. We're going to go through these tonight. About three weeks ago, we decided that we're going to teach on Wednesday on some things concerning witnessing and telling others about Christ. And one of the three questions that we're going to deal with is the question is how to have your sins forgiven. And when you ask that question, what do you do? What do you say? And what is it? And so we've been going through this, and we've went through all this before, and there's a few things that we've talked about. And what is sin? And we ask you to memorize these thoughts, and I pray that you have. You'll know what the five sins are according to the scripture. And then we talked about to show one of their unrighteousness, we have to know about Exodus chapter 20, so we ask to memorize the Ten Commandments, and that's a great start in doing that. We identified sin. We found that the Bible separates it with transgression and iniquity and sin. And we talked about that. Transgression went too far. Iniquity is the evil nature of man. And sin just means missed the mark. And all three of these are sins. And so we've seen that God said something about that. The effect of sins. We talked about how sin affects Christ. And I think we need to know these things in order for us to be an effective witness. We've got to know what God says about what sin is. I mean, if you're going to go in there and say, thou shalt not smoke a marble, you're not going to find it in the Bible. So we've got to go somewhere where God talks about the things that are the root of sin rather than the fruits of sin. So the effects of sin, how does sin affect Christ? We talked about that and how it wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities and His soul was offered for our sins and of course we found that in Isaiah. We talked about how sin affected sinners. We talked about they became dead spiritually, dominated physically, and they were damned eternally. And so these things are truths that we need to know so when you talk to sinners you can tell them how these sins these transgressions, these iniquities, how they affected them and how they are affected. And then we talked about how does sin affect Christians. We took it out of Psalms 32 and Psalms 51. It brings heartache and hardness and hardship. And so we talked about the forgiver of sin, the Lord in the Old Testament. In Exodus chapter 34, verse 6 through 7, His authority. It says He's going to forgive iniquity. That means he's going to carry the perverseness, and he's going to bear the lawlessness and take the wickedness, and he's going to pardon all evil nature. And so we find he forgives iniquity. He forgives transgression. I'm talking about his authority. Who has the authority to do this? The Lord has that authority to carry rebellion and bear revolt and take trespass and pardon the went too far. We talked about forgiving of sins of He's going to carry our stumbling, bear our falling. He's going to take our short, our coming short. He's going to pardon our missing the mark. That's the authority of the Old Testament is the Lord. We found that his, not only his authority, we went to his affection in Psalms 86, 5. It says where he's ready to forgive. And then we talked about Nehemiah chapter 9, verse 17. He's ready to pardon. This is his affection. Lamentations 322, it is of the Lord's mercies that we're not consumed because his compassions fail not. That's his affections to forgive. And when you talk to sinners, talk to saints who's in sin, God wants to forgive. He's ready to pardon. He's ready to forgive. It's his compassions. If it wasn't for his mercies tonight, we would all be doomed and in real trouble. And so We've got to get across to these sinners in whom we're speaking of that only one can forgive the Lord. And we find and he wants to. And so then we learned there in the New Testament, Mark chapter two, verse 10, the authority. It says, but that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins. Who can forgive sins? The Son of Man only. Jesus tonight. He's the only one with the authority to do so. We found that the Bible tells in Hebrews 9.15, He is redemption of the transgressions. Titus 2.14, He redeems all iniquity. And then in 1 John 1.7, it says He cleanses us from all sin. So He finds, He hits each one of those and takes care of those. His affection in Luke 23.34, Jesus prayed, Father forgive them, for they know not what they do. The Lord has an affection to forgive. He has an affection because in 1 John 2, 2, Jesus' propitiation, His atonement. If you do sin, I'd have you not to sin, but if you do sin, we have a propitiation. Propitiation, so we find the atonement. And then 1 John 1, 29, Jesus' purpose. He says, Behold the Lamb of God, which take away the sin of the world. And that word take away, It means to carry our iniquities, to bear our transgressions, and to take sin, pardon sins. Tonight we're going to talk about the forgiveness of sin. So we're going to talk to a sinner, and we've got to have not all this memorized, but we've got to have this understood. That when you talk to a sinner, he's not going to understand any of this. This is not knowledge to them. This is not their vocabulary. When you talk sins to them, they don't go around talking about, oh, yesterday I sinned, I drank. They don't do that. They don't understand that concept. So we're going to have to go elementary. We're going to have to go ABC. We're going to have to go very small in the fact, but we got to know this. And what happens when you know this, it brings confidence and it brings a courage because you have the answers. and whom you're speaking with don't have the answers. That's why they're going to ask you a question, but many of us tonight are fearful of the question because we don't have confidence in the answer. So, in preparing, we want to prepare. As we begin to knock doors and go out into this community and to talk to those about Christ, we're going to have to show them and let them know not only that they're a sinner, but what God says about a sinner and what He wants to do with the sinner and He wants to forgive their sins. And so these are important. So how does one get his sins forgiven? And the forgiveness of sins in