The Forgiveness of God | Senior Pastor Kenneth Carpenter
by Kenneth Carpenter
First Apostolic Church of Maryville (Maryville, TN)
Kind: sermon
Scripture: Psalm 103:1-3, Mark 8:36, Psalm 106:11-13, Mark 2:5, Colossians 1:14, Ephesians 1:7, Luke 24:47, Acts 10:43, John 20:23, Acts 2:38, Matthew 26:28, Luke 1:77, Hebrews 6:1, 1 John 1:9, James 5:16, Acts 19:18-20, Acts 2:37, Acts 16:28-30

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/kenneth-carpenter--the-forgiveness-of-god
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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well mothers i hope that you'll be very forgiving of me i tried my best to follow the protocol and have a mother's day message but i never could get rest in my spirit and so i found myself this week in a conversation with two different people talking about the subject of forgiveness forgiveness and uh this may not be a mother's day message that you would say it was a mother's day message but it is a message that i feel the lord would have me to preach today the book of psalms chapter 103 starting at verse number one psalms 103 and verse number one david wrote this psalm and he said bless the lord o my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name bless the lord o my soul and forget not all his benefits forget not all his benefits who forgiveth all thine iniquities who healeth all thy diseases father i ask you today to minister to all of us but god most importantly today an urgent minister to the soul that's closest to eternity god you know the time of our departure and god i pray today if there's a man woman boy or girl and the sound of my voice and they're not ready to meet you oh god this morning touch their hearts with your spirit god strengthened the church today may this message cause us to bear greater fruit i'll give you the praise if you'll anoint me i will give you praise and honor for no flesh shall glory in your presence in jesus name we all pray amen and amen you may be seated three simple verses bless the lord o my soul and all that is within me i want you to notice what part of david he blessed the lord with he blessed the lord man is made up of body soul and spirit but the most valuable part of you and i this morning the most valuable part of you and i this morning is not our body nor our spirit the most valuable part of you and i this morning is our soul our soul so david is saying oh bless the lord oh the most valuable part of me today valuable sure it is more valuable than my body sure it is we tend to spend way more time and money and effort on our body that's very temporal and not our soul that is eternal jesus said in mark chapter 8 verse number 36 he says for what shall a man profit if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own what soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul so the psalmist says i am going to bless the lord i am going to praise the lord but i'm going to use the part of me that's the most of value bless the lord o my soul and all that is within me but then he adds in verse number two he adds this admonition and forget not and forget not can we be transparent with one another this morning ought to get the loudest man out of the house when i say what i'm about to say we are prone to forget we're prone to forget the older you get when they start giving you that list to go to walmart the older you get text it to me it saves it saves on a conversation later on like all right text it to me because we are prone to forget oh bless the lord o my soul and all that is within me and forget not his benefits we can be prone to forget the most glorious things that god has done for us i'm going to tell you something we have forgotten so much that the lord has already done that if we started remembering this morning i wouldn't get through preaching for the shouting that would be going on that's why sometimes when the choir starts singing songs like i made it out i made it out all right i say y'all think that he couldn't sway didn't you i made it out i made it out see why the spirit gets going is we out here in the pews start remembering about time three years ago when we made it out we made it out all right we start remembering about being sick with the fever i made it out right yeah i could mash on this accelerator this morning but i want to preach a little bit longer all right i could i'm glad we made it out but we are prone to forget and we forget the most important things we forget his benefits we forget his benefit somebody wants in a derogatory manner said you apostolic folks y'all have a bunch of fits i say yeah we do we have benefits praise god we we have benefits the bible said don't don't forget don't forget the benefits don't forget the benefits bless the lord oh my soul the most valuable part of me and don't forget the benefits well psalms 106 verse 11 says that it's this way and the waters covered their enemies talking about coming out of egypt coming out of egypt the red sea and the waters covered their enemies there was not one of them left man how could you forget that and the waters covered all the egyptians there wasn't one of them left then belay believe they his words they sang his praises remember on the other side of the red sea miriam got a tambourine out and the women went to dancing and the song went like this the horse and the rider hath jehovah thrown into the sea the lord triumphant gloriously they broke out and shouting all because they saw all their enemies drowned but could you read verse 13 with me but they and waited not for his counsel man you think you could ever forget the red sea seeing the egyptians drown you think you could ever forget the miracles that brought them out of egypt you're sitting there saying oh if i saw that if i saw that i'd never forget that oh yeah you would because some of us have forgotten something more valuable than the red sea and that's the day of the night we went down in the water in the name of jesus christ for the remission of ourselves oh don't you ever forget that day so here's what i want to leave with you today here's the first benefit that's mentioned here is