Only God Can Forgive Sins – Forgiveness Series Part 1 of 4

Hello, and welcome to Social Media Ministries. My name is Spencer Coffman. Thank you so much for being with us today. Whether you’re watching or listening, please consider subscribing or following us on the social media platforms or podcasts, or YouTube — wherever you are receiving this content.

In addition, please take advantage of the share button and share this on your social media so that we can reach more people and bring them the gospel of Christ, and the Bible, and help them understand and interpret the Scriptures in the Bible through social media. We can’t do it without your help, so please consider doing that.

Today we’re talking about forgiveness. Actually, we’re kicking off a four-part sermon series, so I really hope that you plan to stick with us for four weeks. It is going to be great. We’re going through a series on forgiveness. Now this is something that everyone needs. If you think you don’t need it, then you need it even more than the person next to you.

Guess what? Forgiveness is something that you can always learn more about and always understand more about. Even if you think that “I’m a very forgiving person, I am. I know what I’m doing. I forgive others. God is forgiving me. I understand it. I’m good.” Guess what? You need more. You do. You need to learn more about forgiveness and you need to practice it more for real.

God gives you all kinds of opportunities to put it into play. I wish that we lived in a world where I never had to forgive anyone, not because I don’t want to, but because if I didn’t have to forgive anyone then no one would do me wrong ever. That’s what I mean by that.

Unfortunately in this world, we are given many many many many opportunities to forgive others — way too many. But guess what? I take them and forgive them because that’s what Jesus says to do and we have to do it. We’re going to learn more about it as we go through, that it’s something that we must do as Christians and as followers of Jesus.

Maybe you are thinking some things are unforgivable. Guess what? Maybe for you. Know they aren’t; they aren’t. We can forgive. We can forgive. I hope that through this sermon series, you’ll see that — you’ll understand that — you will internalize that. I really hope and pray that you’re not given a lot of opportunities to forgive others, because that means that no one would be wronging you. That would be awesome.

But in this world that is full of evil and greed and under the control of the devil, under the dominion of the devil, God is in control. God is always in control. The devil may think he has control, but it’s only what God allows him to have control over. You are going to have opportunities to forgive, so don’t worry if you miss one or miss two, you can always go back. Forgiveness is always available and you can always do it.

Now this week, we’re talking about how only God has the ability to forgive sins. Why did I just spend the past couple minutes saying that you need to forgive others if I’m saying, “Wait a minute, only God can do it”? That’s what we’re going to talk about today.

God forgives sins but you must forgive the person. You say, “Wait a minute, this is getting a little too technical, talking like a philosopher or a pharisee.” We had a sermon about that — “Be Not A Pharisee.” You can check that out.

You can forgive people. For example, if I say something that’s offensive to you, well number one maybe it’s a conviction from the Holy Spirit because I really hope that I’m not saying anything offensive in any of these sermons, but maybe somewhere else I’ve said something or written something to offend you. If that’s a sin for me, then I seek forgiveness of that sin from God. You can forgive me as a person against you, but the sin is up to God to forgive.

Is that clear? I hope you understand where that’s going. When you forgive the person, you’re not really forgiving their sin because you don’t have the ability to forgive sins. You are forgiving the person. It’s up to God to forgive the sin.

Mark Chapter 2 Verse 7, turn with me. “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” They knew this. They knew that only God could forgive sins. Yet Jesus was going around saying, “Your sins are forgiven,” and they’re like, “Whoa wait a minute, He’s forgiving their sins.”

They did nothing to wrong Jesus, so He isn’t forgiving them as a person, He’s forgiving their sins. He’s saying, “Your sins are forgiven.” What they didn’t understand was that Jesus is God. Jesus said, “I and the Father are one.” Jesus had that power so it’s very clear that God alone can forgive sins.

John 20.23, “If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” Okay, this is Jesus talking and He’s talking to His disciples after He breathed on them the Holy Spirit. He just empowered them with more power than we have.

Yes, we have the Holy Spirit. Jesus made that possible. If you believe in Jesus, if you accept Jesus into your life to be your Lord and Savior, you have the Holy Spirit within you. You’re given it. If you have questions and you need to do that, please, we would love to help you make the decision to follow Jesus.

But you have that Holy Spirit within you, you can then stir up the spirit within you and get more of the Holy Spirit and do more. You can. You can have spiritual gifts, prophetic, all of these different things with more of the Holy Spirit within you.

The disciples received even more than that. They had it direct from Jesus — boom, into them. They were so filled, and so Jesus told them, “Hey you guys have the power to forgive sins.” He says,

“If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you don’t forgive them, then they are not forgiven.” John 20.22, right before this. John 20.22 says, “And with that he breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’”

So He breathed the Holy Spirit on them, they received more ability than regular humans have and they were able to forgive sins. God gave that to them. Now could that happen to us today? Maybe we can still receive more of the Holy Spirit. We can stir it up within us, it can become all of us, we can be filled with the Holy Spirit. But can we forgive others’ sins? Probably not, because God alone forgives sins.

