Grace Chapel Bible Ministries
worship call 1124 the Power to Forgive sins - 2024/08/05
[MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] Welcome to worship call with Bible teacher Buzz Lalbeck. Buzz is the pastor of Grace Chapel Bible Ministries located in Duncan, South Carolina. This ministry is dedicated to the verse by verse teaching of God's word and discipleship programs aimed to strengthening the faith of God's people. Now here's today's message. And when he said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. Be forgive the sins of any, their sins will be forgiven them. If you retain the sins of any, you have, they have been retained." Is this authority that Jesus gave? Was it just to the apostles? Was it just to them? Or is this something for the culture to age? Do we have the power to forgive sins? This is the second day of the week and God's created order, the fifth day of the eighth month, 2024th year of our Lord. It's a new week and let's turn to our Lord and prayer. Father, in heaven, we thank you for this opportunity. Once again, to fellowship in your word, I pray heavily for accuracy and teaching. I pray for those who are listening for discernment of the word of God. I pray those within the sound of my voice. For those that are not yet, I pray heavily for all that you, you give them the hunger to delve into your word, to seek out these things, and even the difficult passages, and to give them wisdom. And then through that wisdom and through their dedication of studying the word of God, a strong faith that's going to stand and do great things. Or you do great things through them, and their response to your soap, grace, and mercy. So, open up our hearts this morning to study this morning, and as we continue to grow and grace in the knowledge of our Lord, Savior Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray a man. Glad you're here. Glad to start another week. And let's see. We've got a few little things. You've got to take care of there. There we go. Maybe that will take care of that. I think we're good to go. Hello. Good Monday morning to you. Here I am, and here you are. All right. Our passage here. Let's go back to John, 2022. Let's start looking into today. I actually wanted to get in, and I thought last night, to get into the subject of Thomas, the Diving Thomas. This passage had a little bit of difficulties for me to look into it, and to dig it out, and then I looked at it and said, "Really, I see there's great importance in some points that we do need to go over with it." And as I said, and he said, and he breathed on him, and that should be the Breathe on, and you, you for sorrow. Looks like you for sorrow. And let's see. Where did you go, Lou? Come on back over here, Lou. And that means to breathe upon something, to breathe on. Then he breathed on them, and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit." Notice here he breathed on them, and well, let's go ahead and finish out and breathe on them, and he said, "Receive," and this received here. Come back down here. That's where I'm at. And this is, yes, Labano, which I thought, to take and to receive. And this, I'm going to also look at this, okay, and this is the verb, "Arous Active Imperative." This is a command to do so, and to receive the Holy Spirit. As we said before, the Holy Spirit is the third member of the Godhead. He is co-equal, co-eternal with God the Father, God the Son. And when we, the Holy Spirit is, he, almost like he takes the back seat. He's that quiet comforter. He's that quiet helper. And he almost seems like he's in the shadows of the Father and the Son. But remember that the Holy Spirit is co-equal. He has the wisdom, all the attributes, everything that you can say of the Father and the Son. His attributes are identical. He is love, his omniscience, his omnipresence, his veracity, his immutability, all that, because God is one, including that Holy Spirit. And it is the Holy Spirit that Jesus says to receive. The Holy Spirit is going to be the empowerment. We cannot do anything in the energy of, well, first of all, we know nothing of God apart from God revealing it to us. And we know, and we are powerless to do anything for God apart from being empowered by the Holy Spirit to do it. The flesh takes no credit on anything. He is the empowerment for our per life. He is our empowerment. He is the power and the authority that we can receive the wisdom and learn the deep things of God. And there's two things about the Holy Spirit. Matter of fact, I've got this on here. I don't know if I should get into this. Maybe I don't, but I don't know. That was taking me too far off into the tooling. But nonetheless, you have the dwelling of the Holy Spirit, which we all have as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. We all have that in dwelling. If you are a believer, you will not lose it. It's the one thing that makes you a new creature in Christ. We live in the church age, a phenomenal age, the best of us and the least of us as believers, the worst believer as you know, the worst Christian and the most about Christian. They have the indwelling ministry of God, the Holy Spirit. That means you have the Holy Spirit within you. Paul says to the Corinthian church, do you not know that your bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit? And he's telling you after carnal believers, believers that were suing each other, believers that were going to take him prostitutes in a temple, get drunk or communion on. And he tells him, listen guys, your bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit and your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, the indwelling ministry of God, the Holy Spirit. But there is the optional or there is the temporal phase because we can be in and out of the filling ministry of God, Holy Spirit. I would describe the filling ministry as the influential position, the influential position with the Holy Spirit. And the filling of the Holy Spirit is God the Holy Spirit's unhindered ministry in that he's able to do anything, everything that he was placed in our hearts to do. And we can stifle that ministry, and when we stifle that ministry, it is in 1 Thessalonians that Paul says, do not quench the Holy Spirit. Don't suppress or