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ACTS 13: 38-39

"THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS"

I. "THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS"
        A. Paul was addressing himself to man's greatest need.
                1. Man's greatest need is feIIowship with God. 
                        a. Fellowship is a oneness.
                        b. Through fellowship with Him our lives are complete.
                        c. Man was made subject to emptiness.
                        d. Apart from God, at best, you are 2/3's of a man.
                                1. Living on a body conscious level you are living on the
                                   animal plane.
                                2. This is why so many seek to identify and relate
                                        themselves to the animal kingdom.
                                3. Man did not rise from animals but he fell from God.
                2. Sin makes oneness with God impossible.
                        a. Sin and righteousness are mutually exclusive.
                        b. "God's hand is not short that He cannot save..."
                3. Yet God wants this fellowship with man.
                        a. Not that it adds anything to Him.
                        b. It is because He loves you and He knows what it will add to  your
                           life.
        B. The problem thus arises, how can a just God forgive sins?"
                1. Word "just" comes from root word meaning to see. 
                        If we translate observe, we come closer to its meaning. 
                        a. See these rules? I want you to observe them.
                        b. So it is acting in harmony with what you see.
                2. Forgive in the divine sense is also to forget, to act as though it
                        never happened.
                3. Sin is to miss the mark.
                4. How can a God who sees all things and acts in harmony with what He  sees
                   treat the missing of the mark as though it was not  missed?
        C. This is where Jesus of necessity comes in  "Through this Man
                Jesus) is preached the forgiveness of sins."
                1. The penalty far sin is death both spiritual and physical.
                2. "And God laid on Him the iniquities of us all." And He
                        died for all.
                3. Now God will place His righteousness on all that will
                        believe in Him.
                4. Adam is the father of mankind.
                        a. We have received our nature from him.
                                1. Marked by flesh dominated mind.
                        b. All of us can trace our genes back to him. 
                        c. Adam sinned, thus you have inherited a sinful nature.
                5. Jesus is the beginning of anew  race.
                        a. Spirit dominated mind,  fellowship with God.
                        b. To be related to this new race you must be born of the Spirit.
                        c. Through Jesus a whole new life is possible and fellowship with  
                           God a reality.

II. "BY HIM ALL THAT BELIEVE ARE JUSTIFIED OF ALL THINGS."
        A. "All things" it makes no difference what your past holds, how far you may  hove 
           missed the mark.
                1. God will see you in Christ who hit a bullseye.
                        a. Jesus hit the mark, He was all God intended man to be. 
                        b. Now God sees you in Him.
        B. "Justified" just as though it never existed.
                1. Your past failure and sin is as though it never existed.
        C. This is something the law of Moses could never do for man.
                1. It could only point out my failure, it could never erase it.