[0:00] We may now consider together as we shall be enabled words you will find in the chapter of 14 of which we read together. The Gospel according to Luke chapter 5.
[0:18] And we may read again from verse 22. Luke chapter 5 at verse 2 and 1.
[0:31] Especially the last part of the 22nd verse. What reason do you aim to use heart?
[1:00] In the circumstances that obtain at this time. This question was both searching and penitent.
[1:19] As a matter of fact it always is. What reason is in your heart?
[1:35] Now we read of the occasion that called for this question.
[2:15] Where forgiveness? and the retort that that called for was this who is this that he can blaspheme who can forgive sins but God only and Jesus perceiving that thought said unto them what reason is in your heart no there was a definite process of reasoning in your they reasoned no that in itself is highly commendable oftentimes the trouble is that people don't reason reason requires a certain amount of effort and this effort in our day and generation is is more or less and more rather than less people are spoon fed their thinking is done for them and this is true and this is true in religious as in other things but here the men reasoned and they reasoned up to a point on sound basis who can forgive sins but God only now that was a question that any child could answer in fact it didn't require an answer the very framing of the question was it your answer who can forgive sins but God only none of course but it's the prerogative of the eternal to forgive sins so there isn't like this
[5:11] God only can forgive sins this man says he can forgive sins therefore this man blasphemes or the the the the minor famous may be changed only God can forgive sins this man is not God therefore this man cannot forgive sins the reason and Jesus perseed what there isn't in their heart now there is here for an encouragement and a call for hurting of themselves he saw that there is he took note of the fact that there isn't he took note of the fact of course that the reasoning was wrong but prior to that he took note of the fact of reasoning itself he perceived their cause and ask him this question what is this that he reads in your heart what he thinks in your heart you know as we have indicated this is always a personal and a penetrating question what reason he in your heart happens this man the matter of forgiveness of sins now the matter in itself is of the highest importance the matter in itself demands consideration forgiveness of sins now we know that
[7:43] Jesus in healing the thing of the palm thing went to the root cause of every disease there are diseases that are more easily traced to sin than others but whether easily traced to it or not the fact is this that all disease has its origin in sin as death has its origin in sin so when he said to the man thy sins are forgiven thee it was but another way of saying thou hast healed of thy disease but healing the body and healing sin are just the same may be a connection and there certainly is a connection but nevertheless there is a big difference between them
[9:01] I am sure the reasoning of the Pharisees and the doctors of the law would have had a different turn if Jesus had not mentioned the forgiveness of sin they could have found fault with the healing on some other ground but they would not have charged him with blasphemy they wouldn't have accused him of this sin but solely on these grounds that he took to himself a prerogative of God one of the prerogatives of the eternal and thereby either spoke blasphemy or else was deceived and was deceiving yes but still the question for me is what reason is in your hearts knowing all that the reason about this question at all there are certain three suppositions the first is that we are in some measure acquitted with sin itself what reason is in your heart regarding the sin for of course what we reason in our hearts regarding that will of necessity have a truth bearing upon what we reason in our hearts concerning the forgiveness of sins sin the fact of sin the dark staring past forces what is we know how happened what is it to us well the
[11:26] Lord perceived their thoughts God and that is equally true of us he knows reasoning about sin the Lord takes notice of what we think of men what it is to us and the question comes to us as it came to those of old saying what reason is in your heart but to come to the next question what do we in our hearts about the forgiveness of sins are we in agreement with the scribes the Pharisees and the doctors of the law and it's a good thing to be in agreement with them on some part if we differ with them on this point we shall certainly be wrong this part is that none can forgive sins but
[12:51] God only I agree with the Pharisees there I agree with the doctors of the law at least it would be good for me if I did agree with them on that point now remember this is not a common truth of knowledge among people who can forgive these sins but God only now I'm not referring to the precise sense in which these words were used by the Pharisees or how much they understood of the import and the content of their own work sin but are we convinced of this that none can forgive sin but
[13:52] God all how can start not convinced of that God now come from there assuming that we are convinced that only God or God can forgive sin the next question arises how does God forgive sin and if the fact of his not forgiving the fact of his forgiving sin is not believed by all for the way of his forgiving sin is known but too few God forgives sin how does
[14:54] God forgive sin what reason we know not about this well we make no apology for bringing this before you time after time for we believe that it is precisely here thousands have deceived for eternity and we are not better than they are it is for our benefit to consider this again and again and again how God forgives this he alone can forgive it can forgive sins but how does he do what reason we know how about this so here we should immediately pass company with the pharisees and the doctors of the law they were right in declaring that only
