If you would, first to Romans 13. No. No. Actually, Ephesians I think I have Romans up on the screen, but we'll be in Romans first, Romans 13, and then to Ephesians four. So Romans chapter 13 and then Ephesians four.

Let's see here. It's 13. It's 13, not 14. It's Romans thirteen eleven, not Romans 14. So if you're turning to it, it's Romans thirteen eleven.

Romans 13 chapter 13 and verse 11. And that knowing the time that knowing the the time that now it is high time to awake out of sleep. For now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent. The day is at hand.

Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk honestly as in the day, not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envy, but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Lord, thank you again for this day, for your word, for this opportunity to worship you together, to share your word, and the wonderful message of the gospel of Jesus Christ our savior. Lord, open our hearts to receive it today.

Challenge us in our service. Convict us of sin. Change us into the image of our savior Jesus Christ. And if there be one here today that is yet to receive Christ as savior, I pray that today indeed would be their day of salvation. In Jesus' precious name we do pray.

Amen. As we are the children of God, it is high time. That means it is nearly past time. It it it it it needs to happen when? Now.

As children of God, it is high time to cast off those remnants of the old life and put on the ways of Christ. Why are you so hanging on to them? Why they are not your friend, they are your enemy. They may whisper in your ear that you need them to be happy, but you don't. We have Jesus.

We have every reason to be happy. We have everything that we need in Jesus Christ, our savior. He said he shall supply all our needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. No need to be enamored by the things of the world. No need to go back to those things, those attitudes, and those ways before we knew Jesus.

It is time for us to wake up and cast off the things of the old life and put on the things of the new. The passage we read earlier from Romans six pictures baptism as a Christian as a Christian, as a way of saying publicly, I am a child of God. I have been given new life in Christ. And by God's grace and with his help, I am going to live my life for him in his service and for his glory. Turn if you would to Ephesians chapter four.

Ephesians four, just a few pages, just a little ways over. Romans first and second Corinthians, Galatians, and Ephesians. They're in your New Testament. Ephesians chapter four. In this passage, it talks about the very same thing we read about here in Romans 13.

Cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and it's speaking the same things in Ephesians four. We won't read all the verses we've read several times over the last few weeks, but we're we have now reached the end of the chapter and we'll begin reading in verse 29 again that we looked at last week and read down through verse 32. So Ephesians four twenty nine through 32. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, But that which is good to the use of edifying that it may minister grace unto the hearers.

And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby you're sealed until the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice and be ye kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. Rather than harboring hatred and malice in our hearts, rather than running off at the mouth and gossiping and hurting other people. God says, this is my way. Be ye kind to one another, Tenderhearted and is sensitive and considerate of the needs of of others out of a heart of compassion.

Tenderhearted. Forgiving one another Because, well, if you live in a world with other sinful people, you gotta learn to forgive because you get hurt. That happens. Be kind one to another. Tender hearted, forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.

Here, we are told in God's word to put off the things, the attitudes of the world of bitterness and hatred and malice and replace it with the attitude of Christ, humility, kindness, and forgiveness. It is not the way of Christ to harbor grudges. It is the way of the world. It's not the way of Christ to harbor resentment and ill will and hatred toward others. The way of the Lord is forgiveness.

How do we know? Because he has forgiven us. He gave his life to have the opportunity to forgive us. That is the way of Christ. Even in secular literature and film, true forgiveness is understood as one of the most valued virtues.

Why? Because of its rarity. A lot of people say I forgive, but they don't. Because of its beauty, reflection of the beauty of our creator, God, and savior because of its power for good. Forgiveness opens doors to things in life and relationship that nothing else can open because resentment and hatred and grudges, they only close those doors.

The biggest door of open the biggest door of all was opened by who? Jesus Christ our savior. When as it says, but God commendeth his love toward us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. He opened that door to forgive a lost and dying race of people who had chosen the way of rebellion and sin. To open openly invite them to come back and receive forgiveness and redemption and salvation.

Sadly, hatred, malice, bitterness, and a vengeful spirit are all too common. True forgiveness is not. Those things, hatred, malice, bitterness, they are reflection not of the God who made us, but of the quote unquote small g God of this world, the prince and power of the air, that would be who? The devil. They reflect his attitudes.

They do not reflect our savior's. And if you know Christ, which are you supposed to be reflecting? As children of God, we are to put on who? Christ. His attitudes.