the first benefit that is mentioned the first who forgiveth who forgiveth for a few moments today i want just simply to impart to you the word of god on the forgiveness of god what a benefit the forgiveness the forgiveness of god now let's establish something let's establish something very quickly let's establish something early in this bible lesson only god can forgive sin you can't take a pill and take care of it of course unless it's the gospel pill you can't cancel it out of you you can't get to the heights of popularity and get it out of you look up here at me now i've got something to tell you this morning only god can forgive sins the bible says in mark 2 and 5 when jesus saw their faith he said unto the sick of the palsy son listen to jesus talk he's god he's god manifest in flesh listen to him talk son thy sins be forgiven thee don't have to run it through a council an angelic counsel don't have to be like a credit rating and see if i qualify for it your sins are forgiven how'd he do that i'll tell you how he did that he's god and only god can forgive sins now we understand something today that only god can forgive sins and only god can choose the meth method of which he forgives sins don't go telling god how to forgive sins only god can forgive sins and only god can choose the method of how to forgive sins god became flesh and in colossians chapter 1 14 the bible says in whom we have redemption through his blood even the forgiveness of what sins don't you tell god we don't that a lot of churches churches churches have taken the blood out of songbooks they said it just didn't it just didn't set well with them to come to the early morning meeting and have someone start talking about blood well bless your darling heart but can i tell you today that only god can forgive sins and only god chooses the method of which he forgives sins ephesians 1 7 in whom we have redemption redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace he chose to wrap himself in flesh he chose to carry a blood that was incorruptible blood he chose to carry blood that was like no other blood there had never been any blood like the blood that pulsated through the veins of jesus christ now again only god can forgive sins and only god can choose the method of which he uses to forgive sins he chose the blood but he not only chose the blood he chose the apostles message he chose the apostles message that's borne out in luke chapter 24 verse number 47 and that repentance and remission of sins and you've got to understand something about a greek the greek wording remission is forgiving remission is forgiveness as a matter of fact some translations of the some translations will use the word instead of remission it will use the word forgiveness forgiveness and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations beginning at jerusalem only god can forgive sins only god can choose the method of forgiving sins and he chose blood and he chose the apostles doctrine acts chapter 10 verse number 43 to him jesus give all the prophets witness that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins and i know i sound redundant but i want to keep this thing i want to keep us connecting the dots here today only god can forgive sins only god can choose the method of how to forgive sins and up to this time in my bible lesson a day god chose the method of the preaching of the apostles but now god not just any preaching not just any kind of preaching but you got to preach the name you got to preach the name even in the world in the religious world that doesn't know the revelation of the name of jesus christ as the almighty god that doesn't know the revelation of the name of jesus christ in the power of water baptism even the religious gospel world is singing songs about the name of jesus christ years ago a song was written by us by a group that didn't know the didn't have the revelation of the name of jesus christ the the didn't have the revelation of the power and water baptism and gloria gaither sat down and wrote the song there's just something about that name you better believe there's just something about that name you know why what makes that name popular is because only god can forgive sins and only god can choose the method of forgiving sins and god choose chose the blood and god shows the preaching of the apostles and they're preaching the mighty oh hallelujah to god god he chose the name of jesus i wish you'd just say that name with me today jesus i i just think today that there's people that are struggling with forgiveness they are struggling in two ways they are struggling feeling forgiven and they're struggling for giving you cannot forgive your brother or your sister if you don't know the power of the forgiveness of god upon your soul the name of jesus would you just say that name with me jesus oh that whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins we'll say well well they were just ordinary apostles they were just ordinary men just ordinary ordinary men ordinary men you say well then join me in john chapter 20 and verse number 23 this is after the crucifixion this is after the resurrection this is before the day of pentecost jesus came upon the apostles and in john 20 and 23 he mentioned these words he said whosoever sins you remit they are remitted unto them and whosoever sins you retain they are retained now just hold on to me just for a moment now man does not have the power to forgive your sin but man can put can have the message that will forgive your sins man cannot just walk up to you and say your sins are forgiven but man can come to you with a message and your sins can be forgiven and i believe here in john 20 23 jesus is telling the apostles the importance of the message there's something important about the message he said whosoever sins you remember how could you remit sin i'll tell you how you can remit sins you can remit sins by preaching the only message that remits sins he says and whosoever sins you retain they are retained not that a man had power to say your sins are forgiven or your sins are not forgiven but that a man should understand the heavy responsibility