[15:59] God could forgive sins but they were entirely wrong in that conception of forgiveness of sins they were entirely wrong in the way they thought God would forgive sins and it was that it was precisely that error that ministered to their self-righteousness and that of that they knew not the secret of forgiveness of sins they had their own way and it was the way that had been worked out through many generations an elaborate way a way that was sent down indeed but it was wrong from beginning to end but this is still the way of forgiveness of the natural heart the way of the
[17:08] Pharaoh the way of the doctors of the Lord and the natural heart knows no other way of forgiveness but this one and in a new word it amounts to this you do your best and God will look after the rest that was both the philosophy and the theology of the parents and that is the theology that is filling the churches of the world at this present time you do your best and God will take care of the rest that all the mass of the people know about the weakness of this at home at home men through blood shedding is a novelty today and even where that is preached the knowledge of it through the spirit is something that is very rarely found very rarely found
[18:44] God forgiveness man forgiveness is something that makes it at every turn and this man forgiveness that he will do stuff in the next time that he will make at home for his own sins in that way of bloodless atonement that's his way and that is the underlying for it finds expression in the mind and in the life in millions of ways and while this principle rule is uncovers the unregenerate heart it is a principle that is strong while it doesn't all together rule or govern in the heart of the man who is regenerated heart and somebody said what's it going to do with things that have the answer was forget about it that's alright and as a matter of fact it matters little while that we forget get about them or not that is not the question but does
[20:30] God forget about it what does God say the God who requires that which is past the God for whom nothing is past if we could only think like this but what is past to us is not past to God at all there is no past with God nothing passes from God and there is nothing future to him so there is nothing past with him not to forget about a thing obviously there is not to deal with that thing as it should be dealt and above all this is true in the realm of sin what think we in our hearts about forgiveness of sins well given the fact of sin given that
[21:39] God only can forgive me how does forgive you and here let us construct our own conscience there is first of all the way of getting away from the accusation of conscience by the way we have met by forgetting about sin and still like anything else will fade in the memory it doesn't matter how much trouble it may cause at the time like everything else it will fade little by little so that there is a certain amount of peace that comes from forgetfulness of sin forgettable but does that mean that all is well has that anything whatever to do with the forgiveness of sin nothing whatsoever and this is a place where we should sow both conscience whether it's peace if we enjoy any measure of peace at least if our conscience is not violently disturbed what is the cause of that is it because we tend to forget those things that trouble just have 20 years ago 10 years ago a year ago doesn't happen so much now at all and we think that all is well because of that oh what a mistake what a mistake that is not forgiveness of sin what reason we know half about it the forgiveness of sin which
[24:08] God only can confer on the sinner is forgiveness through adornment forgiveness through the blood of spirit and it doesn't matter what peace we have unless it has come to us through the blood of spirit it is a heart peace a peace that will leave us when we need it more forgiveness of sin now the forgiveness of God has first of all a God word aspect I wonder how many of us have ever been troubled with this what those sins do to
[25:09] God not merely what they do to us what will come upon them in notice but how many of us have never have been troubled with this the dishonor that sin casts upon God God would aspect not only in forgiveness but in sins very natural what it does to God absolutely speaking of course it cannot be anything to God in the after that is God is a verbal sin as he is a verbal righteous nevertheless it would be a deadly heresy to say that God was indifferent to say he is not and cannot be it is that which dishonors it that which that of which he takes notice that which calls forth his wife and his curse for time and for eternity
[26:30] God is affected to put it like that by sin he is dishonored by it God how much what means we know how about the dishonor those things do to God someone had irreverently what question of that I answered well God can look at and infer yes he can that is quite true that is not the part the point is can we look after ourselves in our relationship with God certainly God can look after himself and we may ask he would look after us too and he will see to you that the dishonor has done to his name will be visited with condign punishment but as a matter for our own reason as subjects of our own heart what think we have to do and in close to
[28:15] Americans with that we say what takes me off forgiveness of sins by which God is glorified first as if the soul said get me first see how God is glorified by forgiveness and then I may consider this relation to myself but this is something I demand that God be glorified thereby that used to be common language in the sphere of experimental religion it used to be we say it is worse than three now to many congregations they don't know the first thing they've never heard they've never conceived of such an idea in their life