One of the greatest of those is forgiveness. Now our passage in the passage we read today, we are compelled to forgive others because what? Because Christ hath what? Forgiven us. To understand the meaning of forgiveness, we need to understand what Christ has done for us of his forgiveness.

Then we can recognize not only the great gift that is ours, but how we can also share that gift. The gift of the gospel, but also the gift of forgiveness with others in our life. So let's take a few minutes this morning. Let's look at what Christ did for us. His gift, his forgiveness of us.

We'll start this morning with the load. The load, the burden that humanity carries. What is that burden? It is the guilt of their what? The guilt of their sin.

For all have sinned, Romans three twenty three, and come short of the glory of God. It is a burden, it is a problem that we are born with. Thanks to Adam and Eve. As by one man sin entered the world, death by sin, so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned in the way of our father Adam. In Psalm fifty one five, it says, behold, I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me.

What David is saying there is, even before I was old enough to recognize and understand what sin was, I was already a what? Sinner. I was born that way. Born with that problem. We all are and we add to it.

Do we not? We sin. We transgress. The Bible says sin is the transgression of the law. And how many times have you transgressed the law of your maker and creator?

Well, you probably don't know that number, do you? Why is that? Because we have done it so so many times. We haven't failed him once. We haven't just disobeyed him once though once is enough.

The Bible says if you have disobeyed in in one, if you broke and transgressed in one, you've done you've been condemned by all. We add to it. We feel the weight in something called guilt. Adam and Eve felt it in the Garden Of Eden and they hid themselves. And God said, why are you hiding?

Did you do what I told you not to do? Now God knew. Did he not? But he needed Adam to express his what? His guilt because that's why they were hiding from God.

Romans seven twenty four said, oh wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? That's the apostle Paul. Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Well, he tells us later in the passage, who who's the answer? The answer is Jesus Christ.

He is the one who can deliver me. Romans three nineteen says, now we know that what things so ever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that's us, that every mouth may be what? Stopped and that all may become what? Guilty before God. Actually, God gave the law to the nation of what?

Israel. And why did he give them the law? Well, there were several reasons for their own good, for one. So they might know their God, his nature, and what he expects of them. So they might also know when they had failed.

Children need something called boundaries, so they'll know when they have crossed the what? When they've crossed the line, when they've crossed the boundaries. Live in a world today's, sad to say, where they don't wanna give kids boundaries. And so kids are constantly pushing, pushing, pushing, trying to figure out where are the boundaries. And they get into all kinds of terrible things because nobody's willing to say there's a right and there's a what?

A wrong. And here's where wrong is. Don't go there. They need to be taught. They need to be told.

Well, so do we. All of humanity needs boundaries. We need to know right from wrong. We need to know what our God expects so that when we've crossed the boundary, we've know, oh, I've messed up. Why did God give Israel the law?

Why is it recorded and preserved for us? Why? So that we will recognize we're sinners. And so that we might feel what? Guilty.

And there's nothing wrong with feeling guilty. You should feel guilty if you are doing wrong. Guilt is a good thing. But as we live in this world and as we go through this world each year by year, day by day, that weight of guilt gets what? Heavier and heavier and heavier, and it weighs us down.

It brings shame. It brings a feeling of hopelessness and dread and fear. What is going to happen to me? Am I ever gonna get out from under this huge heavy burden of guilt that I have amassed? These things are the load of sin which humanity carries on their shoulders.

Over centuries, men have sought to rid themselves of that burden because it's miserable feeling guilty all the time, isn't it? It is. How does man try to deal with it? Well, what did Adam and Eve try to do? Well, they tried to hide.

Did that did that solve the problem? We'll just hide from God and then no. That didn't work. God found them. Man tries to avoid it, maybe by ignoring and denying it.

Oh, me? I don't feel guilty. No. I don't I don't feel guilty. No.

I haven't done anything wrong. First John one, God had this to say, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive who? Ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar.

Who? A liar. Who are we saying is a liar if we say we haven't sinned? We're saying God's a liar because God said for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us.

But man still tries to deny his sin over and over and over. I'm a deny it, I'll ignore it, and hopefully that'll just make this burden of guilt just what? Dissolve. Does it? No.

Man tries to deal with this burden of guilt by drowning it with activity, ambition, and wealth. I'll just ignore it and I'll do all this other stuff. I'll amass this wealth and I'll and I'll I'll accomplish and be king of the world and and and then I won't feel guilty. You know, you'll just be king of the world and have a lot of money and be weighed down with even more what? Guilt.