extinguish the power of the Holy Spirit within us. You'll still have the Holy Spirit. But that power and that influence is going to be extinguished when we're walking in darkness, when we're walking in sin. And then first, and then Ephesians 4.30, I believe it is, that Paul says, do not or stop grieving the Holy Spirit. And we do that once again by walking in darkness. We must be only in the light are we under that influence. Now in the Old Testament, there was only a few that had the Holy Spirit, only a few. David Basiel, I think his name is Basiel, who was the general contractor for the building of the Ark. Saul had the Holy Spirit, and we mentioned Zacharias, Elizabeth, and John the Baptist, they had the Holy Spirit, Samson had the Holy Spirit. So there was few who had it, but here in the church age from the day of Pentecost, everyone who is born again, those who have believed and trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ for eternal life. Those born again believers, they, every one of us, again, the best and least of us have the Holy Spirit. So at this point with the Apostles, it's coming. It's not here yet. He breathed on them and he told them to receive the Holy Spirit. Now I don't think this, looking at the Word, and like I said, there are some trouble passages, I want you to be discerning with what I say this morning, I want you to look, do your own homework on this. Because for me, this was a kind of a hard passage, the 22 and 23, it was kind of hard for me this morning. So when he breathed on him and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit," I don't think that they received it, or that he gave them the command to do so. Like, I could give you a command to, or I could give my son the, you know, it's Wednesday, I could tell my son to cut the grass. That was the command. You are to cut the grass and later on, and okay, my son understands, okay, come Saturday, I'm going to cut the grass, or sometime in the future. I think if they received the Holy Spirit, this was command to do so, but I think if they received the Holy Spirit this time, it was said, and you would have two things. You would have the command and you'd have the response. And we don't have that. And once again, we have John 20, he says, here. And when he said this, he breathed on them, each one of them. I think this was, again, we can talk about this. I won't be dogmatic on this, but I believe this was a proffetical gesture. I think this was, I don't think this was a, and it could be wrong, and I was staying for long when I get to heaven, and I'll understand, but I reserve the right to be wrong on this. I think it was a proffetical gesture on Jesus part, just to symbolize something that they could remember, something that they could see. That's what communion is, by the way. It's something tangible that they could see or have experienced and equate it to what's going to happen spiritually. I've often said that rituals are a physical manifestation of a spiritual reality. And so Jesus doing this was symbolic of what's going to happen here in the future. But it doesn't say, I think if it was at that point, it might be a little bit different. It said, receive the Holy Spirit and they receive, and then they receive the Holy Spirit, the command and the response, but we don't see a response here. We don't see that they had actually received. So I think this is a future thing, a command that you are to receive type deal. Jesus had just commissioned the disciples to be apostles. Remember that the disciple is a learner. A disciple is, you're in the classroom as a disciple, you're learning, you're in the classroom, you're learning, and they've been in the classroom. They did have an opportunity. They could exercise. They were given power earlier, if you remember, to go out and he gave them instructions. At that point, they were apostles. At that point, they were sent out once, but they came back to the classroom after that exercise. But now Jesus is getting ready. The teachers, and I love that. I love that too. They had the opportunity to go out, to chase out demons, to heal and do all that, and that was her time, and they were able to come back into the classroom. It's my mind's eye that they go back into the classroom, and Jesus talks to them, "How'd that go?" "Well, we had this problem, and how come we weren't able to chase out this demon?" That was there. So there was questions about their apostleships and how to do things. "Well, Jesus is getting ready to leave. He's getting ready to leave. There's going to be no more classroom. There's going to be graduation ceremony now." And so he's commissioning them. He's getting ready to send them out. He's getting ready to leave, but he's also going to get in power. Now, when the Holy Spirit does come, this is going to be the start of not only the church age, but there's a small period in there. There's going to be a transition between the old and the new, between the old way of believing and being saved. And to a different position, anyone like Abraham and the faith of Abraham, the faith has always been to be saved all the way through the Testament. But the Old Testament believers are different believers than what the church age believers are. This is a spiritual body. This here is a physical body, the seed of Abraham, and the spiritual seed, they are still, when they trust in the Lord, or when they trust in the promise of God, it is credited to them for righteousness. But the church age, both Jew and Gentile, and there's no Jew, magenta, or male, or female, slave, or free, when they trust in the Lord Jesus, they enter into what we call the bride of Christ, the family of Christ. And with much greater advantages and positions and all that, we are the bride of Christ. And once again, everyone who comes to Christ, they receive the Holy Spirit. But there's a transition between the old and the new, and we call that the apostolic age, the apostolic age. And it's where these 11 plus one, we can argue between who's the 12th. I think the 12th is actually, I've come to believe that Matthias is actually the 12th. And Paul, like Paul says, he's untimely came to it, and Paul also has the authority of the apostles, but I think the 12th are included in Matthias. And once again, I'm