and awesome privilege to preach the only message that can remove the things out of people's lives that will determine where their most valuable part of them will spend eternity your soul is going to spend eternity in one of two places you're either going to spend eternity in heaven or you're going to spend eternity in hell and the only way that you cannot spend eternity in hell is to hear the message that will remit your sins and that message was preached by them acts chapter 2 and verse 38 then peter said unto them repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of jesus christ for the remission of your sins and you shall receive the gift of the holy ghost are you all understanding today why i'm so fanatic only god can forgive sin only god can choose the method and god chose the blood and god chose the name and god aren't you glad you know the name today aren't you glad you know that message today don't you come around me preaching some kind of super hyped up positive mental thinking thing to help me get a better job i don't need a better job i need a better soul i don't need to find myself i need to lose myself even when we do communion please understand even when we do communion god wanted to tie communion back to the blood for he said in matthew 26 28 speaking about communion for this is my blood of the new testament which is shed for the for many for the what remission or forgiveness of sins john the baptist why did you come along why did you come along why did we need john the baptist let's let his daddy answer that in luke chapter 1 verse number 40. excuse me luke chapter 1 verse number 77 john why did we need you to give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins the greek language is a very difficult language to understand and to study since our bible many of our texts today is translated from the greek it does us good to study these words out because you can just hear the word forgiveness or remission it comes from a word i won't try to pronounce it i will spell it a-p-h-i-e-m-i ever how you say that that's how it's spelled in the greek and it simply means to release that's what it means it means to release it means to leave in peace not live in peace but leave leave means to release it goes on and it can have the meaning of go on go on it can have the meaning of cast off nevertheless when we talk about the word forgiveness it's talking about the word release he releases us now we were all born in the bondage of sin and only god can forgive sins only god can release you you're sitting here today and you're saying my life is so bound up i'm trying different things in and out of relationships in and out of different things party life you you name it i'm trying i want i want to be released i got news for you the only release you'll ever get is in god it's your only release do you know do you know this morning that the subject that i am preaching on is the very foundation very foundation of living for god if you don't get this forgiveness down you can tithe dress the part get your time schedule down to be here every sunday wednesday that you will struggle because you've not understood the very thing he released you you are forgiven you you you have been you have been released listen to paul in hebrews 6 and 1 listen to him talk to the hebrews about maturity he says therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of christ leaving he's trying to get them to grow up and he says leaving he didn't say forsaking he said leaving the principles of the doctrine of christ let us go on unto perfection not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward god in other words this forgiven foundation this this foundation that you had that that is forgiveness that's the that's the foundation because and i promise you you know you want to say i i almost want you to be able to repeat this by the time i'm done today only god can forgive sins huh i want you to be able to almost repeat it with me all right only god can forgive sins only god can choose the method god chose the blood god chose the name god chose the message now now that's the foundation forgiveness release freedom forgiveness release freedom not letting your past haunt you not letting your past keep you you drag it i was speaking to a precious man this week and he had put an offer in on a home but upon examination of the home the home had foundational problems and the man-made the man and his wife made a very wise decision they decided to back out of that contract of which i believe it's a very wise decision to do because i mean if the roof is blown off you can put a new roof on very easy if the house needs to be painted you can paint it very easy but you got foundational problems that's a horse of a different color that's a whole new ball game that's a whole new thing that you would get into do you know today that our foundation is in forgiveness our whole foundation is in release our whole foundation now watch this now god is the source of forgiveness god and god alone must be praised for only he can forgive sins i want you to hear this forgiveness in the day that we live is a total renewal sister carpenter when you're teaching search for truth you are dogmatic you are just you always talk about them dispensation of time now they lived under this dispensation and a dispensation is a period of time and there's seven of them in the bible a dispensation is a period of time of which god dealt with man in a particular way the first dispensation was innocence they had one command they broke it the second dispensation was conscience and each dispensation ends with god's judgment and she will she will always say now we're living in this dispensation this is the dispensation we're living in right now now let me tell you something how blessed you and i are today sister ryan how blessed we are today do you know that when david spoke about forgiveness and we speak about forgiveness that it's not the same thing when david spoke about forgiveness it was like a patch job it was like it was like yeah you're blemished and i'll just put a band-aid on you that's what god was doing in the old testament god was putting a band-aid on man this man would sin god put a band-aid man with sin so man looked like david looked like one just big huge band-aid up there he had a band-aid here and a band-aid there he had band-aids all over oh i'll tell him when he was sin he had band-aids put on him but he spoke about forgiveness but when it comes to you and i our forgiveness is a word that means a total renewal a total renewal we've got something better than david had we've got something better than the old testament saints had because since god became a man and robed himself with flesh and had blood pulsating through his veins something of which david had not david they did not have the blood of the spotless lamb but we have that blood today and that blood gives us not just a removal and a release but now if any man be in jesus christ he is a new creature old things have passed away and behold all things become new i wish you'd help me praise my god for a moment because only god can forgive sins only god can forgive our sins only god can forgive our sins he is a source of forgiveness he will never run out of the of the amount of forgiveness he will never run out we will never deplete god and on god alone must be praised for forgiveness and our forgiveness is a total renewal but how do i get forgiveness how do i get forgiveness god's forgiveness is given when his judgment is affirmed by the confession of our sins the confession man has done a lot of twisting to these verses oh so horrible first first john not the gospel of john first john first john chapter one and verse number nine if we confess our sins if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all righteousness from from all unrighteousness excuse me now let me tell you what confession of sins is not confession of sins is not going to a church and going to a side room and getting in a little box and a little door slides open a little window slides open and you're facing one way and a man's over here facing the other way and you begin by saying father forgive me for i have sinned no no nor is confession of sins that you come down to the front of your church and you say with your mouth i confess that jesus christ is the lord to the glory of god the father i confess that i am a sinner and i can only be saved by the grace of god i make this confession of faith no confession of your sins has to do with you and your god the preacher can't confess for you if you don't realize you've sinned nobody else can realize it for you in order for forgiveness to get activated you have to make a confession it can be in a prayer closet it can be it can be sitting in the seat of your automobile but when you begin to say with your mouth god i have sinned god i have done wrong god i've done abc i have sinned god i have done wrong i have sinned god i have done wrong god i i i violated your word i've not lived what you want me to can i tell you that i've got a blessed promise for you if we confess our sin he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness you say brother carpenter i i tried that and i didn't feel anything that's where you're wrong it's not what you feel it's what your faith knows it's not that i got a chill bump when i said that it's that i believe in the eternal infallible word of the living god that tells me today that only god can forgive sins and only god can choose the method and god chose the blood and god chose the name and god chose his word and god said if any man sin if he will confess his sin god is faithful god is faithful god is faithful and just god is not god is not partial to anybody god doesn't play favorites god doesn't have any favorites today i am not god's favorite in this room today and neither are you we are all god's favor when god looks at man he loves them with the same amount of love when god looks at man he loves them with the same amount of love and so you might be here today you might have stuck a needle in your arm on friday night you might have been drunker than cooter brown on saturday night but if you're sitting in this congregation this morning and you realize that none of that stuff is going to ever help you out and you would begin to say god i god i'm just a wreck god i'm just a rare god i'm just a wreck god i'm a rich god i'm a liar i'm a cheater i'm an adulterer i'm a fornicator i'm a homosexual i'm a lesbian i'm all these things i'm telling you god is faithful and god is just to forgive us whoa hallelujah to god come on open up the channel open up the channel confess confess confess i don't mean to be personal today but just kind of tell you how this works my wife told me this week i had a conversation with someone she said you know you were a little bit sharp he was a little bit sharp in that conversation and i tried every way in the world to explain and justify why it's a little sharp well that lot on me you know we got three services going on on sunday i hope nobody's got the interpretation of that all right so i defended myself real good but as i walked away uh you know this is going to bug me and all it would take to clear this up would be a good gulp of pride oh y'all ain't listening to me y'all too perfect for me today y'all y'all too holy sanctified y'all too yeah y'all got it all together all it taken is just a little pride so i decided yeah i'm just not going to go through the whole day trying to justify myself anybody try to justify yourself just give me a little baptist nod come on let's get a bit of an option yeah together come on i was going to go through my whole day just to find i got three services on sunday i had a lot of pressure on me i've never been there yeah and i thought to myself kenny all it takes is a good gulp of pride pick up the phone call the person so i picked up the phone called the individual and i just simply said hey you know if i was kind of short and sharp with you uh i i just want to apologize to you of which a person responded i think in my defense the person responded you've always talked very sweet to me now they may have needed to go confess for lying i don't know but they said you you're always talking real sweet to me oh like i said thank you thank you somebody brought to my attention i might have been short with you and if i was i want to ask you for forgiveness you know i went about my whole day and have not thought about it until i just thought about a good example it would be right now some people will never confess their sins because they're too busy trying to justify them it's justifying them well so and so how many in your house you've heard what we've heard in our house when we get onto our children or our grandchildren about something and then when they want to say well so-and-so in the church does it and what do we say to them they're not my grandchild they're not my daughter all right right so let me tell you something your life could really start soaring in your emotions if you take a big gulp of pride and start confessing your sins because the same bible that tells us water baptism in jesus name is right also tells us that we are to confess our sins and god is faithful and just to forgive us could we just right now give god a praise could we just do that i really got ahead of myself because james 5 and 16 james 5 and 16 says confess your faults one to another confess your faults one to another confess your faults one to another and pray one for another that you may be healed the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avail of much church family there's way better living when we offend each other that we talk to one another there's way better church and it gets resolved a whole lot easier when if somebody has offended you don't tell all your girlfriends don't tell all the guys it's not the bible way the bible way is to confess your faults one to another and then pray one for another that you may be healed um i'm gonna bring this to close i've got a group of beautiful babies to dedicate here in a few moments but do you know that when confession comes true confession comes confession think about it your feet follow your tongue your walk follows your talk spiritually speaking your feet don't know where to go unless his tongue tells it confession true confession will lead to a correction in action acts chapter 19 verse number 18. and many that believed came verse number 18 what did they do when they came and many that believed came and confessed and showed their deeds many of them watch this now many of them also which used curious arts ouija boards tarot cards curious arts brought their books together and burned them before all men and they counted the price of them and found it 50 000 pieces of silver where did it all start they started confessing and once they started confessing they started thinking about the ugly lifestyle of the occult and they started bringing these things and they started burning them and the bible says the bible says in verse 20. so mightily grew the word of god and look at that last two words and what that's what a lot of people need today we need to prevail we need to go on when it cast it off how long are you going to wear that how are you going to wear that 40 year experience around your neck how long are you going to wear those things there are people in the grave you couldn't even correct it i watched i watched one time a horrible sight i watched a person stand at a grave and tell and tell the person six feet feet under how sorry they were for what they did and i'm thinking to myself you really should have had that conversation some time ago but evidently they didn't take a big gulp of pride confession it's a deep it's a feeling of deep sadness because you've done something wrong i'm going to show you two places what it looks like acts 2 37. now when they heard this they were pricked in their heart said unto peter until the rest of the apostles men and brethren what shall we do pricked stabbed in acts 16 28. that paul cried with a loud voice saying do thyself no harm for we are all here then he called for a light it's a jailer it's a heathen a heathen man a sinful man then the sinful man called for a light sprang in and came trembling and fell down before paul and silas and brought them out and said sirs what must i do to be saved i know that i'm the same man four hours ago that took a bull whip and beat your backs i know i'm the same man that four hours ago took my foot and kicked you all down the stairs but i've heard the gospel and i'm so sorry what must i do to be saved i want you to know there's nothing could be added to this message there's nothing that i could ever add but i want you to know today you will never find release on a bar stool never find release making more money you will never find release in another marriage you will never find release i don't care how much achievement you make in life true release can only come through the only true and living god that gives it could we just stand right now thank you lord thank you god just for a moment could we just bathe in the presence of god and i know i have a baby dedication but i know the mothers and the mothers would say we will take as long as someone needs if someone wants to come and talk to god this morning someone wants to come and talk to god this morning brother carpenter the name of jesus christ in the name of jesus christ god god you know who i am today god you know my heart better than any person in this room come on let's just have a few moments of prayer today god lord you know my heart god you know my heart today god you know my heart today god you know my heart today god you know my heart today god oh god touch the people in this room god that woman that's standing back there god touch that woman right now lord god lives that are here today that know that they need to make a change you are the only true and living god that can forgive them oh god you're the only true and living god that can forgive them god mercy mercy god forgive us god of our sins lord god i confess that i was wrong god i confess that i'm a violator of your word god oh god i confess god that i violated your word god oh god in jesus name in jesus name come on church family come on church family help me pray this morning help me pray right there at your pew help me pray today help me pray today