Colossians chapter 2, so turn there. And again, this would be very easy tonight to really preach. It's hard for me not to, but tonight we're going to do our best to teach. And that's what we want to do, is to teach the truths of God's Word here. And so we find in Colossians chapter 2, and if you would stand to your feet tonight and let's read our text tonight and see what the Lord may have for us. Let's begin reading in verse 13, and we'll read down to verse 15. It says, And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, Having forgiven you all trespasses, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross. And having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it." Father, I come to You in the name of Jesus. I thank You for the reading of God's Word. Thank You, Father, for what we've already talked about and learned God, I pray you give us help tonight in these thoughts, and God, you apply them to our lives, and God, may we memorize these, that we may be effective, God, that we may be useful for the glory of God. In Jesus' precious name we pray. Amen and amen. You may be seated. All right. So we find tonight, According with our little outline that we've laid out, the first thing I want to talk about tonight is the lost. The lost and their forgiveness. How does the lost get forgiveness? How does the sinner that's unsaved get forgiveness? You know, tonight the saint needs forgiveness. The Christian needs forgiveness. We're going to talk about that next Wednesday, but this Wednesday we're going to talk about the lost. The one who doesn't know Christ, who has not been forgiven. and to his lost and their sins. The Bible says it in this, that you hath he quickened who was dead and trespasses and sins. And so those are the ones tonight that know not Christ. I want to say number one, the fact of forgiveness. The fact of forgiveness is there in verse 13. And he tells us the fact is this, he says to us that in this scripture is what's committed is forgiven. He uses that term there in Colossians, Paul does, who says, having forgiven you all trespasses. Having forgiven you all trespasses. That's all future sins. So every sin you ever commit, it's future. From the cross to today is all future. Having forgiven all trespasses. And so we find what's been committed is forgiven. And that's what the Bible teaches, that you as a sinner can have your sins forgiven because the fact of it. The fact is, the Bible says, having forgiven you all trespasses. And so, this isn't something that's going to take place, this isn't something that might take place, this is something that has taken place. Has forgiven you all trespasses. So we find that there is a fact concerning forgiveness. It's not what you might think, it's not what you come up with, it's not what you maybe say, I believe, I think, It's none of that. Don't speak of it that way. The Bible says the fact of forgiveness is that you have forgiveness. Amen? That's just a fact. And so we've got to present it that way. Not if it's an iffy or could be, but it is. the fact of forgiveness, what's committed is forgiven. Now the word forgive there, it means to grant a favor. So the first answer on A is what's committed is forgiven. What's committed is forgiven. Whatever sin's been committed, it's forgiven. Alright? So we find the forgiveness of trespasses. Remember the trespasses means that we went too far? The trespasses also means, and we're going to get to that in just a moment, it means to err, to fall, to fault, an offense, to sin. But here, the word forgive means to grant as a favor. So forgiveness is not what you deserve. Forgiveness is what's going to be granted to you. But it's offered to you. Forgiveness is offered to you as a favor. Okay? It's also a pardon. Forgiveness means pardon. It means rescue or deliver. Rescue or deliver. So whenever you're speaking to the lost man concerning sin, you say to the lost man, do you know what sin is? He says, well, yeah, I know what sin is. You know, you say dirty words or something like that. And you say, yeah, that's true. That's true. And so because of that sin, and you might want to tell him maybe a scripture that you've learned concerning what sin is and speak of that nature and say to him, you know, that all unrighteousness is sin. Have you ever told a lie? And everybody's told a lie. Yeah, well, that's sin. You know what the Bible says, that the wages of that sin is death, and so now what took place is because of that sin, you're spiritually dead. And not only are you spiritually dead, but you're dominated by sin. Let me give you an example. When you were young, did they ever teach you to do right or wrong? So you can come up with all kinds of illustrations in your mind to prove that sin dominated his life. If you could stop right now, could you stop? Most of you say, no, you can't stop. We try. And so we find that this sin has created the being spiritually dead and dominated in that internal eternal death and hell. But the Lord wants to deliver you. The Lord wants to rescue you. So he wants to forgive you. That's what that means. And whatever you're at and whatever you're doing and however you are right now, this moment, he's ready to forgive. He's ready to pardon. That's my Lord. And I try to let you know Him, try to introduce you to Him in the way of forgiveness. How do I have my sins forgiven? Here's how you get it. God will grant it to you. He'll give you a favor. And so these are real important terms. Words make a difference. And so we find that it means to freely grant. So God is going to freely grant each one of us forgiveness. Alright? The fact of forgiveness is what's committed is forgiven. The second fact of forgiveness, let me give you what trespass, trespass. Trespass means error. It means fall. It means a fault. It means an offense or sin, okay? That's what that trespass, and you got little lines there, you can fill it out there. Let me tell you one more time. Error, fall, fault, offense, or sin. Any questions at all up to this point concerning the fact of forgiveness? Not having your committed sins are forgiven. OK. I'm trying to go slow. Trying to do it low key so we can get this. Number two or B tonight is what's condemned us is removed. That's what B is, what condemned us, is removed. So whatever was condemning us has now been removed, according to verse 14. Talking about forgiveness now. This is part of it. Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross. Nail it to His cross. The word blotting out tonight means to smear out. It means to erase. It means to wipe away. So, the Lord is wiping, erasing, smearing something that has something to do with us that are sinners. So not only is He forgiving us of our trespasses and all of those, everything we've ever committed, but there's something else that makes us a sinner. And something else that creates us with a contrariness with God. Something that's opposing us. Something that's against us. And He talks about this handwriting of ordinances. Now if you look in Galatians chapter 3, which is a few chapters over, and look in verse 10. The first thing that's against us is the law. The law is against us. In Galatians chapter 3 and verse 10, it says, For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse, for it is written, Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. Now, who is in the curse of the law? Everyone that doesn't do the law. Now, there's nobody in this whole world that does the law. Ever. Never has, never will be. Now, what happens if we don't do the law? Well, in Romans chapter 3, and in verse 19. Romans 3, verse 19. You can write that next to Galatians 3.10. These are important verses you need to familiarize yourself with. Just don't, tonight, let me go through them. You go back and memorize them. Get the gist of what's going on. Romans 3, 19 says, And we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Alright, so we find in Galatians 3, 10, the law is against us. It's against us. The ordinances, the law is against us, and the second one is the ordinances are contrary to us. We find there in Galatians 3, verse 10, that if we do not continue in the things of the law, then we are cursed. So it's against us. I mean, it's not for us. And then we find some other things that are contrary to us. The ordinances there. Now, if you look in verse 16 back into our text, chapter 2 of Colossians, Paul makes a statement. He says, Let no man therefore judge you in meat or in drink, or in respect of a holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days. And referring back to verse 14, talking about the handwriting of ordinances, The handwriting of ordinances would include things such as feasts, festivals, days, Sabbaths, offerings. Turn your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 9 and look in verse 10. Hebrews chapter 9 verse 10. He says, which stood only in meats and drinks, divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation. So, we think about the law, we think about the Ten Commandments, and we think tonight if you and I could just keep the Ten Commandments, we'd be in righteousness with God. But even keeping the Ten Commandments, is still not righteousness with God. Because we can't keep the Ten Commandments. And then he talks about these washings and these feasts and festivals and days and things of that nature to keep, to hold. That we have to do these things, we have to be partakers of these things, we have to follow the law, and we have to become what the Bible says that we become. Well, it's very evident that nobody can do that. So even though our sins are forgiven, which is a tremendous thing, all our trespasses are pardoned, and it's been granted and it's been a favor to us, but verse 14 says that all of the law and all the ordinances whether it's a ceremonial law, whether it's any kind of other law in which you may think of. He said everything of an ordinance, everything of a law that was against us and contrary to us, He took it out of the way. He took it out of the way. It's telling you and I tonight as a sinner, you don't have to do that. You don't have to obey the Ten Commandments. You don't have to go through the ceremonial law. You don't have to follow the days and the Sabbaths. You don't have to. The Lord, He took it out of the way. It's no longer you are required to keep. It's no longer for you obligated and condemned and guilty before God because you're under the law. As a sinner tonight, we have to tell, as a Christian tonight, we have to tell the sinner tonight about how to have your sins forgiven. And the fact of forgiveness is that you can have your sins forgiven for what's ever been committed. And then what's ever come to the place where you and I have found ourselves being condemned. In other words, every sinner thinks that they're condemned. They think that they're not good enough for heaven, or that they've done something where they can't get forgiveness for. Brother Bob, is that right? I mean, you probably find that all the time. Don't they condemn themselves most of the time? Yeah. And so you find yourself trying to convince this sinner, no, no, you can get forgiveness. And all that condemnation, and all that damnation, and all the hell that was prepared, it don't have to be for you. It don't have to come to you. It doesn't have to be applied to you. You can get forgiveness. You can find that all that condemnation of Jesus, He put it out of the way. He said, this is no longer. This is not what it takes to get forgiveness. Has nothing to do with any of this. Now, I will give it to you. And this right here is what condemns you. But I've removed it. I removed everything that condemns you. All that condemns you, I've removed it. But what a blessing. What a blessing that is. That everything that condemned you, everything that was against you, everything that was contrary to you, He said He took it out of the way. So everything and anything that's in your way to come to Christ, He's taken it away from. So it's wide open. He wants to forgive you. He's ready to pardon you. All the sin you've ever committed, all the trespasses you've ever committed, He wants to forgive you and pardon it. But anything and everything that was against you or contrary to you, He has taken it out of the way. See, people don't know that. They don't know this at all. And so we find the truth, that the fact is, the word blot out again means to smear out and erase and wipe away. And so we find that