Remember you can forgive the person. So someone does wrong against you, it’s your job to forgive them even if they may not ask for your forgiveness. In your mind and in your heart, you need to be like, “I forgive them. It’s okay.” You do not even need to tell them though.

Something happens, maybe someone stole something from you and you’re like, “That was wrong.” Maybe they gave it back. Maybe you didn’t get it back. Maybe it was an unintentional theft. Maybe it was like they scammed you out of something, or that you bought something and it didn’t work out and they didn’t refund your money, so it’s kind of a theft. You can let it go.

You can choose to let it go. You can say, “It isn’t in my hands. I forgive it. It’s fine.” It’s kind of like we have talked about before: hate the sin, not the sinner. You can. All right, I’m done with it, it’s okay. I’ve accepted it. I was wronged but I let it go. I forgive the person for what they did.

Why do you forgive the person? Well because it might not be them doing it, it’s the evil within them that is doing it to you. It’s Satan. It’s the demons. It’s if they’re not a Christian, they’re a child of the devil. We’ve talked about this before, so hating them will do no good. It will only hurt you.

Therefore you let it go and you say, “All right, it’s up to you God. I have forgiven them. I’ve let it go. It’s okay.” Now of course you still might think about it and you have to learn from it, because the next time that similar situation happens you are going to remember, “Hey red flag, I’m a little leery about this. I’m not going to do this because of my past and my experience.”

Now not saying that you dislike that person, you have learned from what happened and that’s what we’re supposed to do. We’re supposed to learn from the things that happen to us. But forgive.

You forgive and forget, but you don’t forget the lesson. You’ve got to keep the lesson because that is wisdom and knowledge and experience that’s given to us throughout the course of life. And who gives it to us? God. So learn, apply that, but let it go, and trust that God will take care of it.

Who do you want to have that person punished by? Think about it. God will take care of them; they wronged you and you’re like, “I’m going to be mad at that person. I’m not going to forgive them.” Okay, you’re like a little fly or a gnat. You can just let it go and God will fight for you.

We have talked about that before. God will fight for you. Let Him fight for you. He will do it. He will take care of that. That person will have so much more going on from God, whether it’s conviction, whether something is happening, whether their whole life gets turned upside down and they start to follow God, that they literally killed their old self — that’s way more than anything you could do to that person as some sort of revenge or payback which is wrong anyway.

So let it go. Forgive the person. Trust God. Say, “God, I have forgiven them. It’s up to you.” Maybe they didn’t even ask for your forgiveness but especially if they say, “Hey I’m sorry I did this. It was wrong. Will you forgive me?”

You say, “Yeah of course.” You may have already forgiven them, but say “Yeah of course. I forgive you. No problem.” Make sure you get forgiven by God as well because they still need forgiveness from God.

Same thing with you, if you have wronged someone intentionally or unintentionally. You may have lied, we lie sometimes, little white lies, little things that do not even matter, it happens. Seek forgiveness not only from God but from the person.

We’re going to talk about that later on too — confess your sins. Bring all your sins to God. Confess them and ask for His forgiveness. If you have wronged someone, you’ve got to seek their forgiveness as well.

They may have already forgiven you, just like you already forgive other people. But still, even if you maybe post something on one of the videos here that’s wrong, you start cursing me out or something on one of my other videos or on something like that.

I can’t believe you would do that, that it’s wrong. I probably read the comment and was like it’s okay, I don’t mind. I forgive them. Then maybe you realize that that was wrong and you deleted it and then you sought forgiveness from God.

Maybe you should then also seek forgiveness from the person. Even if I have already brushed it off, you can comment like, “Hey I commented on such and such video and I deleted it, I’m really sorry about that.” “Oh no problem, thanks so much.”

Whether it’s me or someone else — maybe it’s anyone else, it doesn’t matter. The point is that I am hopefully practicing what I preach and so if you’ve done something to me, this is just a good example. I’ve probably already forgiven you. But yet it still helps to go back and ask for that forgiveness.

Why is that important? Well, let’s look at it. If the person has already forgiven you or you’re pretty sure that you’ve been forgiven, you’ve already gone to God and been forgiven for your sins so you’re forgiven, then why go back and bring it up again and ask that person?

Because in your mind and your heart, doing that act of bringing it forward again, saying, “Hey I’m sorry. It was wrong. I need forgiveness. Will you forgive me?” Whatever — no matter what they say, that act shows a great demonstration of your faith and your character.

You are trusting God. You’re getting it out in the open. You’re not holding it in. It’s not a skeleton in the closet. You’re bringing it to light and God will set you free. Harboring it inside is a sickness within you. Get it out. Let it go.

Harboring it inside is a sickness. Let me say it again: it’s a sickness. It can manifest itself in other symptoms. “Oh, my back always hurts,” “Oh my neck always hurts,” “Oh I’m always sick.” What is happening in your life? You could be holding onto something causing a sickness within your body.

Yes, you have a spirit inside of you, but if your spirit is sick, your body will be sick as well. The spirit is willing, the flesh is weak. If you’re sickening your spirit, your flesh can be sick as well. I’m not saying that is 100% gonna happen all the time, but it’s something to consider.