not going to be dogmatic on that. So that's where I lean at this point. But they would have special powers. You see these 11 plus the one. And there may be 13. The 12th will be setting on the 12 tribes of Israel, but there may be 13, there may be more. But certainly Paul, Matthias, the other ones. But anyway, how many there are, there's going to be, they are going to be endowed with a special authority and special power. They're going to have the gift of healing, miraculous gifts, healing. They're going to be knowledge. They're going to preach with authority. Jesus had told his disciples in John 14, 12. Truly, truly, I say to you that he who believes in me, the works that I do, he will do also. The greater works than these he will do because I go to the Father. I believe that there's going to be a special courage. I think it's the spirit that's going to give us, and not only them, but also to us when the time comes, that we're going to be able to face even physical harm to proclaim the name of Jesus. I think some of these gifts will function on beyond the apostolic age in a limited basis, but in this time, it's going to be in full force for the reason of laying out the new age that laid out the foundation of the church. These 12 are going to be the direct representatives of Jesus, of the Lord, and they will carry on. They will pick up where Jesus is left off, and they will continue Jesus' ministry, and now there's going to be 12 of them, and they're going to have a special authority. Does it carry on into the church age should be the question? This is why this passage is so important that I want to cover. Let's not go out on the limb on this. When you look at the Scripture, you have to look at it in context. He's talking to the apostles. He's talking to the 11 right here. That's going to lay down the foundation of the church. This would be a critical time. The critical time, the transition. When Jesus told Peter that Satan has asked permission to sift you all like we. Again, I think that's specifically to the apostles that he was going to stand there, that he was going to stand in opposition to what they had to do. It will not be by the energy of the flesh that will empower them. It will not be by their good intention, by their intellect, by anything else, but it would be by the power of the Holy Spirit. They're not going to get the credit, but it's going to be. I've heard preachers say, and I think they're right and commentaries and what have you. After the Gospels, you have Acts, and they say the Acts of the Apostles. Some of them correct that, and they say Acts of the Holy Spirit, the Acts of the Holy Spirit. It's what the Holy Spirit is doing through the Apostles. The Empowerments, and again, this Empowerment seems like something they haven't received yet. But in a sense of something, he said, "Do this, receive this." When it's made available, when it comes to you. And the breathing upon the disciples, again, would seem to be more of a ritualistic. And this is a future thing Jesus says in John 16 verse 7. But I tell you the truth, that it will be to your advantage. I have to go away. If I do not go away, the helper will not come to you. So this is seven here, and it's another reason why I think that they haven't received it yet. That's one reason why I don't think they've received it yet. Because Jesus is still with him. The helper will not come to you, but if I go, he hasn't gone yet, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict you of the world concerning of sin, righteousness, and judgment. Let me see if we've got any more. Concerning sin, because they do not believe me. And concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you no longer see me. Well, right now they're seeing him. There is also the, there will be the apostolic authority that forgives sins. This is another thing. This is something that the apostles, a certain authority. Now there is authority that goes out to church age, and like authority of the pastor and Matthew 18, church discipline, and other authority. But here is a direct authority as Jesus go and make proclamations. Come on back to our passage for a moment. John 2023, okay, he says to receive and receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive, and that should be op-e-amie, it is. If you forgive, and this, the word means op-e-amie to remove the guilt resulting from wrongdoing, to pardon, to forgive, for forgiveness, forgive of wrongs. This is not, and if you forgive sins, and I'm sure that's harmonated of any of their sins, have they forgiven them, okay? This is not, this is important. It's not the apostles who are going around saying, okay, you're forgiven, you're not going to liquefy. You're forgiven, you're going to liquefy. This is those within the church body. This is there, this is those personal sins right now. The early church is going to have to learn about sin. They're going to have to learn about carnality. They're going to have to recognize, but I think in part we've already been taught that because David taught that, that if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me, but he will hear me. So there is, we have a priestly function. As church age believers, we are, we are royal priests. We do not have to go once a year to end, on the day of a Coleman, to have our cleanse. We do not have to go to the priest. We don't have to go to the pastor. We do not have to get rebaptized. And under the authority of the pastor, pastors do not have this authority this day. The apostles are going to have the authority to forgive someone of their sin at that point. Again, this does not exceed past the time into priesthood and churches and everything else. This is the apostles, and there's going to be some training. And as we learn about the Holy Spirit, as we learn about forgiveness, as we learn about carnality, and there's so much for the church to learn. But the apostles, as they're teaching, they're going to have the ability to say, "Okay, you are forgiven." Give you an example. Remember, Ananiya Sophia in Acts, where the church was selling their property, Acts 5. And members of the church were selling their property, and all their property, and giving it to the church, and to those two were in need. And they were responding