He wants, He's going to wipe it all out so that you're able to have forgiveness, able to have a pardon. He took it out of the way. And so we find here, C is what's captivated us, He defeated. What captivated us, He defeated. That's an answer there. And see, what's captivated us is defeated. Now, verse 15 says, And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. Now, this is encouraging to me, because when he talks about powers and principalities, he's talking about Satan. He's talking about the devil. He's talking about the power, the spiritual powers, the spiritual realm of things. He says, according to the Bible about forgiveness here, that those that have captivated us, and we have been captivated, three things took place. Number one is that because of Jesus tonight and His forgiveness, and how he's taken the condemnation from us, we find that he stripped him of his plan. He said there in verse 15, having spoiled principalities and powers. You see, the devil had a plan. The plan is to destroy the Son of Man. The plan, from the very beginning, because of his hatred toward God and his pride in which he carries. Every aspect of the way, He has tried to destroy the Son of God. Jesus has always been on Satan's radar. Always trying to remove Him, to take Him out, to make Him look like if He's not the Son of God. But at this point, the Lord said, He having spoiled principalities and powers. And so He stripped Him of His plan. When Jesus arose from the grave, when Jesus died on the cross and rose from the grave, the plan of Satan was stripped. I mean, that was the worst thing that could happen for Satan, is the Lord dying and resurrecting. His plan was stripped, he was spoiled. The second thing I noticed in the answer to 2 is stripped him of his power. The Bible says that he made a show of them openly. made a show of them openly. And so, while the devil is intimidating people with death, and when the devil is destroying lives with his lies and deception, and when the devil has his control and has his dominance upon humankind, and then when Jesus went to the cross, all said, well, I thought He was the King. If He saved others, won't He save Himself? If you say who you are, come down off the cross. The devil, no doubt, was there in his height of his excitement about his plan. And then when Christ resurrected, the Bible says openly, He showed him that his power is worthless. It's done. On the cross, friend, you'll find that Satan's power was shown to be a fraud. It wasn't all that he said it was. He lied all the way through. So on the cross, we find that the one who captivated us, Jesus is the one who stripped him of his plan and of his power, but then he stripped him of his property. Because then he goes on and says in verse 15, triumphing over them in it. Paul is very heavily speaking of a Roman triumph. He speaks of that in 2 Corinthians, of a Roman triumph. And when a Rome triumphs and wins a battle, they take all the spoil. They take all with them and they march. As the one who's the commander who won the battle, he's the head of all and all his soldiers and all his armies. And as he's walking through the town and walking through the place of the cities, they're all Helen the chief and Helen the commander. And all that he has destroyed is now destroyed. But all the spoils that he has, he's taken with him. It's his now. And when Jesus died on the cross, not only did He spoil and He stripped away the plan and the power, but He stripped away the property because you and I belong to Satan. And He triumphed over him. The very thing that Satan wants is you tonight. The very thing that Satan tonight wants to grab on and wants to take is your soul with him to hell. And at the cross, Jesus triumphed over him, and he took his property. We used to belong to the devil, but now we belong to God, because of the cross, amen? So we find that these truths tonight, as you're talking to a sinner, may not understand all these, but if you understand all these things, in simple terms, you can explain it to them. Let me tell you what happened on the cross. They tell you what happened when Jesus died and was buried and resurrected. Man, he stripped the plan of the devil. The devil's always trying to kill Christ. Always trying to remove him. Oh, the power. When he resurrected, death no more has dominion. Sin no more has power. I mean, listen, the grave is no longer intimidating. And then we were God, now we're God's property. So you can use this truth tonight, the facts of forgiveness. And so we find the answers to 1, 2, and then the next one is 3. Number 2. Now is there the facts of forgiveness? But number two is the force. I'll put the fact, it should be the force. The force of forgiveness. First mistake I ever made. So scratch out the fact and put the force. Well, I'm glad I have my transgressions forgiven. The force of forgiveness. Now, if ones that we're speaking of tonight understands that there's the fact of forgiveness. And we can tell them in all kinds of ways tonight in what we just discussed. But then, there's the force of forgiveness. I mean, we can tell somebody that there's a fact of forgiveness. You can have your sins forgiven. And it is that Jesus forgives them. And number two, that He now takes all the condemnation away. And number three, the devil, who is your enemy, he whooped on the cross. So now he's been defeated. So now you can have forgiveness. But the force of forgiveness, which would mean who has the authority, and we know it's Christ, but look in verse 13, and this is A, the force of forgiveness is the Christ. is the Christ. And verse 13 says, And you, being dead in sins and uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He quickened together with Him. With Him. You see, the force of forgiveness is Him. It's Christ. That's the force of forgiveness. That's the very power of forgiveness, is Him. When you come together with Him, then there's forgiveness. There's no forgiveness outside of Him. And it goes on to Ephesians, if you go to Ephesians chapter 1, or chapter 2, Ephesians chapter 2, he says there in verse 1, he says, And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins? And then verse 5 says, Even when you were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. hath quickened us together with Christ. So what brings us the force of forgiveness? Christ does. It's Him. We come together in Him. That's how we get forgiveness. The second portion of that in Christ is verse 6. Raised us up together and made us to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Not only are we with Christ Jesus, but we're in Christ Jesus. And then thirdly is verse 7. He says that, I'm sorry, verse 6 as well. He says, verse 7, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace and His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. So it's through Christ Jesus. In Christ Jesus, with Christ Jesus, and through Christ Jesus. So the force of forgiveness is Christ. Now you can take that back to Mark, you should have already memorized Mark chapter 2 verse 10. It says the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins. So who forgives sins? Christ. So to the sinner tonight, you're speaking to him concerning sins and how to have forgiveness of sins and so you tell him the fact that God wants to forgive you and He will forgive you. Matter of fact, He already has forgiven you on the cross of Calvary. It's already done. It's a done deal. Sins have already been forgiven on the cross. He has already took away that which condemned you. He has already defeated Satan. That's already done. And the very force of that forgiveness, the why you could get forgiveness is because of Christ. Christ is the force of forgiveness. And secondly, the cross. The cross is the force of forgiveness. For we find in verse 14, into our text, so B is the cross, A is the Christ, and then Colossians chapter 2 verse 14 tells us, nailing it to his cross. Nailing it not to a cross, not nailing it to the cross, nailing it to some cross, but nailing it to His cross. That's an important word. His cross. He has a cross. So that's telling me tonight, if you're going to get forgiveness of sins, you can't come to your cross. You can't come to a cross. You can't come to some cross. You've got to come to His cross. So it's not wherever you think you need to go to get forgiveness tonight. It is He is the force of forgiveness and His cross is the force of forgiveness. You see, your sins that is forgiven was forgiven on the cross. All that was against you, all that was contrary to you, all that was condemning you was nailed on the cross. The defeat and triumph and showing openly and spoiling the principalities and powers was on the cross. Jesus on the cross. And so tonight we find that the force of forgiveness is Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ's cross. The Christ, the cross. Not the Pope. Not the priest. Not you. Not you. Tonight, a very, very disturbing trend takes place into even our Baptist churches tonight. And that is, we are told that if we ask for forgiveness, we're going to get forgiveness as a sinner. That's not true. Who's the force of forgiveness? Christ? Cross? You don't have that ability. You don't have that ability to forgive, give forgiveness for yourself. The question sometimes even asked, have you forgaven you? Where do you get the forgiveness? You gotta go to the cross, Christ. You can't forgive yourself. You don't have that ability to forgive yourself. And to confess your sins tonight is not forgiveness of sin. Where do you get the forgiveness of sin from? Christ, the cross. How many people do we know that's confessed just a small amount of sin? And they never got saved. They never got forgiven. So it must not be just forgiveness of sins. We hear this all the time. Ask Jesus to forgive you of your sins and come into your heart and save you. I believe that's an injustice. I believe it's an untrue statement. I believe it's unbiblical. I don't believe it at all. I don't believe tonight that you can ask Him to forgive you of your sins and you get saved. That's not how you get your sins forgiven. It's not according to the Bible. You say, well, I don't believe that, Brother Lee. Well, then tell me how James and John and Peter got saved. They didn't confess anything. Tell me how Zacchaeus got saved. He didn't confess nothing either. How about Paul? He didn't confess. How about the jailer? How about the eunuch? I mean, we can go on and on tonight in the Bible. How about Moses and how about Abraham? How about Noah? How about Joseph? How about Isaiah? How about Ezekiel? How about those guys? What's their testimony? That they confessed their sins? You see, I'm confused with people out there saying, here's how you get your sins forgiven. Lord, forgive me my sins, come into my heart and save me. And somehow, some way, those words are just, you know, hitting heaven. And God's saying, whoa, that's it. That's not it. That's not it. The forgiveness of sins does not come through a prayer. The forgiveness of sins does not come through a confessing of a sin. Amen? Any questions on that? Any questions? Any comments? Because that's a big deal today. It has been for some time now. And I'm real worried about people who are claiming that they're saved and they say this to you. They say, well, I've been baptized. Are you saved? Yeah, I've been saved. You know, I prayed. I prayed after so-and-so. I'm worried about those. Because that's not how you get forgiveness of sin. And so, tonight, the very force of forgiveness is the Christ and the cross. And let's move on so we can get the answer, because I know you're probably wondering what that is. Since it ain't asking for forgiveness. The third thing, finding of forgiveness, is since forgiveness is in Christ and His cross, The way you find forgiveness, number one, is receive Christ Jesus the Lord. That's how you find forgiveness. We find that in verse 6. As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him. You see, Paul is addressing those people. He's addressing those people in the way of context of the Scripture. When he gets to verse 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, He's still addressing those people. What people? Those people who received Christ. They received Christ Jesus the Lord. They received Christ Jesus the Lord. They received Him. And while receiving Him, what happened? Having forgiven you all trespasses. Having received Jesus Christ the Lord, blotting out handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to the cross. Having received Christ Jesus the Lord, having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a show of them openly triumphing over them in it. What is the key to have forgiveness of sins? Receiving. Christ Jesus the Lord. That's how you get forgiveness of sin. That's how you get it. It's simple, folks. We make it real difficult. It's a simple truth. How do I get forgiveness of sin? How do I get all my sins forgiven? Every one of them. Even ones I don't even remember, and the ones that were done in my thought, my mind, imagination. The thought of foolishness and sin, and how many times was all that? How did I get all my sins that I don't even remember, I forgot? How did I get all that forgiven? Receiving Christ Jesus the Lord. That's how you do it. Receiving Christ Jesus the Lord. 1 John 1.12, But as many as received Him, He gave them the power to become the children of God, even to those that believe. How do we get forgiveness of sins? Trusting, believing, receiving Jesus Christ. Christ Jesus the Lord. Now, when we receive Christ Jesus the Lord, we're receiving three. We're receiving. So, that's the next part. A, tonight, is receive Christ Jesus the Lord. Number one, it says to take Him. You've got to take Him as The anointed. That's what Christ means. The anointed. So when you receive Christ, you're receiving Him as the anointed one of God. You're receiving Christ as there's no other one that's been ordained or chosen by God. When you receive Christ Jesus with the understanding there's nowhere else to go, There's no one else that God has foreordained before the foundation of the world to be the Lamb of God. He is the only one. None other. There's no possible way of anyone else. I have received Christ, the Anointed One. I have received Christ Jesus, Jesus the Savior. No other Savior, no other Redeemer, no other Justifier. In receiving Christ, you take Him as Lord. Christ Jesus the Lord. Christ Jesus the Lord. So you take Him as the Anointed, number one. Number two, you take Him as the Savior, you take Him as the Lord. Now the three other lines down below that, to the left, is these words. He's the Supreme in authority. He's the Controller. And He's the owner. So when you receive Christ, when you take Christ, when Christ is presented to you and you say you're a sinner and your sins are separated between you and God, you can say the wages of sin is death. And you tell a sinner, you're going to die and go to hell because of your sin. Oh, but Jesus, Jesus the Christ, He died on the cross. It was His cross. And He has died so that you can have forgiveness of sin. Everything that's ever come against you, He has taken out of the way. The devil, your enemy, he has spoiled. And all you have to do is receive Christ. Now what happens in receiving Christ, two things take place. Number one, repentance is demonstrated. Number two, faith is demonstrated. Repentance and faith. Repentance and faith. Anybody that was in Judaism, they had to repent from Judaism. You're a heathen, you gotta repent from heathenism. You gotta come to a place, and again, repentance as a sinner is not saying, I'm sorry. That's not repentance as getting saved. Repentance is a changed heart, changed mind. I didn't know I was a sinner, but after I talked to you, I know I'm a sinner, but I know that Jesus went to the cross. He's the only Savior, and He is wanting to save me and forgive me of my sins. You know what I'll do? I'll turn from my sin, and I will trust Jesus. I'll receive Him. Does that make sense? I'll receive Him. Within that is repentance and faith, even to him that believes. Even the word faith is there in verse 2, through faith of the operation of God. So we find receiving is faith and repentance. Paul said it like this. Repentance towards God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Acts chapter 20 verse 21. Repentance towards God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's receiving. Receiving Christ. But receiving Him, though, you take Him as controller. You get your sins forgiven by receiving Him. When you receive Him, your sins are forgiven. Is that true? Yeah. When you receive Him, that means all the condemnation has now been taken away. When you receive Him, no longer does the devil have authority, but he has authority because he's the Lord. The devil no longer is in charge, he's no longer in control. Jesus is, he's the Lord. So, when you receive him, it means something tonight. And you don't un-receive him. You don't go ten years into this thing and say, you know what, Christianity is not what I want to do, I un-receive him. Oh, what's that singer? I seen today on the internet, on the news portion of the internet. Well, she's a singer. It says her name, I can't think of her name, why she doesn't believe in God anymore. Amy Grant? Amy Grant? That Bible-believing, traditional... I'm just lying. She don't believe in God anymore. There's a lot of people who were Christians at one time and now they're not Christians no more. But can I say, when you really receive Christ through repentance and faith, you get your sins forgiven. So, let me just ask kind of a question. If you receive Christ and your sins are forgiven, and you come to a place where you unreceive Christ, then your sins are now unforgiven? You're talking about complicated, huh? So I'll receive Christ, and I get forgiveness of sins, and all my condemnation is taken away and nailed into the cross. But when I unreceive Christ, that means Christ is going to have to go back to the cross and pull it off. Get His hammer, and pull back the nail, take it off, because that's not true anymore. Does that make sense? And there's hundreds and thousands of people who believe you can lose your salvation. The only way you can lose your salvation is if you don't have your sins forgiven. But we find that the forgiveness is in Christ and the cross. You can't undo Christ and you can't undo the cross, so you can't undo... I'm preaching, see? You can't undo for forgiveness of sin. I'm trying hard, church. Okay. Now, let me say this. B, did we all get to B? No, B. Alright, so we're at A, and now we're at B. And B is, tonight, are complete in Christ Jesus the Lord. Are complete, B. Not only was we to receive Christ Jesus the Lord, verse 6, but now in verse 10 through 12, He talks about, especially verse 10, he talks about being complete in Christ Jesus the Lord. So when you receive Christ, Christ Jesus the Lord, we've got to make sure it's that. Not just Christ, not just Jesus, but Christ Jesus the Lord. We receive Him, according to the Bible, we get all our transgressions forgiven, all of the condemnation taken away, nailing to the cross, All the powers and principalities that was against us and contrary to us and all those kind of things has now been triumphant over. Victory. Victory. And we find in that we come complete. He says that in verse 10. And you are complete in Him. So when you get your sins forgiven, you're complete. You're complete. How do I get complete with God? Sins forgiven. How do I get my sins forgiven? By receiving the Christ Jesus the Lord. How do I do that? I do that by knowing and understanding that I'm a sinner. And understanding that it's the cross and Christ that will bring forgiveness into my life. And I repent and I trust. That means I receive Christ. And what happens? You become complete. Complete. That word complete means crammed full. I got that written there. Crammed full, level up, furnished, finished, perfect. That's why the Bible tells us in Ephesians that He has made us to sit in heavenly places with Christ Jesus. Because we're perfect. Did you know you're perfect? I mean, tonight you have a reservation in heaven. Not because you're imperfect. Because you're perfect. Amen? You don't act like it, but you are. Amen? I know it's the place and the position and the stance and the state that you're in and all those kind of things, but to simplify it, whenever you get your sins forgiven, you become complete. You don't need a second blessing. You don't need more of the Spirit. You don't need to crawl on the ground and do some penance. You don't need to become anything. You are completely complete in Christ. Forgiveness brings you there complete, just complete. So. We're talking about tonight, the forgiveness is done. The forgiveness is applied. The forgiveness, the next three verses, the next three lines, forgiveness is done, forgiveness is applied and forgiveness is forever. Forgiveness is done, forgiveness is applied, and forgiveness is forever. Now you go to verse 11, and it says, In whom also you are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands. Now who is that? That's Christ. It says, In putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. So he's circumcising not in a physical way, but in a spiritual way. The Bible teaches us circumcision of the heart. But what he's talking about there is that the sins of the body of the sin, talk about the nature of man, the iniquity of man. All of us have the fallen nature. So that flesh, that body of flesh, the sins of the body of flesh, the iniquity he's talking about, the nature of man, he has forgiven. He has loosened. In other words, to say today as a Christian that it's just natural for me to sin would not be true. Because when you got saved, you took on the divine nature of God. So when the Spirit of God came into you, you have to sin on purpose. You got to sin because you want to. It just don't happen. It's not accident. It's just not just the way we are. Amen? And so the reason why that's so is because that verse 11, he's talking about exactly what he's talking about, is the body of sins of the flesh, he circumcised. He cut that nature away. Even though it's not eradicated, in that we don't sin, it is that sin shall not have dominion over us, for we're not under the law, but we're under grace. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. That's what Christ did on the cross right there. So our nature and then our choice. We're sinners by choice. So the sin of man is forgiven. The nature of man is forgiven. The transgression of man is forgiven. The iniquity of man is forgiven. All of man is forgiven. We're just forgiven. How do we get forgiven? Well, here's how you tell the sinners. Sir, do you know that you're a sinner? Do you know that you've done wrong? Do you know that you've failed? Just about all will say, yes, yes, yes, yes. You say, do you know what that sin has done to you? It has caused you to be spiritually dead. That means you can't have a relationship with God. It means that God don't hear your prayer. That means that you can't understand the Word of God. That means why preaching doesn't affect you. That's why spiritual things don't interest you. These are just truths. They might get upset, but you've got to tell them the truth. And sin is dominating you. I mean, you're under the control of sin. Sin is going to tell you what to do, and you're going to do what it tells you to do. And then the power of your life is the devil. And He is in charge. But Jesus, the Christ Jesus, the Lord, He went to the cross. And at the cross, He has forgiven your sins. At the cross, He has taken all the condemnation that is brought to you. He's wiped it away. He's erased it. At the cross, He took care of your enemy, the devil. And today, if you would just receive Him, receive Jesus Christ, or Christ Jesus the Lord, you'll have forgiveness of your sin. And if you do that today, what you'll do is you'll turn from your sin, or turn from your faith, or turn from your heathenism, or turn from your society, or turn from your world, you'll turn. Now I've got a changed heart and a changed mind. God has granted repentance, and now I'll put my trust in the Christ on His cross. And that'll bring forgiveness to you. Every time. Now, do you see any kind of confessing of sin there? No. It's all bound up on Calvary. I don't have to confess it. He knows it. Forgiven. One more scripture, we'll close. This is a sort of an example. Turn your Bibles to Luke chapter 23. Luke 23. I know I didn't do a very good teaching tonight because I really was really passionate about this tonight. I'm going to have to preach this one day. I'm going to do it next month or two months from now when we all forgot about it. Luke chapter 23, I want you to look there in verse 39. It says, One of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly For we received the due reward of our deeds, but this man hath done nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou hast comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, today shalt thou be with me in paradise. Question? Did he go to paradise with unforgiven sins? Anybody? Did he get to paradise with unforgiven sins? No, they were forgiven, right? Do you see where He asked for forgiveness? Do you see where He prayed and said, Lord, forgive me my sins and come into my heart and save me? I don't see any of that. Do you? I see repentance. And I see faith. You know what I see? I see receiving Christ. That's what I see. He received Christ. He said, Lord, receiving Christ. Christ Jesus, the Lord, he received right there. He said, Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou come in thy kingdom. Because the words he said in verse 41, we indeed justly shall receive the due reward of our deeds. He knew he was a sinner. He knew what he deserves. He didn't have to convince him of his sins, but he also, in the fact, repented. And how do we say, well, look what the other fellow did. The other fellow said this, one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him saying, if thou be Christ, save thyself and us. Does that sound like someone who repented? No. This man repented. And this man put his faith in Jesus and called him Lord. Eventually, or what I'm trying to say is, he received the Christ Jesus, the Lord. And he's in heaven today. without a prayer, without a baptism, without a church membership, without ever making church one time, never give one tithe, never did anything with missions, never told anybody about Christ. He was a horrible church member, but he's in heaven. Why? Because he received Christ Jesus the Lord, and his sins were forgiven. Y'all believe that? Amen. Any questions tonight? Yes. Oh, so you always got to ask the question. Are in Christ. I didn't get that. But that will be is the evidence of forgiveness. So walk in him. I get that another time are. You got it are in Christ. So if you, at verse 6, quickly, he's talking about having received Christ, Jesus, the Lord, walk. Walk. See, the evidence of forgiveness is the walk. That's the evidence of forgiveness. How you walk in today. If you won't walk in Christ, then you got forgiveness. If you don't walk in Christ, then you'll find that you didn't receive Christ for forgiveness of sin. Amen? We'll talk about that later. Any other questions? Good question. I didn't give one answer. Anything? Brother Robert, you have any comments that you want to add to it or put some cream on the top here? Throw it on? No? Help me out? All right, he said he ain't gonna touch it. Any questions, any thoughts, any, if it went too fast, if I didn't go fast enough, if something you can't use, something you will use, something you won't use, be like the jailhouse, take your Bible, throw it in the trash before you go out. Amen, everybody's good? Brother Wade, are we off? OK. Yeah, come on. No. You got a question, man? You got a question? You got to watch him. He tries to be slick. OK. Right. Right. Yeah, the first five sins is, what's Proverbs 21.4? Pride is sin. And so you talk to somebody, and like he said, you don't want to talk about cigarettes and booze and all that kind of stuff. But you ask the guy, sir, do you have pride? No, I don't have no pride. Okay, well then you didn't sin that because in Proverbs 21.4. But then in Proverbs 24.9, what does it say? The thought of foolishness is sin. I said, sir, have you ever thought of, like, killing somebody or strangling somebody's neck or doing something, maybe, you know, you're like, well, I think I'm gonna rob that bank. You're not really gonna rob the bank. What you thought about it? You ever done anything like that? Yeah, I've done something like that. Well, that's sin. So now you're a sinner. Or maybe go to Romans chapter 14, verse 23. Does anybody know what that says? Whatsoever is not of faith is sin. Yeah. Have you ever done anything doubting? Have you done anything in reservation? I don't know if I ought to do that or not. And you did it? That's sin. Have you done anything like that, sir? How about James 4, verse 17? No, that's in 1 John. That's right. To know to do good and not to do it, to him, it is sin. Sir, did you ever know to do something good and you didn't do it? Everybody's done that. Yes, sir, I've done that. That's a sin, and that makes you a sinner. So for the wages of sin is death. For all I've sinned, it comes to the glory of God. Sir, I'm just telling you what sin has done to you. He's caused you to be spiritually dead. You're going to be spiritually damned in eternity. You're going to be controlled. You're controlled by sin. By the way, does that answer your question? The first five. And then, like you were talking about, all unrighteousness is sin. Then you go through the Ten Commandments. What are the Ten Commandments? Well, first one? Second one? Third one? Fourth? Fifth? Sixth? Seventh? Eight? Nine? Bear false witness? Ten? You can ask any of those ten questions, Brother Wade, and you're going to find someone guilty in that. Then that sin that you committed makes you a sinner, and now Jesus went to the cross to die for that sin, and He wants to forgive you. And here's how you get forgiveness. You receive Christ. Make sense? Don't take them down to the Bourbon Street Road. I'm tired of the dipping and the cussing and the drinking and the pornography and homosexuals and abortion and all that is sin, real sin. But you're not going to win a sinner by doing that. All that is fruit of the five sins in which we spoke of. We got to get to the root of the matter. He's a sinner by nature. That's why he looks at pornography. Right? It's his heart. That's why he drinks alcohol. It's not the alcohol's problem. It's his problem with his heart. He's got big anger problems. Well, he needs anger management. No, he needs Jesus in his heart. I got to quit because I get preaching on that too. I got a bad problem. Anybody else have anything tonight? I know this is probably different, way different than ever, but I hope it's good. All right, let's be dismissed with a word of prayer tonight as we stand to our feet.