So get out there if you have wronged someone. “Hey, I’m really sorry about that.” Even if you haven’t talked to them in years, guess what? Get on one of those websites of People Finder or Yellow Pages and punch them up.

Send them a letter, call them, send them an email, find them on Facebook, send them a message. “Hey when we were kids, I was mean to you, I’m really sorry. I hope you forgive me.” Done. Get it out. Get it out. God will provide you with a peace and a calming and a relief that you didn’t know was possible.

Then if they reply back to you and say, “Yeah I forgive you, thanks.” Then you will be even more filled with more peace and more calming that you didn’t know was possible. If they say, “No, I don’t forgive,” you brush it off. That’s on them now. They’re harboring that sickness. They’re harboring that inside them. That’s why it’s important to forgive others and let it go, as well as get it out there — that’s twofold.

Only God can forgive the sins. You have to forgive the person. You have to forgive others. In addition, you have to confess what you’ve done to get forgiveness as well. You’re harboring like two things inside of you, one is you aren’t forgiving, the other is you aren’t giving up what you have done wrong.

Give that up. Then give up this and ah, you’re free. Let God free you. Ask them to forgive you. Not your sin, though. Just say, “Hey, I’m really sorry. Will you forgive me?” Then take your sin to God and you say, “God, I’m so sorry that I did XYZ when I was this age,” and you take that to God and God will forgive you.

Don’t go to a priest; they don’t have the ability to forgive your sins in confessionals, where they say your sins are forgiven. You are confessing to a human. God alone can forgive sins. So confessing to a deacon or a father or whatever and them forgiving you is not going to work. It isn’t good.

Now of course, we’re to confess our sins to others, like maybe your friend you would confess to or your pastor, you can confess your sins to them. But it’s not up to them to forgive you. They’re just a listening ear. They can pray for you and we’re going to talk about that in future sermons — that you must confess to others as well, not only those you have wronged but others as well.

You are like, man this is getting really hard, this is getting really complicated. Well stay with us and we are going to simplify it. Take your sins to God. We have got a couple more verses that I want to hit. Colossians 3.13 and also James. I like James, I always bring him up.

Let’s go to James 5.16. James 5.16 says, “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other, so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.” Three things right there. Number one: confess your sins to each other. That means to each other, not to those you have wronged.

Yes, you gotta go to those you have wronged, ask for forgiveness. You gotta go to God, get forgiveness for the sin. Then you can confess to each other and get prayer and support. Why? Because the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. We’re going to talk about this in-depth later on.

So number one: confess to each other. Number two — I skipped over it — so that you may be healed. If you’re harboring this inside of you, it’s a sickness. Confess it. Three ways: God, the person you wronged, your brothers and sisters in Christ, then you can be healed. What’s number three? The prayer of the righteous person. You have confessed to your brother or sister in Christ is powerful and effective. They can help you overcome.

1 John 1.9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” That’s God. We confess our sins to God. He’s righteous and just and will purify us. Remember that peace I was talking about? He will give you that peace and calm that you didn’t know was possible.

Colossians 3.13 and then I’m going to wrap it up. Colossians 3.13, “Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” Where does that leave us? Well, you got three more weeks, come back here.

Let’s continue on. For today, guess what? God can forgive your sins, so take your sins to God. That’s number one. Number two: take your sins to the people that you have wronged, get their forgiveness over your person. That is number two.

Number three: take your sins to your brothers and sisters in Christ and ask them to pray for you because you’re gonna be healed and their prayer is powerful and effective and you will have peace.

What else do you need to do? You need to forgive others. Something happens automatically. Let it go and forgive them. Let it go. Let God handle it. Let God do it. He will take care of it. But for yourself, God, the person wronged, brothers, and sisters in Christ, take it all there and get it out and be healed in Jesus’ name.

Let’s pray. Lord Jesus, I ask that the people out there would take this to heart. That they would really confess their sins to the brothers and sisters in Christ. That they would get that peace and that healing. That the prayers of others would be powerful and effective.

Lord that they would seek you for forgiveness and that they would know that only you can forgive their sins. Jesus is the only one, God, you are the only one who can forgive the sins. Lord, I ask that they would have an open heart and an open mind to be willing to just forgive everybody else, to forgive any offenses that happen.

That they would let it go and trust that you will take care of it. That they would confess to those that they have wronged and that they would confess to those that are their brothers and sisters in Christ and when they’re confessing to them, they’re not seeking forgiveness of their sin, they’re just seeking support in that.

Lord, if there are people out there right now that are struggling with something and they need support, they need prayer, please inspire them to seek that, whether it’s commenting below, reaching out to us. We love to pray for them. I pray for them right now, that they will seek what they need. That they would be forgiven.

Lord help them to ask for that forgiveness. We know that I can’t forgive them. The priests, their pastors, can’t forgive them. But we can pray for them. That they would seek that forgiveness from you. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

We have got three more, so I hope you come back. Stay tuned. This is going to be a great sermon series that truly has the power to change your life and bring you healing. Confess your sins to each other, not like a bragging moment, but just get support and help each other by praying for each other through your struggles in this life. God bless.