to the gospel of Christ. Ananiya and Sophia sold their property, but they kept selling back to them. That's okay. That was all right. What was wrong was Ananiya and Sophia lied about it, that they gave all to the church. They didn't have to give any to the church. It had been all right. But nonetheless, they lied and said that they gave it all. It seemed like a little matter, but it wasn't a little matter. Peter resided over that. And each one, Ananiya, did you sell all your property and gave it to the church? Yeah, I did. He dropped dead, lying against the Holy Spirit. Let's look at that. Let's go to Acts 5. Let's just make sure I got all my points straight on this. Oh my goodness, I'm already getting out of time here. The great fear came over. Oh, no, let's back up. Let's start to one. But a man named Ananiya with his wife, Sophia, sold a piece of property and kept back from the price for them, sells with his wife's full knowledge and bringing a portion elated and laid it on apostrophe. That's okay. So far so good. They can do that. But Peter said, Ananiya, why has Satan filled your heart with the lie of the Holy Spirit to keep back some of the price of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not under your control? Why is it that you have conceived this deed in your heart and have not lied to men but to God? And as he heard these words, Ananiya fell down, breathed his last and great fear came over all who heard of it. Ananiya, Sophia, I'm sure were believers. But he died to sin unto death right here. We're going to believe we will be in heaven to see Ananiya's. Peter had the ability to forgive him of that, to release some of that. And that's what forgiveness is, the release of that debt. Okay, that's good to go and stuff. But nonetheless, he also was able to not forget. Here we go. The young man, the first six, the young man got up and covered him up and carried him out and buried him. Now, there elapsed an interval about three hours. Her wife came in not knowing what had happened. And Peter responded to her, "Tell me whether you sold the land for such and such a price." And she said, "Yes, that was the price." Then Peter said to her, "Why is it that you have agreed together to put the spirit of the Lord to test? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door and they will carry you out as well." And immediately she fell at her feet and breathed her last. And the young man came and found her dead and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. Now, here's the thing. Verse 11 says, "And great fear came upon over the whole church and over all that heard these things." Why was that fear at all? Because they recognized that they recognized the power of God working through these men in the authority that they had. And it frightened them. And I think it would frighten me too. Again, the point is today that the apostles had this authority. They had the power. They had things that did not progress throughout the church age. This was a short period of interval of time in the lives of the twelve. And they had certain powers. First of all, the exercise for miraculous gifts. Do I believe that some of these gifts are around today? Yes, I do. I don't believe that they went out all the way. I believe there are certain areas in the world that there are still gifts of healing. I do believe that there's a prophetic gifts and a gift of tongues in the sense that certain missionaries can have the gift of dialect and be able to communicate to primitive people in such a way. But those are the exceptions. Those would be the exceptions. For the most part, those miracles and those authority that was given to the apostles are no longer. We're not in the apostolic age any longer. In this age, we will see the power of God working individually as it were. There's also the limited authority. Again, as I said, that a pastor does authority to execute Matthew 11 with a carnal believer in a church that's disrupting a church, and that he can be removed from that church by procedure, and that's calling upon the authority of heaven. When you see that passage, when two or three are gathered in my name, I'm there. That's not just about prayer. That's a power of the, or that's calling upon the authority of heaven within that church. There's also, I believe it's James 4, whereas I've got it here, as I'm closing out today. No, James 5. James 5 speaks about laying on hands of someone in sick, and you read that passage. It's speaking of spiritual sick. Someone who is spiritually carnal, and he goes to a church, he has his hands laid on him. Well, we see some of the forgiveness there, and the elders would lay hands upon him, and James 5.16 says, "Therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed." That's spiritual from spiritual sickness. The effective prayer of a righteous man accomplishes much. So within that church structure under that authority, we still see the limited authority that one has. There is the calling upon the heavens, and by God's authority to heal this man from the spiritual sickness, bring him out. So that's much more than what we could delve in on that as well. All right, let's close it out for this Monday. Shall we Father in Heaven? Thank you for this opportunity. This morning of fellowshiping in your Word. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for the Holy Spirit that indwells us. Help us, Heavenly Father, to learn how to walk in the Spirit that our lives may be empowered by Heaven that we may execute your will on this earth. We're having a follow-up recognizing that without the Holy Spirit, we are powerless to do your will. We are powerless to learn the deep things we've got. We are powerless to be impacted, to impact the world around us in a sense of a godly way. We need the Holy Spirit. We need to know how to walk in that and help us do that. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for this lesson as we continue to grow in grace and knowledge of our lives. Jesus Christ and whose name we pray. Amen. All right. Another fine day to the Lord. Keep your armor on. Keep fighting a good fight of faith. Lord, will, and spirit guide. Raptor penny. We're going to be back here tomorrow. See you. [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO]