You’re More Forgiven Than You Think (Full Sermon)

The ** Unlock True Assurance: Embracing the Gospel of Grace for Lasting Freedom

The Gospel of Grace is the foundation for Christian living, providing the only pathway to a perfect conscience and robust spiritual, mental, and physical health. Many Christians experience sickness, weakness, and premature death not due to being “very bad people,” but because they live with a guilty, or evil, conscience. The solution is to fully embrace the truth that Jesus paid it all.

The Power of the Finished Work: No More Sin Debt

A central attack from the devil is the temptation to believe there is still a sin debt remaining on one’s conscience. This leads believers to feel they haven’t studied their Bible enough or performed sufficient good works. By insisting on a perpetual consciousness of sin, individuals are insulting the work of Jesus on the cross and robbing Christians of coming to God boldly in true assurance.

The True Mark of Grace

The true mark of a Christian who is under grace is that they are resting and yet progressing and manifesting a good character. True rest marks the believer’s life; this spiritual rest is their Promised Land in the New Testament.

The Perfect Offering Yields a Perfect Conscience

The Old Testament sacrifices, being shadows, could never make the worshiper perfect in regard to the conscience. The blood of bulls and goats was insufficient. However, Jesus’s perfect offering yields a perfect conscience. Once cleansed by the blood of Jesus, believers should have no more conscience of sins.

A perfect conscience is one that has no consciousness of sins, but is conscious of Jesus. To believe a sin debt still exists is to insult the one who did the work, making Jesus’s payment seem inadequate.

Understanding the Evil Conscience (The Labor Trap)

An evil conscience (or guilty conscience) is what prevents believers from drawing near to God in full assurance of faith.

The Greek word for the evil conscience, paneros, defines it not primarily as moral badness, but as a heart that is full of labors, pressed and harassed by work. This labor refers to the continuous effort to please God under the Law. Jesus invites all who labor and are heavy laden to come to Him, offering rest. God calls this endless striving (the “I need to… I need to…” mentality) evil.

The Danger of Sin Consciousness

The strength of sin is the Law. The Law was given to make man feel sin conscious. When the Law is preached, people become more sin conscious. The danger is that whatever you are conscious of, you will ultimately perform, execute, or do. The solution is not to become perpetually conscious of sin, which is the devil’s strategy, but to be conscious of Jesus.

Seared Conscience and Spiritual Damage

When religious doctrines cause people to focus on their failings, their conscience becomes seared with a hot iron (costeratzo). This means their souls are branded with the marks of sin, resulting in a perpetual consciousness of sin. This is how deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons operate.

A weak or guilty conscience is a serious matter. A weak brother may perish or be destroyed (Greek: apolo, related to the devil, the destroyer) because of the effect of a weak conscience. This perishing is not the loss of eternal salvation, but a destruction that manifests as sickness, weakness, depression, and premature death.

The Gospel of Grace vs. the Law

The Gospel is the Gospel of Grace, which is unearned, undeserved favor.

The Gospel differs radically from the natural thinking of the world (“Do good, get good; do bad, get bad”). The Gospel is the truth that you can receive good you don’t deserve because another (Jesus) received all your bad that you deserved. It takes the Holy Spirit to understand this.

Grace Destroys Sin’s Dominion

The belief that grace encourages sin is false. On the contrary, sin shall not have dominion over you because you are not under law but under grace. The more people realize the grace of God, the more sin will lose its dominion and be destroyed. The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. Removing the Law removes sin’s strength.