[29:31] God honor and God rights please rights first of all and especially in connection with the forgiveness of sins what reason do you in your hearts and then again lastly in this connection there is this meaning of forgiveness upon the conscience this at least in past may be considered as the steel of the spirit with which the same that steel till the day of death the sealing of pardon of sin on their conscience it is one thing to hear about the forgiveness of sins it is one thing to have sound and scripted and use of forgiveness of sins it is another thing entirely to have that sealed or no conscience by the holy spirit and how does that happen it does not happen by anything that man can do it happens through the ministry of the holy spirit and it happens in accord and to it or in conformity with man's peace it is not something that is as it were placed upon him without knowing why or when or who no the sealing of forgiveness on the contrary is something that is done through man's intelligence he is dealt with as an intelligent teacher a people capable of reason he reasons in his heart and he must reason about the forgiveness of his sins too now hear in sealing forgiveness on the conscience the holy spirit of
[32:15] God enlightens the mind in the knowledge of the atonement which God hath made the covenant which God hath provided for forgiveness of sins it enlightens the mind and the mind enlightened by the holy ghost as it feels forgiveness on the conscience is a mind that is directed through the cross of sin to the death of sin the feeling of forgiveness on the conscience is through the blood of sin and it can come in no other way it is the result of the mind the heart being enlightened to reason to reason what does it reason well it is in a word he has made him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we must believe the righteousness of
[33:48] God in this sin but you see what is said in this context is that it is the son of man that forgives sins upon the earth yes that is quite and all together in perfect accord with what we have said he made him sin for us even him who knew no sin this is the at home forgiveness the at home is the only forgiveness known to the scriptures the only forgiveness God will acknowledge but you may say now tell me more about that what do you mean by the mind being directed to Christ as the at home of
[34:51] God's own provision of God's own name he provided an arm and thereby made at home man what do you mean exactly by that oh well there are some things about which we have to speak and cannot very well explain there are some things that are beyond the the mind of man and especially beyond the language of man or in that case you should these things shouldn't be spoken about at all or that doesn't follow that does not follow as a matter of fact we have a definite scriptural precedent for saying that there are certain things that cannot be described what does unspeakable mean it's unspeakable that's all you can say about what the soldiers inside try to go to describe what cannot be described what can speak about if he couldn't speak about it himself surely nobody else can but there are certain things and especially in this connection that we have to be dealt with it in our own minds what is important is that we should know that not that we should describe that that we should know what it is to look unto thee and in looking have hardened field on out heart in looking being able to commit ourselves to him believing that he is able to keep what is committed to him again that day what reason he in your heart that those pardon the pardon of his sin the sealing of that pardon of his conscience by the
[37:26] Holy Spirit of God what think he of this what reason he about it and imagine this happens there is a sitting down under the shadow of Jesus when his fruit is sweet with his soul that has pardon field upon is a soul that sits and says nothing sits and wonders at what God has done sits under the shade of the almighty sweet sweet reason in the heart how marvelous it is that there is forgiveness of sins through
[38:27] Jesus Christ we have seen strange things this day and the soul has never seen such a strange thing as as as as as the way of achievement the way that God forgiveness comes to the soul we have two strange things as we have pointed out to you before the word the original paradox we have 10 paradoxes through today and it is certainly a paradox to know God's forgiveness it is a slight contradiction until the
[39:28] Lord enlightens the mind but even then so many things remain unexplained and the soul who sees forgiveness in the blood of thee is a soul that will go back to that time he'll go back to that experience again again say well this was in it although I couldn't see that time that was it the next thing was everything was in it why that was it and everything is inside everything the fullness of the God dwell as bodily in it what reason be in your heart whether someone reason well
[40:28] I wish I could be as clear on these things as I would like to be although I have hope that the Lord has that grace of me with me feeling forgiveness for my conscience I am not as clear about them as I should like to be or there have been and there are many of the Lord even without pride nevertheless the Lord who began will finish the work heal and life in you as he thinks fit only only do thou wait upon the Lord do thou wait upon the Lord see that you look to him and to him only for the enlightenment of your mind in the knowledge of his forgiveness so that you will think about it what God thinks about it that you will reason your heart after the thought of
[41:31] God that your conception of it in your own measure will be similar to God's conception of it and that you may glorify God for it again the question comes what we can be in your heart much depends on that for them that we might be and consistently unto the Lord for it is he who reveals these things let him let him but the heart who is in heaven let us pray