Doesn't work that way. Man tries drowning it out with drugs, alcohol, and sexual immorality. It's all over our society. I mean, just all over. Does that solve the problem?

You get sober, all the guilt comes flying, what, back. And very often, now you have more to be guilty for than you did before. It doesn't work that way. Man tries drowning it out with good works and religious activity. Well, if I just go to church so often and I I give money to the offering plate and I and I help this friend and I help that neighbor.

I do these good things then I'm not gonna feel guilty. My good is gonna outweigh my my bad. That's a lie of who? That's a lie of Satan that is not the word of God. That is not the way for you to be rid of your guilt.

Says here in Romans three twenty, therefore by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight for by the law is the knowledge of sin. You'll try to keep the law, good luck. You say, well, I do pretty good about the 10 commandments. Okay. You have.

Ever taken God's name in vain? Ever lied? Ever dishonored your parents when you were younger? Think we've all failed already, haven't we? And we only hit three of them.

The fact is, we're told in Ephesians chapter two, for by grace are you saved through what? Faith. And that not of yourselves is the gift of of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. You can't work your way to heaven. Your good will never outweigh your bad.

And you know something? Even if it did, it wouldn't matter because all it takes is one. One law broken. Just one. And we have broken thousands.

You just can't erase what you did wrong. You can't erase that guilt by doing good things. Then you have good things, but you still have the what? Still have the bad things. You go to the judge and say, judge, yeah, I know I stole somebody's car.

I know I I I beat this person and I I know that I stole this and I did that and but, you know, I go to church and I give an offering and I'm nice to my neighbor so you'll just erase it all. Right? Does it work that way? The answer is no. It doesn't.

The price has to be paid and in our heart we know that. And it it burdens us down with this guilt. These inventions of man which exclude God or try to twist God into some something more like sinful man. They don't work because that's not who God is. God is a holy God.

God is a righteous and just God. Man will continue to see violence in the streets. He will continue to see climbing suicide rates among young and old as long as we refuse to face up to our what? To our sin and our guilt and our God. It's like a a fly caught in a spider's web.

And the fly is caught in the spider's web. And the fly is trying to get free and the and the fly struggles and twists and flaps its wings and moves its legs and what happens? Well, as it does that, it just gets more wound up in the what? In the web. And that's what happens to man.

We struggle and twist and turn and contort and lie and deny and justify and we just get more what? More wrapped up in the web. Numbers 32, it says, but if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against your the Lord and be sure your sin will find you out. Tells us the soul that sinneth, it shall die. In James one, but every man is tempted when he's drawn away of his own lust and enticed.

Then when lust have conceived, it bringeth forth sin and similar to this finish bringeth forth death. Galatians six, be not deceived. God is not mocked for whatsoever man soweth that shall he also reap. God is not trying to convince you not to feel guilty. Man is trying to do that.

You may be trying to do that, but God needs you to feel the weight of your guilt so that you will want to come to him for him to relieve you of that burden. Man doesn't want to humble himself and recognize that and confess that before his God. Doesn't wanna change the air of his way. So he tries to find any other way to get out from under that burden than coming to God. But there's only one way you can be relieved of that burden and that is through the Lord Jesus Christ.

You see, if it ended with you just have a burden of guilt and you're gonna be separated from God and there's nothing you can do about it, that would be terrible. But the gospel means good news and there is good news. Yes, there is guilt. Yes, there is sin. Yes, there is a penalty and punishment to pay for sin, But there is a way of escape.

There is a way to be saved from this fate. There is a way for that guilt to be what? To be relieved from your shoulders. And that way is a person and that person is Jesus Christ. He could just let you face the penalty in hell for your sin, bear the punishment of your guilt before him, and he would be right and just for doing so.

But he offers instead what? Forgiveness. Release, pardon from sin's penalty and the guilt associated with it. The Bible says in Romans three seventeen, for Christ came not into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. Why did Jesus come?

To save you, to relieve you of your guilt and the punishment and penalty of your sin. He came to make a way for your life to be different and for your life to end with him in heaven for all eternity. Since we cannot turn back the clock and erase our sins, and since we cannot altogether stop sinning or change our nature, and since in our lost condition we have nothing to offer God in payment for our failure, God offers us salvation free as a gift. Psalm we just sang said, for nothing good have I, whereby thy grace to claim. For nothing good have I whereby thy grace there's nothing I can bring to God and say, God, here, I will give you this in exchange for you giving me forgiveness and eternal life.

There's nothing I have to offer. The Bible says, our righteousness, our good works are as filthy rags. You don't take a bunch of filthy oily dirty rags and hand them to somebody say, here's your gift. Here, I will trade you these nasty, filthy, grimy rags for that whatever over there that you want. You wouldn't do that.

The Bible says our good works are as filthy racks. We have nothing to offer God and say, God, I will give you this if you give me that. There's nothing we have to offer. But there's something God had to offer, his son. And he sent his son to die and to suffer the punishment for our sin.

And having done that, God now offers us based on the sacrifice of his son and his taking our punishment. God can now offer us forgiveness. A release from the debt and the guilt of sin. He offers us justification, a judicial ruling by where by whereby we are pardoned from the penalty of sin. He offers us salvation, deliverance from the bondage and the power of sin if we will receive his offer through faith in his son.

Not based upon our goodness or our own merit, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his what? His mercy he saved us. This is all made possible by the sacrifice of Christ, whereupon he suffered the wrath of God in our place. Where whereby Christ satisfied the just wrath of God upon sin and upon the sinner making atonement for our sins. Look at this verse here.

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 and took it out of the way nailing it to his what? To his cross. Christ nailed our sins to his cross, to himself. He took upon him the sins of the world and he bore the guilt and he bore the punishment on the cross to purchase for us the gift of eternal life and forgiveness by the shedding of his own blood. For we're not redeemed with corruptible things but with the precious blood of Christ, the lamb of God without spot and without blemish.

Thus, making it possible for condemned sinners to be forgiven, released from their sentence which hung over our heads and the guilt that we carried. Romans five nine. Much more than being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. If we will accept it, God offers us forgiveness. That gift cost more than any gift that has ever been given.

It cost the life of the son of God. He bore the punishment and wait for the sins of the world for you. That's how much he loves his creation. That's how much he loves you. And he has and he will forgive you if you will accept his gift and his offer.

It comes at great cost to him. It comes at great benefit to you. For God, he died so that he might put away our sins and remember them no more. That is to bring them up, never again. They have been wiped, washed away, forgiven forever in Jesus Christ.

Do we deserve that? No, we don't. We don't deserve that at all. But that is the forgiveness of God for us. And that is the kind of forgiveness that he wants us to share with others.

Because as we have sinned against God, we also sin against each other, and we must learn to forgive. But we will never have to forgive as much as God has forgiven who? Has forgiven us. That is the immensity of his love and of his forgiveness. How do we appropriate his wonderful gift?

Forgiveness, justification, salvation, eternal life? When we repent and put our faith in Christ Jesus as our Lord. Invite him to be the savior of our life. That is how that gift becomes yours. When you receive God's forgiveness, you are what?

Saved and forgiven and given the gift of everlasting life. God offers it, but you must receive it. If you reject it, there remains no offering for sin. There is only one, Jesus Christ. For he that believeth on him is not condemned.

But he that believeth not is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten son of God. As we get to the conclusion of our service today, I have two questions. One, if you're a child of God and you know you're saved, Are you a forgiving person? Have you learned from the forgiveness of your savior and the immensity of it how to forgive others? It is something we need to learn and something we need to share.

We need to cast off bitterness and holding grudges, resentment, and hatred. And we need to put on the forgiveness of who? Of Jesus Christ. But number two, if you're here this morning, say, I'm not sure I understand. Or I think I do understand and I I haven't received God's gift of eternal life.

I haven't accepted his forgiveness. I'm still carrying that burden. Let God take that burden from your shoulders today. As we give this hymn of invitation, meet me down here. I'll I'll share with from you or I'll have someone else share from you with you today how you can be saved and know it, and walk out these doors not carrying that burden anymore.

For you will have passed from death unto life. Let's pray. Dear God, thank you, Lord, for Jesus Christ, our savior. Thank you for what you did and the forgiveness that we have in Jesus. Lord, please forgive us of our sin and of our failures and help us, Lord, to live for you, to show others the forgiveness that is ours in Jesus Christ, our savior.

We pray, dear heavenly father, that if there's one here today or two or three that have yet to come know Christ, come to know Christ as Lord and savior of their life, I pray that they would meet us down here and share with them how they can be saved today and know it. Lord, you so love them and want them to be saved. I pray that you would today. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.